Woman rescinds 6-figure salary job application after spotting red flags during the job interview

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 28, 2023. It has since been updated.

Dodging red flags can be difficult, especially in a job interview. A TikTok user, Admin & Eve (@adminandeve), known for her job-related content, has been talking to her 148,000 followers on a journey to find a new job after getting laid off in 2022. In her “Day 22 of aggressively looking for a new job” video, she said she was going to have a job interview with a finance firm and that the salary range is $150,000 to $180,000, and was eagerly waiting for it. “It’s five days in the office, but for that money, I will bark,” she said, reported The Daily Dot. “The only problem is they would want me to dye my hair for the job, and I’m really struggling with changing myself for a job when I know that my work is really good.”

Later, she revealed how her interview went. In the video, which has amassed over 1 million views, she disclosed that she rescinded her application for the job. “First of all, they just laid it on me that there are two jobs at the firm and that the job I’m interviewing for is not the $150,000 to $180,000 base, it’s $110,000 to $120,000,” she started, reminding folks the pay is what made that particular job listing so appealing to her. As she has already been interviewing for many other positions that offer a $110,000 to $120,000 salary and they do not require her to dye her hair.

She added that they only want to know, "Why I left each role in the last three or four years because they were shorter than the rest of my career.” “Ummm hi, COVID. Everybody’s getting laid off,” Eve said. She revealed they also judged her for having her own business and did not look very happy after she told them the previous company she was with encouraged it. She said the interviewers also “kept muting me to talk to each other.” 

Many TikTok users were surprised and then comments followed. TikTok users shared what they thought was the biggest red flag. For some, it was how they wanted Eve to dye her hair; for others, it was how they muted her to talk to each other.

“They muted to talk to each other?! That’s wild. They never heard of taking notes?” one questioned. “People always tell me to take my nose ring out for interviews – nope. I can’t work for an organization that thinks that impacts my work,” @Resha said. People agreed what Eve did was the right thing by withdrawing herself from consideration because many job interviews are “sneak peek[s] on what your work life would look like.”