Canadian entrepreneur Eliza Trendiak (@elizatrendiak) was sitting in a coffee shop when she overheard a job interview that didn’t sound like a job interview. In an Instagram video posted on June 6, 2026, she explained what she heard and why she ended up interrupting it.
The interviewer never got around to job duties, hours, or pay. Instead, the conversation was a long business presentation about financial freedom, travel, and a relaxed lifestyle. The interviewer kept telling the woman that joining the program could make her financially free before 30.
Trendiak has been a business owner for more than 15 years, and the pitch sounded to her like a potential “pyramid scheme.” She wrote the woman a note telling her that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. She also advised her not to sign a contract that day, to take her time deciding, and to research the role and the offer before agreeing to anything.
Trendiak had already left the coffee shop. She went back in and gave the woman the note in the middle of the meeting. She said that, “Woman to woman,” she felt she had to step in and try to keep her from getting caught up in a possible scam.
Legitimate job interviews tend to focus on the work itself, so when a “role” is pitched mostly through lifestyle promises and the candidate is pushed to sign on the spot, those are common signs of a recruitment pitch rather than an actual job. A real offer will still be there after a day or two to think it over and look into the company.
Trendiak isn’t the only person to step in after overhearing an interview in a café. In a separate incident, @niki.kozloski posted on TikTok that she watched a woman politely turn down a job, explaining that she had personal reasons involving her mother. After the candidate left, the two men who interviewed her laughed and said she had “mommy issues.”
Niki said the men showed up in gym clothes for what was supposed to be a formal meeting, and their behavior was a problem from the start. She called their comments “disgusting and misogynistic” and said the woman had “dodged a bullet.”
In both cases, the candidate didn’t have the full picture of who she was dealing with. Someone at the next table did and said something.
