November 23, 2023 at 7:24 am

‘I felt bad for the kid honestly.’ A 19-Year-Old’s Mom Cost Him A Job For Barging Into His Interview

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/@apartmentroublee

Good lord, this story is embarrassing.

Hey, I know that most parents just want to help out their kids as much as possible, but you gotta draw the line, folks!

And this mom stepped WAY over that line…

So did this hiring manager act like a jerk when they were just being honest?

Let’s take a look at the story below from Reddit’s “Am I the *******?” page.

AITA for telling this college guy’s mom that her coming into his interview cost him the job?

“I am a hiring manager at a tech company and I was hiring for summer internships a little while ago.

We had a guy, about 19 years old, applying for a summer internship between his freshman and sophomore years of college. It was a virtual interview over Zoom because of covid.

The interview went off the rails in a hurry…yikes.

A minute or two in, when I was introducing myself, his mom came in and introduced herself and started talking about her son’s work ethic. I thought it was a little strange. I said something polite about wanting to hear from him.

She just didn’t get the hint and kept coming into camera frame during the interview and interrupting her son to answer questions for him. I asked a few technical questions which he seemed to answer well and then cut the interview fairly short.

And then Mom poked her head out again.

I thought that was all over and done with until I’d gotten an email from a woman, a month later, asking about her son’s application, she seemed offended he hadn’t gotten an acceptance or rejection.

It bothered me, I felt bad for the kid honestly. Wayyy back when I was a teenager, my mom used to pull the same ****, but luckily she only did that when I was 15 and working for a day-camp, not when I was an adult applying for engineering jobs. But I felt like this poor kid was getting his chances ruined because his mom wasn’t giving him the chance to apply on his own.

So they decided to reply.

I sent an email back saying I was not at liberty to send information about an application to anybody but the applicant. I also asked HR to send an email to the kid saying sorry but we were not making him an offer. (It is something we usually do, but his rejection email must have slipped through the cracks with all the Covid craziness.)

Anyway, after we sent that, I got a phone call from his mom, she had a forwarded copy of the email, and she was demanding answers.

I said that I could not comment on the guy’s performance in the interview to her as she was not the applicant. If he wanted to reach out to me I was happy to give him some feedback.

And they decided to drop a big TRUTH BOMB on this woman.

However, I could say that regardless of his performance, her presence in the interview took him out of consideration for the position. We were looking for an independent and self-driven person for the position, and for that reason, it is important to see an applicant speak for themselves, follow-up themselves, etc.

I also said that, as a piece of advice, every hiring manager I’ve met in my career who sees someone other than the applicant answering questions during an interview, following up on the applicant’s behalf, etc… Would also put their resume in the “do not hire” pile. Since, while the applicant may be skilled and motivated, they need the ability to demonstrate those traits themselves.

She blew up at me over that, kinda cussing me out to the point where I hung up.

AITA for how I handled this? Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut way earlier.”

Let’s see what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person said they’re NTA at all.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another Reddit user said they feel bad for the son, but still…

Source: Reddit/AITA

This individual said they’re NTA and the son was at his mother’s mercy here.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another individual said they feel bad for this guy.

Source: Reddit/AITA

And one Reddit user shared a similar story.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Boy, that sure was cringeworthy…

Mom, what the hell are you doing?!?!