‘Job hunting is a humiliation ritual disguised as opportunity’: Reddit reacts to bizarre application form

A screenshot of a job application form has circulated on Reddit’s r/recruitinghell this week under a title that has resonated deeply with the platform's community: “Job hunting is a humiliation ritual disguised as opportunity.”

The form shows two mandatory fields, each demanding a response of one to two sentences. The first: “Impress me.” The second: “Make me laugh.” Both note that answers of N/A or NA will be rejected.

No further context. No indication of what the role is, what industry it operates in, or what kind of impression or humour the hiring manager is actually looking for. Just an instruction to perform, on demand, for someone who has not yet demonstrated they deserve the performance.

What Reddit said

The thread’s responses ranged from the darkly funny to the genuinely indignant.

One commenter offered a suggested answer that would effectively end the process: “Just type ‘Sorry, only looking for people that are serious about hiring, best of luck with the talent show.’”

Another named the specific dynamic that makes the form so galling: “I love the audacity to not only ask to be impressed and made to laugh, but to demand it in a single sentence or two. It’s just gross how the people who write this shit are the least impressive and least funny people that exist.”

One commenter described the temptation to respond honestly and burn the bridge entirely: “The s*** I would write would have me blacklisted from the company forever, and honestly I would feel good about it too.”

Perhaps the most interesting response came from someone who had actually been hired after completing a similarly absurd process, and then used the post-application feedback form to express exactly what they thought of it: “I crapped on it basically saying it was a waste of an hour that made me want to just skip everything possible. Somehow got an offer after, so I wonder how much they really read anything or just process your resume.”

And one commenter summarised the whole dynamic into three words: “Dance monkey, dance.”

In a job market where candidates are already submitting hundreds of applications, tailoring resumes to keyword algorithms, completing unpaid assessments, and sitting through multi-round interviews for roles that may not be real, being asked to also be impressive and funny in two sentences is not a quirky culture-fit question. It’s dehumanising. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.