An individual purporting to be a law student has been branded a “weapons grade moron” after he posted on Reddit that his training contract interview was cancelled after the firm heard his voicemail referring to “bofadeez nutz”.

‘MagicCircleFangaluWu’ (ROF will call him ‘Fang’) said that he applied for a training contract at the London office of an unidentified US firm, and missed their call on Monday.

Which was a problem, because “I have a dumb voicemail on my phone that goes like, ‘Hey, I am sure that you are calling me with a question, but I have a question for you, I was just wondering what bofadeez is? Nevermind, I just remembered! Its bofadeez nutz bitch!!!!!!! get trolled nerd’”.

Fang claimed that a couple of hours later, he received an email from the firm explaining that although it had intended to invite him to an interview, on further reflection his voicemail “has indicated to us that you do not have the level of maturity to be a trainee at X, nor did we think it was very funny”.

Stating that he was “super nervous about this” because he suspected he had missed calls from other firms, Fang asked the Reddit community if recruitment teams would consider a voicemail joking about testicles and calling them bitches a “dealbreaker”.

“Would you guys recommend contacting the firm and saying something like, ‘my little brother made the voicemail’…is there anything at all I can do to get them to give me my interview back? ): Is it work contacting other firms I think have called me to apologise?”

Sceptical Redditors predicted that it was a hoax post, on the basis that a firm would not provide feedback at such an early stage of the training contract interview process. More credulous posters were aghast.

“I cannot believe why anyone would apply for jobs and leave that as their voicemail? Surely you'd think it wasn't acceptable for a potential employer to be hearing?” asked one.

“If this is true, you are a weapons grade moron”, said another.

Fang replied, “I am 20. I have accepted that this was stupid. I am a penultimate year law stupid at a top uni”. He added that he had just interviewed with Slaughter and May and that it “was actually pretty good!”

Several posters told him to change his voicemail “immediately”, while a litigation solicitor reminded him to make sure it referred to “your actual name. Not Deez Nutz.”

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Some lawyers recommended he cut his losses with regards to any of the other firms which may have called and got his self-sabotaging voicemail.

“As a recruiting partner, I don't object to humour, but, as they say, this just isn't funny. I wouldn't bother getting back to the other firms and apologising. Certainly don't try to blame anyone else. It's very implausible, and trying to cover up your mistakes is one of the biggest red flags a potential trainee can raise", said one.

“Take this as a valuable lesson that there's no separation between profession and personal life. What you do as a private citizen can and very well may affect your professional life", advised another poster: "As a basic rule, when you're applying for any job (but particularly legal ones), google yourself, see what pops up, and check what your social media looks like to anyone who's not connected to you”.

Fang said he was “a bit saddened by the whole affair”, but also increasingly nervous that his dilemma could make him infamous, as “I do not want to be known as the deez nutz guy for the rest of my career!”

Which might explain why he didn't respond to a request for comment, even though some people said he should own his mistake. “Report it to ROF and let the firm get ripped for being so sensitive”, said one poster, while another suggested that snagging such a prankster would “be a massive plus for the HR teams at Kirkland or Jones Day”.

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