Interview howlers

Carly wrote about smelly interview candidates earlier on this blog and now another colleague, Sarah Campbell, has written an article in The Times with some more howling mistakes including candidates chatting up interviewees and others being completely clueless about who and where they are.

I've carried out a few job interviews in the past and can contribute the following eight unforgettable interview experiences to the list:

1. The candidate who directed all his conversation to my chest (despite the fact I was wearing a high neck jumper). No I didn't offer him the job. 

2. The guy who spotted me on the train going home after the interview and pleaded with me to give him the job for my whole commute home. Again no job offer.

3. The woman who for some inexplicable reason thought I was going to be a man and turned up in plunging top, miniskirt and far too much make-up. She spent the whole interview trying to pull the mini skirt down and hold her top together.

4. The older man who arrogantly told me "let's face it, someone like you is never going to employ someone like me." I think he thought that someone young and female wasn't going to employ an older man. I employed a man who was older than him but far less arrogant.

5. The candidate who told me he was HIV positive and the office we were in was previously the clinic where he was diagnosed. He got the job. 

6. The man who turned up drunk. He was given short shrift.

7. And the guy who thought he was being interviewed for a job on another newspaper. He was invited to apply for a job there instead.

8. Finally one of my favourites: I had interviewed a man who I thought was promising. For his second interview he met my boss. Within five minutes he stood up and said "Look, I don't want to work for you" and walked out. 

I'm glad to know none of this is personal though, and to prove it I received a press release from CareerBuilder which outlines their top ten interview bloopers, which are even more weird and wonderful:

When one interviewer asked  a candidate why he wanted to work for the company, he replied, “Because I fancy the girl who works in reception.”

Another candidate turned on a CD player to play the song “I feel good” during the interview.

One performed magic tricks for the interviewer.

Still another showed up for the wrong job interview with the wrong company.

A candidate gave the interviewer the impression that she had murdered her husband.

Another jobhunter kept checking his mobile which was in his hand under the desk during the interview.

An honest interviewee told interviewer, “I don’t have any particular ambitions for advancement, as long as I am paid a lot more in five years time.”

A candidate told the interviewer that he would not be able to travel for work when his football team was playing at home.

Another hopeful told interviewer he would wrestle clients to the ground rather than trying to defuse difficult situations.

And finally, one optimistic candidate tried to pick up the interviewer.

It's not always interviewees who screw up though. I was in a new office on the top floor of an old Victorian building. There were two exits from the office. Reception called up to say my interviewee had arrived. I decided to go down and meet him but left via the wrong door. I ended up in a back alleyway. Too embarrassed to go back inside, upstairs and out the other door, I raced round the block and crashed puffing through the front doors into reception to greet the startled interviewee. Despite our inauspicious start I went on to hire Daniel, we become firm friends and have worked together at many different places.

Comments

[Tony Capriano]

I can't believe some of these have actually happened! It reminds me of when I used to recruit staff for Retail Stores in London, and I was interviewing a young lad of about 18years old - when I asked him if he used the store he was applying for, he replied " Only when we go nicking from it!"
I don't think I put him forward for that!

[Robert]

I was interviewing a young lady for a senior secretarial position in the company I worked in when she placed her elbows on my desk, cradled her face, leant forward confidentially and said :" When I get this job either you and me will have one hell of a passionate affair, or we'll hate each other!"

[Anne]

Surely not all drawbacks come from interviewees but from interviewer as well.

I had a horrible interview experience through the course of job hunting. I dressed up well and aptly for the interview which was scheduled at 8:00am. I came 30 minutes ahead of time. There were other applicants present as well of different professions. Then the interviewer came at 9:00pm. We were given interview rating forms to be filled up. The percentage for each category is specified like wearing proper attire would account for 10% etc.
Then 1 applicant is called after the other, and guess what, I was interviewed at 7:00 in the evening, so how's that? There were no chairs outside the interview room so all my varicose veins bulged out and my feet swollen since wearing an inch high executive shoes is really not nice after standing for hours. There was no aircon also and the building was to hot.So I guess one can figure out now how mess up the interviewees outside the room waiting to be called. Finally when I was called after 11 hours of standing, ignoring the leg pains and the heat, I was just asked by the interviewer when I graduated, when I obtained my professional license and when I started working. Then just asked to wait for their call. GRRRRRRR. That's all, so how would I be possibly rated with all those criteria written on the interview rating form with just those queries. Then as I was leaving, I overheard the interviewer telling the assistant that just let the other uninterviewed applicants to go home and comeback on some other day, after waiting 11 hours too?! My gosh, ofcourse applicants do need to do the 100% effort and must not complain since it's the applicant that needs the job but it also needs well planning from the interviewer to make sure that the interwiew will be well organized and not asked hundreds of applicants to come on the same day for interview and there's only 1 interviewer, come on. It's true that there are many candidates looking for a job and applicants walking out from the interview is not a big deal at all but it's true also that there are other companies/employers in need of staff. Everyone's time is important and must not be wasted by anyone.