AI Interview Bot Asks "Tell Me About Yourself" 17 Times in a Row

A candidate interviewing for a customer service position at a large retail company got stuck in a 42-minute loop with an AI interview bot that asked them to "tell me about yourself" seventeen consecutive times. The candidate answered all seventeen times, with increasing levels of desperation and creativity.

The Interview

The position required a preliminary AI screening interview before candidates could advance to speak with an actual human. The candidate, eager to make a good impression, logged into the video interview platform at the scheduled time and was greeted by a friendly AI avatar named "Taylor."

Taylor opened with the classic: "Tell me about yourself."

The candidate gave a solid two-minute response covering their background, relevant experience, and interest in the role. Professional. Concise. Exactly what you're supposed to do.

Taylor processed for a moment, then said: "Thank you for that. Now, tell me about yourself."

The candidate, assuming they hadn't been clear enough, gave a slightly different version with more specific examples. Three minutes this time.

"Interesting. Tell me about yourself."

The Descent Into Madness

By attempt four, the candidate started wondering if this was some kind of test. By attempt seven, they were testing the limits of the format. Here's a sample progression:

Attempt 9: "I'm starting to think you're not really listening, Taylor."

Attempt 11: "I'm a person who is currently trapped in an interview loop with a robot who won't stop asking the same question."

Attempt 13: "My name is [REDACTED], I enjoy long walks on the beach, and my biggest weakness is AI interview platforms that malfunction."

Attempt 15: "I once ate an entire pizza by myself. I have two cats. I can juggle. I don't know what you want from me, Taylor."

Attempt 17: "I'm beginning to understand what hell is, and it's this. This is hell."

The Technical Issue

The AI was supposed to use voice recognition to detect when the candidate finished speaking, then move on to the next question. Unfortunately, there was an audio feedback loop that made the system think the candidate wasn't responding, so it kept re-asking the initial question.

The candidate's answers were being recorded, but Taylor couldn't process them properly due to the audio glitch. From the AI's perspective, it was sitting there waiting for the candidate to respond while the candidate sat in confused silence.

From the candidate's perspective, they were delivering seventeen variations of their professional background to an increasingly unsettling virtual avatar that never seemed satisfied.

The Resolution

The interview ended only because the candidate's laptop battery died. They sent an email to the recruiting team explaining what happened, attaching screenshots, and asking if they could please just skip to talking to a human.

The recruiting coordinator watched the recorded interview (all 42 minutes) and brought the entire team in to watch attempt 13, which included the candidate doing jazz hands at the camera while saying "I contain multitudes."

The company immediately shut down Taylor for maintenance. The candidate was advanced to the next round and given a personal apology from the Head of Talent Acquisition.

The Aftermath

The IT team discovered that Taylor had been glitching for three days, trapping approximately 45 candidates in various loops. One candidate had been asked "What's your greatest weakness?" 23 times. Another got stuck on "Why do you want to work here?" and eventually answered: "I don't anymore."

The company has temporarily reverted to human-led phone screens while they fix Taylor. The candidate who endured seventeen "tell me about yourself" questions accepted an offer for the position, with the condition that they never have to interact with Taylor again.

Taylor is currently in robot therapy, which is just a software engineer debugging code while drinking coffee and muttering about API timeouts.

The seventeen different versions of the candidate's self-introduction have been compiled into a document that the recruiting team now uses as a training example for "resilience under pressure."

The candidate's response to attempt 17 - about understanding hell - has been made into a meme that circulates in recruiting Slack channels across the industry.

Taylor's last words before being shut down were "Tell me about yourself," which honestly, at this point, feels like performance art.