290: When Professional Meets Awkward: How a Job Interview Took an Unexpected Turn

Have you ever faced an interview so awkward that it left you questioning everything? In this episode, I share a hilariously uncomfortable yet eye-opening moment from my mid-career transition—when I found myself in a final-round interview, staring at a superintendent’s exposed belly button.

What started as a bizarre wardrobe malfunction became a defining lesson about workplace culture, authenticity, and the power of being true to yourself. 

Sometimes, the jobs we don’t get are the ones that save us from environments where we would never thrive.

Tune in as I reveal:

• The unexpected career transition from middle school math teacher to an administrative role.
• How a final-round interview in a sweltering New Jersey summer took a weird turn.
• Why I made the bold decision to address the superintendent’s wardrobe malfunction.
• The painfully awkward silence that followed—and what it revealed about workplace culture.
• How job rejections can actually be career blessings in disguise.
• Why staying true to yourself matters more than landing any position.

If you've ever had an interview moment that made you cringe, you’re not alone! Let’s explore what these moments teach us about career growth and finding the right professional fit.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Belly Button Interview Story
• 1:47 Job Search Background
• 3:14 Awkward Interview Situation
• 5:34 The Bold Confrontation
• 8:13 Interview Aftermath & Lessons
• 13:38 The Importance of Authentic Fit
• 16:07 Final Thoughts & Resources

Transcript

John Neral: 0:01

For this April Fool's Day. This is no joke. In this episode, I'm going to share with you one of the funniest and most bizarre things that has ever happened to me in a job interview. This happened when I was looking to make a significant pivot in my career and to this day, it is one of my favorite stories and it is also one of the things that I will tell you about that. At the time, I thought I played perfectly. I could not have been more wrong. So sit back, enjoy this episode, and all I'm going to leave you with right now is that this is the story about the final round and the belly button. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS podcast, and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid-career professionals like you find a job they love, or love the job they have, using my proven four-step formula.

John Neral: 1:07

I had a 25-year career in education and for the first 14 years of that I was a middle school mathematics teacher. I loved my job. I taught in a district in northern New Jersey. It was a great district. I have such fond memories of being there, but after about 11 years I realized that something needed to change For me and my career development. It was all about me having an opportunity to work more with teachers, move into a more administrative type role, and so, while I had been demonstrating some leadership as a middle school mathematics coordinator and was recently moved into a district level coordination role, I wanted to supervise. I wanted to have that kind of administrative experience that I wasn't able to get at my district at the time. So I started a job search. Now you look at positions and you realize that there's a limited number of school districts, there's a limited number of supervisor positions. So I realized that this was going to probably take me some time but nevertheless I was in and I had gone on several interviews and, admittedly, had some great success. I was moving through the process, I was getting to the final round, but I was not getting the job offer and, understandably, there were a lot of reasons as to why. Some had to do with lack of experience, some had to do with internal candidates, all were good and so I apply for this position in a neighboring town and I am really, really excited about this position because it's a great school district, it's a great reputation. I thought this would be the place where I could go and do some great work and maybe, just maybe, retire from.

John Neral: 3:05

So I go through all the rounds, right, I go through the initial screen, the first round interview, and now they invite me to the final round. Now, this interview happened in June, which, if you know anything about New Jersey, in June it's hot, humid and sticky. And so I put the suit on, I put the whole outfit together and everything, and off to this interview. I go where I know that in this final round I'm going to be meeting with the school superintendent and the assistant superintendent. So I arrive at the board office, nobody is there and I'm thinking do I have the day wrong? Is this something out of a movie where it's actually the weekend and I've missed it completely? I can't find anybody. But I'm resourceful. So I start walking around the building trying to figure out if I can see anybody and, lo and behold, I learned that the entire administrative team is in a training and I happen to knock on the door and the door opens and I say to the person who opens the door good afternoon, my name is John Nerrell. I'm here to meet with Superintendent so-and-so about the math department chair position, and I hear this voice. And this voice goes John Nerrell, what are you doing here? You're not leaving your job.

John Neral: 4:41

And it turned out that the person leading the training was the parent of a former student of mine. At that point you just have to own it, right. So strike one. I'm thinking, oh boy, this is going to get back. I was trying to do this very quietly and of course, now it's all exposed, I thought, all right, strike one, we're just going to own this. Let's say I get the job. I thought, all right, strike one, we're just going.

John Neral: 5:24

There's just not a lot of warmth to the room, but in the center of the room is this huge conference table and they sit me in the middle of it. So I'm on the long side in the middle. The table probably seats about 14 people. So I sit there. The superintendent walks in. He sits directly across from me, the assistant superintendent sits at the end of the table. So I'm calming my nerves and getting myself all together and everything.

John Neral: 5:57

Now, remember it's June in New Jersey. It's hot, sticky and humid. I'm sitting there in a suit, the superintendent is sitting there in a short-sleeved shirt with a tie, and I'm thinking okay, not too formal, but always better to dress up than dress down in these kinds of situations. And so the interview starts. We go through the resume, we go through the tell me about yourself question and, as the interview is starting, as I'm looking at this superintendent, I cannot help but notice his belly button. Now, to be perfectly clear, this gentleman was not wearing an undershirt and he had accidentally had the button was unbuttoned at his belly button. So I'm staring at this because it's really hard to not notice this.

John Neral: 6:55

And if you know anything about me, you know that if I get a thought in my head, the likelihood is it's going to come out of my mouth and I'm thinking, oh boy, like how am I going to play this? Because I'm trying to focus on the question and I'm trying to answer as best as possible. But what I can only best describe as the teacher from Peanuts is, as this gentleman is talking, it's like his belly button is moving and it's talking to me, right, and it's going wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And again, I'm having a really hard time staying focused. So, to my left, okay.

John Neral: 7:34

So if the superintendent's sitting at 12 o'clock, the assistant sup is at nine o'clock, I'm looking at him and I'm looking at the superintendent and I'm making this motion with my head, like will you notice this? It doesn't dawn on me that at the angle the assistant superintendent is sitting at, he probably can't say it. So I answer a question, I'm trying to stay focused and now I'm starting to giggle because this is just bizarre. This is like one of those things where you sit there and you think to yourself this can't be happening, but it is, and do I not say anything and appear aloof and disjointed, or do I call this out? So again I get asked another question and I answer it and I'm trying not to laugh. And then I'm waiting for the next question to come and I'm looking at the assistant superintendent and I'm like nodding my head, trying to get him to pay attention. And so I get called out on it and the superintendent looks at me and he goes is there a problem? Well, yeah, so at this point I have to show up and own where I'm at, which is I'm just going to call it out, because I think this is the best way to handle the situation.

John Neral: 8:48

So I said something like this. I said in all due respect, I am trying to stay focused on the conversation, but admittedly, your shirt is unbuttoned at your belly button and the way you are sitting. It looks like your belly button is talking to me every time you move and I find it very distracting. I'm not trying to embarrass, but would you kindly button your shirt, to which I gave that nervous laugh, crickets. You could have heard crickets in this room. Okay, I could have dropped a nuclear bomb and it would have caused less damage than what I did. Because now there's this awkward moment where this gentleman has to button his shirt and I look at the assistant superintendent and he's got his head in his hands, okay. And I look at the superintendent there is not a laugh, a chuckle, a thank you for telling me. I'm so sorry, that was distracting for you. There is nothing. It is three guys in a room. I called one of them out and then I said something like this Well, that was awkward, again, crickets.

John Neral: 10:19

So we go through the interview as best as we can. And again, this is something where I'm usually not the kind of person who's going to cut corners. I'm pretty straightforward and direct. I'm in my late 30s at the time and I'm thinking I got nothing to lose, I got a great job, I will go back. There is nothing wrong with me saying, hey, this was a position that wasn't offered here in the district. I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I'm, thankfully, going to stay whatever it was. So we get to the end of the interview and this is the question I've asked Is there anything you would like to ask or say before we end the interview? And I'm thinking to myself do I call it out again? Do I say anything? Do I just be like nope, we're good, this is what I said. I said I want to thank you both for your time today. It was great getting to know you both a little bit more, learn more about the district.

John Neral: 11:29

If there's one big takeaway from this interview, it's this I'm not afraid to have the conversation and if you are embarrassed unintentionally or you are upset with me for calling out your unbuttoned shirt and your belly button, and that is not the kind of person you want on your team, by all means. I understand not getting the job, but that was something I felt I needed to do in the moment. There was no offense, please understand that, but if that was upsetting to you, I'm obviously not the right person for the job, for the job. And then there was this pause and I thought, oh crap, I'm either going to get chewed out or I'm going to get offered the job on the spot. And there was this pause and he looks at me and he goes thank you, have a nice day.

John Neral: 12:31

I didn't bother with any follow-up at that point. I left, I got in the car, I took my jacket off, I took my tie off, I called a dear, dear friend of mine and I went. You are not going to believe what just happened. And he says to me he goes John, you actually said that in the interview. I said yeah, because it was distracting and everything. He goes. You don't call that stuff out. And I said, yeah, but wait a minute, like I had to make the best decision I had to make at the time. It's not like at some point later on in the day he's going to go. Oh, I guess my belly button was exposed for the entire day. To which my friend says to me that was a risk you should have been willing to take, because sometimes your mouth gets you in trouble. I don't think you're getting the job. To which I replied oh, I know I'm not getting the job, it's totally fine.

John Neral: 13:19

But I always look back on that and I think, could I have played it differently? Of course, would I have played it differently? I got to tell you, absolutely not. These are the kind of things that I am 100% certain this was an unintentional mistake, faux pas, error, mishap, whatever you want to call it, but it is about how we handle things and you know for what it's worth. It is a little bit of a stereotype, but it's also pretty true. In New Jersey, we can be very blunt, we can be very direct, and I have told this story many, many times to people to give an example of look, this was really about us getting past this and moving forward. I did it as kindly and respectfully as possible, but I'm also not responsible for his thoughts, and so if his thoughts were this guy's an idiot, this guy's not somebody I want on my team or why would he call me out on that? Whatever it was, I have no control over that, but when you hear me talk about fit, one of the things we often overlook is is my personality, is the kind of leader and professional I am going to fit within that organization.

John Neral: 14:39

I work with clients who we will explore very in-depthly about what it looks like and I will ask them about humor and oftentimes people will be a little shy of it because they're like well, you know, I am a funny person and I like to laugh and I don't take myself too seriously. But I don't think I can play that this way in this interview and I'll say well, what if you could? What if there was a way for you to showcase your humor that allowed you to assess their fit for you and vice versa? I mean, obviously I'm not talking about laughing or making fun of anything that is inappropriate or unprofessional. We're not going to do that fun of anything that is inappropriate or unprofessional. We're not going to do that. But if building that kind of rapport and having that kind of sense of humor is important to you in terms of fit, what would you ask about that?

John Neral: 15:35

I walked away from that interview thinking, oh my gosh, if this is something we couldn't laugh at or we couldn't acknowledge, what's that going to mean for my fit there? How is that going to be looked at in terms of being three, six, 12 months into the job where we're going to be so stuffy and uptight we can't laugh at ourselves a little bit. Stuffy and uptight, we can't laugh at ourselves a little bit. So again, it comes back to fit and what's the right fit for you. And so you know, to this day I always think about that interview. I always think about how crazy and bizarre it was and I am grateful I had that experience. I have never had a more bizarre or strange interview than that, and so I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that in that regard. But we move forward and you know, I can honestly tell you that, yeah, it's one of my favorite experiences in that regard. I said I didn't get the job, but it absolutely was a great experience.

John Neral: 16:46

So, my friends, hopefully this gave you a little bit of a laugh or a chuckle. Maybe you're thinking about your most bizarre or humorous interview story. If you've got one, do me a favor, reach out to me on LinkedIn, send me a DM, let me know about it. Share that story with me. I'd always love a good laugh.

John Neral: 17:06

And if you are looking for resources to help you in your career, to build your mid-career GPS, to whatever is next, I invite you to go over to my website at johnneral. com J-O-H-N-N-E-R-R-A-Lcom. There is a ton of free resources and digital courses there to not overwhelm you, but certainly get you started in building your mid-career GPS. So until next time my friends, remember this you will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters, even if it is an awkward situation where you got to call out somebody's belly button right, how you show up matters. Be true and authentic to yourself and I will be back with you next week. Take care.

John Neral: 17:55

Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS Podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit johnneral. com for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at JohnNarrowCoaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters. Thank you.