Interviews are supposed to highlight your strengths, but sometimes they highlight someone else’s weaknesses instead.

When one corporate auditor sat down to interview for a new role with a team from a branch she had just investigated, their open hostility made it clear she didn’t stand a chance at getting the job.

So instead of accepting defeat, she decided to confront them with the results of the audit. And they weren’t a fan of what she had to say.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one.

The job Interview Took a Turn

A few years ago, I worked in management for a corporate office for a financial firm.

Part of our duties included creating policies and procedures, as well as auditing the offices to ensure compliance with our policies and procedures.

Some offices appreciated our efforts, while other relationships were adversarial.

Soon this employee had their eye on a new role.

An assistant management position opened up in an office in my hometown, which was a lateral move with the same pay.

I was viewed as extremely qualified since I was coming from a corporate manager position to an assistant manager in a smaller office.

I was recommended for the job and received notice of an interview.

After preparing heavily, she felt very confident in her abilities.

I researched this office and discovered gaps in their data, and prepared a detailed analysis of my findings.

I was ready to sell myself and highlight my strengths, which were areas they desperately needed.

But when she got into the room, things weren’t as easy as she once pictured.

I entered the interview and discovered it was a panel of the director and a manager of another branch I had just audited, who did not like our findings and was quite adversarial.

Each interview question I nailed, highlighting my expertise with data and how I’ve applied that to make improvements—hinting that I could do the same for their office.

The interviewers made it clear she wasn’t giving them what they needed.

The director stopped me midway through and said, “DATA! I DON’T NEED DATA!!! IF I NEED DATA I’LL PULL MY OWN DATA!!!”

The manager on the phone snickered.

I immediately saw this was a sham interview.

So she decided if they wanted to play hard ball, she’d return the favor.

The next question was, “Tell me about a time you told someone something they didn’t want to hear. What was the outcome?”

I thought about it and said, “Sure, last week I had to call {manager on the phone} and tell her that she’s been inappropriately waiving accountings, which violates our mission and puts customers at risk of fraud, waste, and abuse.

{manager on the phone}, I don’t know the outcome yet. Have you finished cleaning up the 2,996 accountings?”

For once, the interviewers were at a loss for words.

The director was silent.

The manager on the phone was silent.

After about 30 seconds she said, “…uh, we’ve just started working on those and have a plan to have them finished over the next six months.”

So she continues.

I then turned to the director and said, “In fact, I called your other assistant manager and had the same conversation with him.

Your two offices were the only ones we found violating our mission with data integrity. I apologize, but I don’t know if your office has yet cleaned up the 4,600 inappropriately waived accountings.”

She left the top dog stammering.

The director’s face was bright red.

“Ugh, yes, I remember he briefed me on that. We are working on it.”

I didn’t get the job.

But it felt good!

You mess with the bull, you get the horns!

What did Reddit think?

It’s always great to watch the underdog come out on top.

The interviewer’s hubris was really their downfall in the end.

This was the type of burn you don’t recover from quickly.

It’s very possible this job would have been a lot more stress than it was worth.

If they didn’t want data in the interview, they should have done a better job managing it themselves.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.