TIFU by struggling to leave the room after a job interview

Disclaimer, this was many years ago but was a funny fuckup.

I was a student living in London, looking for some seasonal work over Christmas. I applied for an usher job at a really great cinema (if you know London, yes it’s *the* cult cinema everyone loves). I got an interview, and, despite some nerves, it went well – I had a good rapport with the interviewers and we chatted in a pretty informal way about movies etc. The interview ended on a note that implied I’d be getting the job. I shook their hands, said thank you, and stood up to leave.

As I crossed the room to leave, I think the relief of the interview ending just flushed all the sense out of my body. When I reached the door, I suddenly and inexplicably just failed to open it. Instead of reaching for the handle, I just sort of started tapping the hinges like I was trying to find some hidden mechanism. Then I was just standing there with my hand on the door…waiting for something to happen? One of the interviewers had to come over and say, “Oh, it’s actually like this…” and open the door with the handle. You know, the normal way. I gave a cheery, “Oh! Thanks!” and marched away. I managed to get round the corner before crumpling.

The worst thing is that the job I was applying for primarily involved opening up the theatre and checking tickets at the beginning of each screening. In other words, the main responsibility of this job was to open a door. No, I did not get that job. This was actually somehow not the worst job interview I’ve had, but it was the stupidest.

TL;DR: I ended a job interview by failing to open the door to leave the room.