A TikTok creator who goes by @iloveicecreamalot16 shared a story about a job interview she says ended with her being rejected because she had a pimple on her upper lip. The video has received 3.5 million views and 755 comments at the time of writing.
@iloveicecreamalot16, whose real name is Riyana, shared the story in her video.
“Okay, so basically on the day of my job interview, I got this like ginormous pimple right above my lip. It was disgusting. I’ll put a photo, but I posted a video of it. It got like 10 million views and almost 800,000 likes. Everybody in the comments was telling me to like make it into a mole, like wear a mask. But I was like, bro, like I’m not wearing a mask to an interview,” she began.
Riyana said she mentioned the pimple when she arrived for the interview. She felt that the interview itself went well, although she noticed the interviewer repeatedly looking at the pimple.
“When I was looking this way, I could see from my like peripheral vision that he was looking at the pimple. Like he, guys, he looked down at it like at least five times. I was like, are you joking,” she said.
People online had previously told Riyana that appearance could play a major role in job interviews, but she said she initially did not believe them. However, she said she received a rejection email the morning after the interview, and the company appeared to provide a reason.
“But the day after the interview in the morning, I get an email and they freaking rejected me because of my pimple. I can’t even make this up. I’ll literally put the email up on the screen. But I guess it says something about like, like we take pride in appearance or something. I was like, are you joking me? Like they said it in the most subtle way. It was about the pimple.”
People in the Comments Question Whether the Rejection Was Legal
Riyana’s story prompted viewers to debate whether a company could legally reject someone because of their appearance. However, the comments did not establish whether the company had actually violated any law.
“Isn’t that illegal for them to do that,” one user questioned.
“You should call and tell them your pimple is gone now what,” another joked.
One commenter suggested that the situation could have been related to the type of business involved, noting that the company was a smoothie bar.
“Early, but as soon as I heard it was a smoothie bar I knew you would’ve gotten rejected,” the commenter wrote. They added that they had once rejected someone from working with them because the person had dirt under their nails, arguing that hygiene is “SUPER important in the food industry.”
Another viewer shared a more sympathetic reaction, writing, “The way I would think about this while trying to sleep at night for the rest of my life.”
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify Riyana’s account of the interview or the contents of the rejection email. The details in this article are based on @iloveicecreamalot16’s account of the experience and the reactions shared by viewers in the comments.
