A man took to Reddit to share his unusual experience of being interrupted by Apple’s digital assistant Siri during a virtual job interview. But not everyone was sympathetic, as he claimed that the unexpected interruption startled him so much that he derailed the entire conversation himself.
He claimed Siri randomly activated mid-sentence and repeated his response aloud, throwing him completely off track. However, many online pointed out that accidental Siri triggers are common and manageable, and his reaction did more damage.
“Siri on my phone randomly started talking and repeating my answer out loud. In front of the camera. In front of the interviewer. I panicked. I tried to mute myself, I tried turning Siri off, but nothing worked. So what did I do? I literally ran and threw the phone into another room," he wrote.
“I couldn’t even recover properly. I just kept stumbling over my words after that. I don’t know if I’m still in the running for the job or if I completely blew it. But wow. I’m still shaking. Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else?” he asked.
Internet disagrees
While some empathised with his nerves, most comments felt the blame was misplaced. “Siri didn’t ruin the interview, you did. It sounds like you panicked over something small," read one comment.
{{/usCountry}}While some empathised with his nerves, most comments felt the blame was misplaced. “Siri didn’t ruin the interview, you did. It sounds like you panicked over something small," read one comment.
{{/usCountry}}Another said, "If you had just handled the situation calmly, it would have been easily glossed over."
A third user pointed out that a calmer response would have managed the situation. "I get that it surprised you, but that seems like an overreaction. You could have told Siri to stop and apologised to the interviewer. You panicking like that probably didn’t help you."
In a later comment, the man admitted that his response to the incident was an overreaction, claiming that his brain froze after the interruption. "I’m honestly still asking myself why I did that. I didn’t plan to run or throw anything; it just happened. I panicked, and my brain froze. It wasn’t just about Siri going off; it was the pressure of the interview and everything I had prepared for crashing in that moment. I wish I had handled it better. Lesson learned just in the most chaotic way possible."