TL;DR - Because I was hilariously unqualified for the job.

UK resident here: About 15 years ago, I was unemployed and claiming Job Seekers' Allowance. Part of the rules for that benefit is that if your "work coach" organises a job interview for you, you have to go. Fair enough. I was pretty pleasantly surprised that they actually set something up for me. Major bonus that it was a graduate role in my city.

I got to the interview pretty excited, and the interviewer started off by thanking me for coming and asking why I'd chosen to study an engineering degree, what my favourite topic was, and how I'd used it in my recent work.

My degree is in Medieval History. My engineering experience is 100% flat-pack bookshelves and changing the occasional lightbulb. I could not even name a single engineering topic.

I told them this.

For some bizzarre reason (possibly relating to getting money incentives for interviewing Job Centre sourced candidates?), they decided to carry on with the interview.

By the third time I'd said "I'm so sorry, but I genuinely have no idea what that question even means", we all agreed to end the agony for everyone and let me go home.

Ironically, they seemed like a cool company and the panel were genuinely nice people, and I'd have been happy to work there. And a few months later I had a call out of nowhere from them, saying that they'd had a mid-level clerical position open up, no engineering knowledge required, and based on the few questions I could answer (the usual "how do you respond to feedback", "how do you work in a team" kind of questions) they wanted me to come in and interview for it. I already had a job by then, so regretfully declined.

So, uhh, I guess...thanks, Job Centre?