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Trying to land a job is incredibly stressful, and if you ever feel anxious before a job interview, you are not alone. However, have you ever thought about what it’s like to be on the other side of the desk, interviewing people? If you think that it’s all easy-peasy and chill, you couldn’t be more wrong. Sure, you might be an awesome, polite, and talented applicant… but what about everyone else in the waiting room?
Hiring managers revealed the truth about how stress-inducing their jobs are by shedding light on the most nightmarish interviews they have ever conducted. Keep reading for a crash course in how not to behave if you want to leave a good impression. Got your CV? Ready to give everyone a firm handshake? Let’s dive in.
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#1
We (panel of three) were hiring for a help desk position. One dude comes in and he is nervous as [hell] and proceeds to sweat. Profusely. I have never seen a dude sweat just by sitting down, but there you go. By the end it looked like he had just walked through some sprinklers.
He told us at the beginning that interviews made him nervous. Good for him, he knew that this would happen so wore plenty of deodorant and didn't stink out the place. Also good for him, he had worked as a contractor for us before so we knew that this wasn't his normal everyday pore gush.
And good for him, he got the job.
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#2
I interviewed a guy who in the interview did all three . . .
comment that I was a women, and if I was "actually his boss, or just an HR desk clerk?"
ask if we tested [for illegal substances], and if so, could he take it in "like a week, he should pass then."
when I said that we are business casual his response was "well you would need to provide me with pants, since I only own jeans."
I didn't hire him . . I am still shocked when I think of how bad of an applicant he was.
Earthquake903 4 hours ago
Probably on purpose. Some people just want to prove they applied for whatever reason (benefits, parents) but don't actually want the job.
#3
I used to manage a Blockbuster and after one particularly awful interview I walked the candidate out towards the parking lot and the alarms went off. It turned out he stuffed three DVDs in his suit jacket before being called back to the office.
He did not get the job. Or Mama Mia, Fool's Gold, or High School Musical 3 for that matter.
Starsea starpphire 6 hours ago
I wonder if those were just the ones in reach or if he picked those out specifically, they seem an unusual combination
Hiring people is a balancing act. You want to expend as few resources as possible (time, money, nerves, etc.) on finding the best possible professionals with the right soft and hard skills to do their jobs and mesh well with the team. At the same time, you want to make sure that the candidate is actually going to be a good fit, has the right talents, won’t cause problems, and won’t jump ship within a few months. However, you can’t anticipate all problems in advance. And you can’t (or, well, shouldn’t) have endless rounds of interviews and test tasks. Even when you’re hiring a C-suite workplace leader who has a huge impact on the entire company and culture, it’s easy for thorough hiring managers to miss red flags.
Toxic leaders with good technical skills, impressive achievements, and magnetic personalities often make excellent first impressions. So, even after traditional job interviews, you often won’t identify them until they harm team performance, Harvard Business Review emphasizes.
#4
I had one girl who sat for the entire interview in complete silence, she didn't respond to anything, not even telling me her name when I asked. She stared at the floor the entire time to the point I thought she may be deaf. This dragged out for 5 or 6 minutes (mainly because I didn't really know what to do or if she had something actually wrong). I then said ok thats the interview complete, she then stood up and with a big smile said 'did I get the job?'........No dear you did not!
#5
Was interviewing mechanical engineers for a junior position. Typically we will ask candidates about why or how they left their previous job. A common reason for people to quit is a lengthy commute. One particular candidate informed me that his current commute was too long. "How long?" I asked. "There are 37 traffic lights between my home and the office", he replies. "I see", says I. Then he continues unprompted "There are only 15 between my home and your office so that's much better".
I and the other hiring manager laughed our heads off after he left and called him back with a job offer that afternoon. He's a great engineer too.
#6
Not me, but my Dad told me a great story.
He was hiring for a technical position near London. He has one guy come in with an older gentlemen. The interviewee was in his mid 30's while the guy with him was mid 50's. This person was apparently his Dad.
The guy who was actually there to be interviewed never spoke, but the man in his 50's comes in and the first thing he does is start trying to negotiate about pay. He'd come in on the assumption that of course his son was going to be hired, and now they just needed to hammer out the details on what his son was going to get in terms of pay and benefits.
My Dad told them that if the older man was willing to wait outside he would be happy to restart the interview but since the interviewee's Dad was not going to be working there he had no reason to speak to him. They declined this offer and left.
Starsea starpphire 6 hours ago (edited)
Overbearing parent who apparently intends for their "adult" child to live with them forever
HBR notes that hiring managers ought to focus on a few core things to spot toxic leaders:
- Identify specific interpersonal requirements for the role
- Draft revealing questions for those requirements
- Define ideal responses and red flags
- Ask follow-up questions
- Develop a personal assessment
- Validate with multiple sources
In short, focus on specific examples of how these workplace leaders handled real situations, not just hypothetical scenarios. Set their charisma aside for now and look for traits like accountability, collaboration, and developing other colleagues.
For instance, you could ask the job candidate about projects that they were part of that failed, and how they contributed to this result. Or you could ask them about others disagreeing with their approach and how that went, as well as how they handled others turning out to be right instead.
#7
I interviewed a guy to work as a manager selling internet, home phones, mobiles etc. the job wasn't overly hard but you had to memorise a lot of product info that updated (or changed completely) monthly and the targets were expected to be met but were impossible to meet (ie 25 people enter the store in a day but we are expected to connect 80 services a day) ridiculous.
Anyway this guy came in and I asked him why he wanted to job. He said 'Well I really just wanted something super easy where I could kind of do nothing. I mean you guys don't look like you work very hard. Also there are some hot chicks that work here and I'd like to get to know them.' I asked him what made him think that the job was easy and he replied 'well the thing is, I'm really [freaking] smart.'
I literally looked around to see if I was on some candid camera show.
#8
Not an interviewer, but... My worst interview was while I was in college and working temp jobs through an agency. I live in small, but busy port city near the russian border and I had forklift and warehouse experience so there was always that going on and I was studying business.
One day my dispatcher calls me and asks if I'd be interested in an office job for one of the companies I had done warehouse work. Sure, great! I go to the meeting with their CEO which was held half in finnish (native language) and half in english. It's a breeze. We talk about the business in general, their clients and the owners needs. All's well. I'd be doing warehouse bookkeeping, customs documentation, onsite IT and warehouse supervising. Faaaaantastic!
Untill the last question. The dreaded "What is your biggest weakness?". I blurt out: "Loud Russians." I'm like in a half dream and looking down on myself saying this. I'm just here for the ride. I see the CEO's eyebrows raise. He makes a few remarks and says they'll let me know. Meeting is over. Obviously I didn't get the job where I'd be the first person all the loud russians come to when they enter...
Six months later dispatcher calls again. They are still looking for someone and their CEO doesn't seem to remember me. The picked my CV from a list provided to them and want to meet. "Just don't mention Russians, ok?" 7 years later and I've seen all but one original worker leave or get fired, including 2 CEO's. The owner made me general manager a year ago. Turns out I work well with loud Russians...
#9
I work for a retail company and we had a hiring fair for positions in stores in our area. They were all front-line customer service gigs between $8-10 an hour and our advertising was very clear about who we were and what openings we had. I had this well-dressed middle-aged man come in with a briefcase, a leather satchel, and his laptop. He immediately demanded to speak with whomever was in charge because he was led to believe this was a massive regional job fair for a variety of companies.
During the interview, he started by telling me that I shouldn't even start talking unless I was prepared to match his current job's $60,000 salary. I reminded him that these jobs were entry-level jobs that paid accordingly and he told me that I had five minutes to "Wow" him into accepting a job. This whole time, he's setting up his laptop, a notepad, a cup of pens, and a calendar like this was his freaking workstation. I give him a cursory rundown of the job and he lets me know that he'll settle for $45,000 in salary, but he can only work 7am-4pm because that's when his mom is available to drop him off and pick him up. I let him know that we would keep his information on file in case a position more fitting what he was seeking opened up in our company to force a conclusion to this. He stops me and says he'll take an entry level job if I let him use my phone to call his mom to come pick him up.
And that man worked his way up to manage an entire market of stores.
Nah, I just let him use my phone and never called him back. We hired a handful of high school and college kids.
What is the most stressful, awkward, or weird job interview you’ve ever been to? On the flip side, who is the most nightmarish job candidate you’ve interviewed for a role at your company?
What advice would you give anyone new to the job industry who feels incredibly overwhelmed and stressed about landing their very first job?
Share your perspectives and worst work stories below.
#10
Interview went great, got to last 2 questions about test [for illegal substances] and background search. He said all was great, and don't expect any problems. After the interview, during small talk walking to the car, he informed me that he just got out of prison for stealing payroll money from his previous employees, at a little over 1 million dollars.
Earthquake903 4 hours ago
Completely irrelevant information. It couldn't possibly be a problem for the new job.
#11
I work for a chemical company that hires local college students every semester to do routine lab work for us. We have a fairly constant stream of candidates, but this was by far the worst. The interview in question occurred three days before Halloween that year, and coincidentally was the same day as our Halloween office party.
Our office manager had hired a psychic for the afternoon events. So when a young woman showed up in black lace, a black corset, black eyeliner, and spider themed jewelry, we just assumed she was the entertainment. Nope! It was our candidate. Okay, so after the initial awkward exchanges, we rolled with the punches. The non-professional presentation was bad, but not enough to outright dismiss her. Plus it was nearly Halloween, so we let it slide. Got her into the interview room and sitting with some engineers ASAP.
After about 30 minutes, a cop shows up and asks if we've seen a girl dressed in all black matching her description. Why, yes, officer. She's here on an interview, is something wrong?
Turns out she had taken a cab to our building but didn't have any cash on hand. So when the cabbie let her out she decided to do the responsible thing and book it inside without paying. The cop removed her from our building mid interview, escorted her to the nearest ATM, and made her withdraw cash to pay the cabbie. Then he brought her back and left her with us.
My colleague was so completely flabbergasted by the whole thing, that she just finished the interview and sent the young thing on her way.
#12
I did the hiring for a bar that I worked at for a while. Basically I would do the initial interview, give the owner my thoughts, he would do a quick meet and hire them based on my opinion. I wrote "NO" on several applications, most often because they thought it being a bar, the interview process was casual. I interviewed many many people who would swear constantly, or would laugh about how they handled customers who needed to be cut off. One admitted to illegally pouring them only the mixer (no alcohol) then telling them it had alcohol in it and charging them as if it did just so that she didn't have to actually cut them off. Another said she didn't think she could handle working unsupervised. At least a half a dozen of them interrupted the interview to check their phones or answer calls.
Bottom line, guys, a bar is still a business. You still need to treat the interview like an interview. I was the only employee for over a month because I couldn't find anyone that seemed like they could handle the job. I finally found one and she and I are good friends now. It's not rocket science but you do need to show some professionalism.
Nothing will compare to the girl who immediately after the interview proceeded to get drunk with her friends at the bar (normally totally okay) and then tried to walk around in her bra. I definitely didn't recommend her.
#13
Not really a hiring situation, but it is an initial interview. I was giving one soldier, who had a particularly well-known military surname in these parts, the initial platoon commander interview.
I got this soldier to fill out a form with a few stock-standard questions that I could ask further questions from (what are your goals in the army, what are your strengths, weaknesses etc). There was also one particular question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Anyway, PTE X came into the office and sat down, having answered the above question, "Chief of Army."
"That's a pretty ambitious goal for just five years. How do you think you're going to make that happen?"
"Just train really hard."
"You're not even commissioned yet. That'll take, like, two years at least."
"Do you have to be commissioned to be a chef?"
"You wrote 'chief'."
"Oh, I just don't know how to spell chef."
#14
My mother was a hiring manager for a car repair shop, and she as quite a few. My favorite is the one that, who after the interview was walking out of the back office still talking to my mom, spotted a rather chubby girl coming into the shop. She says "ew, what a pig." Little did this interviewee (already deemed incompetent as she had asked my mom if they would pick her up for work if needed) know, this chubby girl was my sister.
#15
I'm a recruiter. There was candidate who sent in a resume for a hard to find skill set. It looked great, he had all the required skills. When I called him and asked him a few questions and wanted him to expand on his skills, he couldn't do it. I'm used to people fabricating their experience and skills, but this guy actually admitted he lied.
"But my resume says I can. Submit me to your client. I'll get job."
I told him there's no way I'm going to submit a fake resume. He then asked if he could refer a friend who could do the job. No, thanks, buddy.
I've also had one person do the phone interview for a contract job and then a completely different person show up on site to do the work. One time a man did the interview and a woman showed up.
#16
Oh god, I had one girl who it was clear was only there because her parents wanted her to get a job somewhere.
I'm sitting there, attempting to make conversation. I hire for a fast casual restaurant, it's not like I need their life story. So it's nearly impossible for me to get this girl to have more than a one or two word response. So I'm to the point where I'm about to be done with this girl and just tell her to leave. Then the store owner walks up to the table. She often sits in on interviews and asks questions that I don't think to ask. She walks up and introduces herself as the store owner, "Hello, my name is [redacted], how are you?" Her response? "Wow, you're tall.".
#18
I was interviewing some guys for a position that was quite prestigious and difficult to fill due to what the job required. When I asked a gentleman(who was very fratty and brah-like) I was interviewing, I asked "tell me about a time you were introduced to something new, what was it and how did you react?" He replied, in all seriousness, "the first time I tried vodka." He then laughed like it was something I thought would be funny as if I'm another "brah" and he continued "you know what I mean? It was an interesting night.." With a straight face I asked "is that really your answer?" And he just stood there, smile fading.. He didn't get the job.
#19
I help hire for a paint store. We had a lady come in once looking for a job so we scheduled her for an interview. She came in dressed in sweats and an old, stained and all together disgusting sweatshirt.
We started the interview and she immediately launched into how much she enjoyed her previous job as a butcher and how well she could carve up a carcass. She avoided all of our questions about working with people and customer service experience and chose instead to continue providing stories about working as a butcher. It got really awkward because we quickly revised we were not going to hire her but she continued to share with us her fascination of deceased things and their dismemberment.
She left at the end of the interview and the manager and I looked at each other and agreed she might come back and be dangerous... Yes, she left us with that feeling.
It's hard to honestly sum up how scary it was in writing but needless to say, we all kept a phone close and the cops on speed dial in case she returned and went ape.
#20
I used to manage a restaurant. The other manager hired a girl from Hooter's cause he thought she was cute and all. Well, I am counting the money from the day before and getting the deposit slip all filled out in my office. An employee comes in my office and says she is here for training. I grab the paperwork she needs to fill out, and grab my bank bag. I walked up and gave her her paperwork. I realized I forgot a document so I went back to the office, but I slipped up and left the bank bag on the counter by the register. It was only her and I up there, as this is about 9am. Well, I leave and go to the bank to deposit the deposit and guess what? I am 40 dollars short. So I'm like, "I dropped 40 somewhere" and head back to work. Can't find it, ask her if she saw it and she says no. So I watch the security cameras and sure enough [she] opened the bag and stole it. She had literally been there under 5 minutes and stole from us. I called the cops, they came and arrested her. Found 3 pill bottles in her purse, and she had 2 warrants out for her arrest. She was 18, and had been to jail before. She didn't even tear up, and called me a [jerk] for calling the cops.
tl;dr: girl stole from us before she even filled out her paperwork for employment.
ॐBoyGanesh 29 minutes ago
She’s made a lifetime of terrible choices all by age 18. And I’d bet you my first born she’s rather vocal about why her constant failures are everyone else fault.
#21
Had a guy show up 40 minutes early for an interview, obviously crazy nervous. 30 minutes later me and my team greet the guy, and you could tell by the fantastic handshake the nerves were still there, and this may not go well.
Motioned him to the board room to do the interview, we sat down and before I had even asked the first question, he had barfed **all over the table**.
Funny thing was he was one of the better applicants, so he did get a call back.
#22
I had one guy apply for a video editor postition and include in his portfolio the intro cinematic for Lionsgate Studios, just in a slightly different tint and his name where it should've said Lionsgate. He claimed he created the entire thing from scratch.
Also had a guy show up 45 minutes late to an interview for a sales position. We had all waited for him long enough that we headed towards the elevator to grab lunch. As we're about to get in, the guy comes out and proceeds to blame our office manager for giving him [wrong] directions (we were located in a very visible, centrally located building, one of the easiest places to find in my city, and I heard her give the directions - they were spot on). When we told him we were not going to interview him, he jumped in the elevator with us and proceeded to insult our office manager further in front of both her and two of our executives as if that would make us change our mind. 33 stories later, he was escorted away.
#23
Interviewing Veterinary Technicians and noticed there was quite a long gap (a few years) between the applicant's college graduation and passing her state license exam. When I asked her about it, her response was "It was pure laziness."
#24
Back in the 80's I was an employment interviewer for a Major US bank. I have a number of great stories. Here is one of my "Favorites". For clerical typists (remember it was the early 80's) you had to type 40 wpm to qualify. Young women would come in every month, take test, fail miserably (18 wpm or so), we would politely tell her she failed and she should practice more. On about her 8th or 9th visit, I was the lucky interviewer to again tell her she failed. Well. She totally freaked out, lurched across the desk, grabbed me by the throat and started screaming that it was my fault she could not get a job. Once security dragged her away, the on site medical tossed me a valium and sent me home.
#25
(Candidate comes in from the street wearing headphones, sits down)
Hiring manager: Ok, so let's start, do you want to take off your headphones?
Candidate: No, I can hear you over the music.
Credit: Job agency Robert Half.
nottheactualphoto 5 hours ago
For some reason, it really bugs me when a "command" is phrased as "do you want to...?"
#26
I work in a daycare. One woman (she had just graduated high school, so she was maybe 19) brought her mom, her toddler, her baby and her baby daddy INTO the office. She filled out an application while the dad played on his phone and the toddler ran around. I asked her a few questions and then she told me they would be back to pick up the kids at 6 pm. WTH no you're not. I told her that's not how this works and the shredded the application as she walked out the door!!
Lady Gypsy Rain 4 hours ago
Are we 100% certain this isn’t a wires crossed scenario? You were trying to hire her. And she was trying to hire you to babysit?
#27
We once had a candidate so desperate to go toilet whilst we left them in a room to do their test, they [did it] out of the 3rd floor window. 20 minutes into his second stage interview I was interrupted by a call from the office opposite reception. "Erm, Do you know someone went "toilet" out of your window?" After a 2 minute discussion I went back into the room. I couldn't blindly ask him so I asked if he had opened the window. He moved his chair away, stared at me for 2-3 seconds and ran out of the room. Never saw him again.
My manager gave me the task to explain to the cleaner what happened.
#28
I constantly wonder what the people who gave me my worst interview must have thought. I hadn't slept the night before, I was stressed, I was tired, I wasn't in a great mood but I got ready and went there early.
They're happy I've arrived, they take me straight in, we're all ahead of schedule. We talk and I've got reasonable answers for all their questions even though I genuinely have very little idea of what the job entails. It's about 16 hours a week, 4 hours every morning from around 6 AM to 10.
We get to the "What's your weakness?" question, and sweet jesus I blew it.
What did I answer?
"Early mornings. I hate early mornings. I don't sleep well."
I don't know what to say, I was exhausted. It was clear to me afterwards that the whole tone of the interview had shifted, this guy had decided I wasn't getting the job.
It's true though. I hate early mornings.
#29
Not a manager but for my last job I read over the resumes and made piles of no's and maybes'. Anyway one of the people put "practicing Christian" in their "other skills" section. One put "really good at yu-gi-oh cards". Another put the word resume on the center top of their resume.
#30
I was hiring at Subway a long time ago and when the kid thought I wasn't looking he squirted chipotle in his mouth. Funny thing is that we were so short staffed I was still considering giving him a callback but I ended up just covering the extra shifts myself until a buddy got back from Iraq.
#31
I worked as a manager at an ice cream store in highschool, and staffed the store with other high schoolers. One day a middle aged man who was the empitome of a drifter (face tatoos, beat up leather clothes, and a big knife on his belt) came in and asked for a application. I obviously wasn't going to say 'no', and handed him one. He proceded to fill it out in store, and turned it in. His previously losted work experience was from a liquor store he worked at for two weeks about 10 years ago. Reason for leaving? Got in a fight with my manager. Job before that? Liquor store 14 years ago and worked for a week. Reason for leaving? Differences with my manager. I told him that we weren't hiring right now, which we weren't, but that I would keep his application on file and would call him if something opened up. Sadly, I never got to hire him and learn his hobo secrets:(.
#32
Was interviewing for a new role at my current company at the time, and had gone through about 20-30 different people all 10-15 minute interviews.
Get to the last few and I'm getting pretty tired since I hadn't taken a break. After I finish an interview, I pick up my newspaper and start reading. Receptionist sends in the next applicant and I'm still reading my newspaper and ask "What's going to make me remember you over the last 20 people that I've just interviewed?"
He simply gets out his lighter and sets my newspaper on fire, while I'm still reading it!
He was escorted out by building security and I was pretty angry at the time, but looking back on it, that kid had some serious [courage].
TL;DR - A candidate set my newspaper on fire while I was reading it.
Robyn Hill 5 hours ago
Dude, what did you expect? Applicant walks in, you decide to be rude, and he makes sure you remember him. Which is what you told him to do.
#33
I was put in charge of hiring at a call center years ago. As you probably can imagine, turnover is high. Even if you really want a job, having people yell at you for 6 hours a day will burn people out fast. So basically we hire everyone. Except this guy.
Pretty much as long as I can understand you during the interview process you have the job. We make people fill out applications but we don't call or check on anyone.
So this guy interviews, speaks perfect English, seems nice enough. I ask him about his work history, just making conversation for the most part. I ask him why he left his last job and he responded that he left for stealing credit card information. I don't know why he thought that wouldn't be a red flag for a job where you take credit card information but...at least he was honest.
I tell him we'll call him if anything opens up. Did that for 6 months, that was literally the only person who didn't get brought into a training group.
RoteWeil 6 hours ago
Hyman Rickover was the chief and father of the U.S. naval nuclear power program. He was notorious for his interviews, which were tests of character. One candidate comes into his office and the admiral says “I want you to p**s me off.” So the guy starts cussing him out and yelling and the admiral says “is that the best you can do?” The guy thinks a second, then flips the admiral’s desk over. Yep, pissed him off. Don’t know if he got accepted or not.
#34
Two incidents that stand out (different candidates for the same job):
1.
Me: "What would you say is your single most impressive professional achievement?"
Him: "I no longer have a colostomy bag."
2.
Me: "This job is quite prominent, and may require you to give presentations to senior government figures. Can you tell me how you approach this kind of pressure?"
Him: "You've got to be joking. I'll be off sick that day!"
Latest one - dude turned up an hour late for the first interview. I thought "well [stuff] happens to everyone" and gave him ten minutes as a courtesy and rescheduled. He was two hours late for his second interview.
#35
I was interviewing for a position in a grocery store deli, and as soon as the first candidate came in I recognized her as a customer we had arrested for spitting in the face of a deli clerk two days earlier for slicing her cheese to thinly.
Pure chutzpah.
#36
His phone rang, he took the call and talked to his mom - right in the middle of interview. My colleague hired him anyway. Guy did not last long - rarely showed up to work and when he did, slept (and snored) at his desk. Sigh!
#37
This was before I was a hiring manager but I remember working in fast food and this guy comes into an interview with my boss wearing flip flops, ripped jeans, and an old t-shirt. I thought my boss was gonna turn him away but it turns out he's dating her step daughter and he got the job. Lost it less than a month later. After I became a manager the only interview that sticks out to me is this one girl who seemed odd (not just for the main reason I didn't offer a job). She put her cell phone on the table and it was playing music quietly the entire time I was interviewing her.
#38
Went to hire a girl for a restaurant I was managing, she showed up for the interview and seemed really....off. like she was on [something] or a had a few drinks. A short while later the cops showed up asking who's badly damaged vehicle was in the parking lot and questioned some kitchen staff. Next thing you know she sees cops and bolts to the bathroom. The police had to go in and grab her, when they searched her they found a half empty bottle of vodka and some pills of some sort. She was arrested and escorted out of the restaurant. Apparently on her way to the interview she side swiped another vehicle. Needless to say we never saw her again.
#39
A phone interview with a woman who had already had a decent 1st round interview. On the phone, the woman was audibly and belligerently drunk--slurring her words, sing-songy answers of various volumes and shouting some answers at me. I finished the interview as quickly as possible and promptly coded her as a rejection. She called me back the next day--totally sober--asking why she didn't get the job.
#40
A woman showed up with an infant. That's okay I guess, come on in. A little while in, without any warning, she starts breastfeeding. Just wow.
Lady Gypsy Rain 4 hours ago
I get that it’s not the most professional look. But consider things like her babysitter fell through. Or any number of things. And she still took the time to show up. And if you are going to work with women, you are going to need to have a plan for how they can pump during the work day. Cuz baby there or not, needs must. Did the employer take a minute to ask if the woman needed to reschedule to make accommodations for babysitting? Seriously. Her care plan might have been in place and someone had a d***h in the family. No telling any number of things women have to work around at a moments notice when it comes to child care.
#41
I've done the hiring manager thing for years, but the event that sticks out for me was when I was frontline lab staff in a very small company. We were hiring and had advertised in the local paper. The lab phone number was published, as it was the only one that was always answered. I took about 50 calls a day for 2 days, wrote down the details of the caller and answered basic questions when the manager wasn't around.
My favourites were all the guys who just wanted me to record their names as having called and not pursue the application. They were happy on the dole, didn't want a job and just wanted me to report back to the unemployment office that they were rejected.
#42
My favorite was when we were interviewing for a soils tech position (requires basic math and instruction following) my manager made up a simple test to check basic math and instruction following.
I told my manager to add one question to the end: "How many grams are in an ounce". One potential employee missed basic math questions like 4 x 5, but put in 28.35 grams per ounce.
Street knowledge.
#44
My friend, now deceased, lived with a brain tumor for 11 years. Once he had a mild seizure in a group job interview. He said he thought he must have blacked out for a few seconds during one of the questions and regained consciousness a few seconds later. We used to make him tell the story all the time.
"I sat there trying to figure out where I was and what was going on. Everyone was wearing a tie including me. Eventually figured out I must be at a job interview."
He said he asked something like, "Are you interviewing me for a job?"
Didn't get the job.
Upstaged75 5 hours ago
Imagine the interviewers who didn't know his medical history. Poor guy. They must have thought he was drunk or something.
#45
I was hiring for a position in my office. It was a final-round interview, and if I liked the candidate, she'd get the job.
I meet her and, like most candidates for jobs, she brings in a copy of her resume. I sit her down and ask as an opening question, "So, what caused you to take interest in this position?"
The girl smiles and says, "Well, I have a lot of experience that I feel I could bring to the table, which is on my resume."
She then looks down at her resume and proceeds to read it to me. Verbatim and in its entirety. For 15 minutes straight. No eye contact. She reads word-for-word every bullet point, every detail, every award and leadership position that she had in college, what she did at her last internship...most of which had absolutely nothing to do with the job.
After 15 minutes of her talking, I still did not know why she was interested in the job.
In fact, all I knew about her was the information on her resume, which I had received and read prior to the interview.
And she knew I'd previously seen it because I'd mentioned reading her resume before we sat down.
I didn't bother asking all the questions I was supposed to. We talked for a little bit after that, and then I thanked her for her time and called it a day.
#46
I was interviewing a guy for a job in Thailand and so I asked why my company's name. I wanted them to say something semi smart about our mission.
This guy says he loves Thailand. So he is only thinking location, cant terribly blame him. Then he asks where is the company located. I tell him. He then proceeds to tell me he is only familiar with all the red light districts.
#47
I had someone refuse to work with anyone under the age 30. I was pretty stunned, being 26 at the time myself. I sat there and waited for an explanation, but she didnt feel the need to expand. I put her application form in the rejected pile as she was leaving the room.
#48
Once interviewed a young lady about a data entry job. She didn't impress at all in the interview, and i showed her the door. Monday AM she showed up to work while i was out, the other employees didn't know what to do with her. I had to break the news to her at lunchtime.
#49
I was the hiring manager for an entry level call center position. Call center turnover is fairly high across the board, so we were always interviewing.
I sat down with one candidate who was not dressed appropriately for an interview, jeans and a sleeveless undershirt. It also would have been nice for her to brush her hair before she came in. So I start the interview, no going back now. Her last 2 jobs were at adult video stores. As I am asking her about customer service experiences, her cell phone rings. I can accept that she may have forgotten to turn it off. She reached into her purse, I thought to silence her phone, but instead she answered it. At that point I expect a quick "I'll call you back", but instead I was privy to 1/2 a conversation. Her side of the conversation went like this:
"Hello"
...
"Hey! How are you doing?"
...
"Oh yeah? I'm in an interview now"
...
"I think it is going really well!"
At this point I was thinking about how she apparently doesn't have a good grasp on reality. I stare at her the entire time she's on the phone. She hung up after another couple of minutes. I asked her one more question and ended the interview.
No Job offer made.
#50
Oh my god, I miss hiring so much. Digging through stacks of résumés and conducting awkward interviews was so much fun. I screened for mostly administrative support/HR positions.
Not one of the following people was hired:
-the guy who put a poor-quality, red-eye, obviously-cropped-from-a-group-photo into his PDF résumé and then started his profile section with "Christian father of three"
-the lady with the email address witchylover69@[domain].com
-the lady who mis-typed her email on her resume so it bounced back, and her phone was disconnected
-the guy who started his cover letter with "As a former manager, I am looking for a lower-status position where I can just relax..." and then continued with a 7-page résumé going back to 1975 with his doctorate degree, research stuff, publications... and zero relevant admin experience
-the lady who declined a second interview and told me she was fed up with Austin and was moving back to California, and then called back two days later to say she changed her mind and wanted to interview after all
And my personal favorite: The guy who made racist remarks in the interview ("Well, you know how those Hispanics are." Both of my panel interview partners were Hispanic.)
-I just remembered another crazy one. I was eight months pregnant, leading the interview panel for an admin/front desk position. We had a candidate with some prior experience, but mostly non-related library experience. I had her pegged as my third or fourth strongest candidate, and then she absolutely [tanked] the interview. One of our questions was, "This position may require occasional overtime during busy periods. Are you able to work overtime with advance notice when required?" She then answered, "Yes, that's no problem. I'm divorced, and I don't have any family..." and I'm thinking to myself, okay, that's a weird thing to say, but whatever. Then she continued, "I mean, I don't have any kids, so I don't have to answer to anyone or be on call. But that's cool, if that's your thing. (Then she gestured to my enormous belly.) "But you know, if that's what you want to do, I don't have a problem with it. I just don't want to."
It took me about three seconds to realize she meant me, because I wasn't sitting there thinking, "I'm so pregnant." I was there to interview candidates, and didn't talk about it at all. None of anyone's business, to tell the truth. Poor lady was just going to keep digging herself deeper, and a teeny part of me wanted to let her squirm.
#51
I worked at a UPS Store, and on one occasion I was handing out some applications to those who inquired about our help wanted sign. This guy comes in seeming pretty average and asks for an application. I let him fill it out on one of the counters off to the side since it wasn't particularly busy that day, and while he does that he receives a call from one of his friends. He proceeds to catch his friend up on the story about how he's staying with another one of his friends since he recently got evicted from his apartment complex for harassing his neighbors and threatening them when they complained. Needless to say I tore up his application as soon as he was out the door.
#52
Was doing a team interview at a credit card collections company (a number of us were interviewing candidates).
One guy came in and he was asked about his last job. He replied it was breaking the necks of chickens at a meat factory.
Trying to keep a straight face, one of other people asked him why he left.
He just shook his head, looked down, and said, "The chickens, man. The chickens.".
#53
Another supervisor and I were interviewing candidates for a security position at a larger company. We had three interviews scheduled that day back to back so being on time or slightly early for the interview was just as important to the candidate as it was to us. The first person showed up on time and the interview was normal. The second person shows up wearing a wife beater that had a lot of stains, baggy jeans with more stains, and sandals along with an odor that was not the best. He showed up 20 min late as we were leaving to wait for the next interview and was very loud and obnoxious on his greetings to us and then sat in the chair laid back with one leg over the arm of the chair. We asked the standard 10 questions and he either rolled his eyes and answered them with some sarcastic comment or took offense for no reason and replied with a question of his own.
After we finished he asked if he had the job and when can he start. We told him we have a process and after the candidates were reviewed we would contact everyone regardless if they got the job. After hearing this he started jumping up and down telling us we were racists and how he was going to sue our company for everything they own quite loudly. As we were escorting him out he begged us not to hire him as he was just doing the interview to fulfill his welfare payment requirements for applying jobs and didn’t want to work all along. My opinion on a few subjects changed that day.
#54
A guy interviewed for a software engineering job at our place. He slunk in wearing jeans, t-shirt and white trainers. He was asked (as everyone is):
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
His answer was that our company would be a stepping stone and he would expect to have moved into game programming before then.
#55
Not the hiring manager, but plenty of interviews.
It's not the horror stories per se, but the ones that have no business being there are sometimes heart breaking.
I was interviewing for a QA Engineer - not a QA tester after the dot-com bust. But this guy worked for our company before and recently got laid off, so he had priority over any external candidate. He was mid-career, probably rode the dot-com bubble to a nice house with a monster mortgage payment, a nice car with a huge payment, private school for his kids - thought it would last forever.
He did 16 years of manual testing. But - we don't pay 6 figure salaries for manual testers anymore. I had 30 minutes to ask him a whole bunch of automation/programming questions (that was the job we were interviewing for) - I even tried to ease it up so that he could answer anything.
But he kept saying, with a bit of desperation, "I can learn". I really felt sorry for him because - if you haven't learned how to make your job easier (e.g. automation) after 16, I'm not sure you have the aptitude to.
He essentially had a [good], easy life for 16 years, and you could see the terror in his eyes as his dream job was ripped away from him with no hope of coming back.
He never bothered to keep his skills current. And though he was 10 years old, he really felt like a kid trying to prove something. I knew within 2 minutes he couldn't do that job.
Another guy worked on some type of circuit board (our company was hardware and software). Also laid off, he needed to get a job to stay in the US (for visa reasons). But this poor kid didn't know anything beyond this circuit board.
Q) How would you test a piece of software...
A) well, in this board, we had these external outputs where we had to check.
Q) Okay, but software?
A) Well, the board was checked by software....
He even spent 10 minutes of the 30 minute interview drawing the board, even though I did not ask. After about 5 questions that referred to this magical hardware board that had nothing to do with anything. I had to say, "without mentioning your board, how would you..."
He looked puzzled and went back to the board.
I really felt sorry for him because he just wasn't really able to answer simple questions. He may have been the greatest hardware developer out there, but had no social skills. And that meant he had to probably pack up and leave the country.
Richard Graham 5 hours ago
"And though he was 10 years old, he really felt like a kid trying to prove something." I thought all 10 year olds WERE kids.
#56
Two cases in phone interviews.
First was the person who, near the end if the interview when asked if he had any questions about us, asked us what company he was interviewing with. The entire interview was of that caliber. I believe we were eventually told that some of his supposed skills were actually held by the person he sat next to, but that proximity somehow made it worth putting on his resume.
The second was the person who couldn't admit to not knowing things, and instead tried to Google them during the interview. As if a 60 second pause followed by something clearly bein read wasn't bad enough, the responses to follow-up questions asking for details were just a joke.
What do you think ?
Kathy Brooke 2 hours ago
Saddest one I ever interviewed... Final question I ask "what have you done in your life that you're proudest of". It's meant to end the process on a high note and give the candidate a chance to show off who they are - I've heard everything from charity marathons to "my kids". One bloke "nothing. No I can't think of anything". Maybe he thought it was a trick question looking for humility or we wanted a 'holy' answer about boast in Christ alone. But d**n. Not a thing on 40 years he could think he was proud of. Last candidate of the day, brought us all down. He didn't get the job (was too religious for what I do) but I saw him at something later and told him to work on his self-esteem.
Kathy Brooke 2 hours ago
Saddest one I ever interviewed... Final question I ask "what have you done in your life that you're proudest of". It's meant to end the process on a high note and give the candidate a chance to show off who they are - I've heard everything from charity marathons to "my kids". One bloke "nothing. No I can't think of anything". Maybe he thought it was a trick question looking for humility or we wanted a 'holy' answer about boast in Christ alone. But d**n. Not a thing on 40 years he could think he was proud of. Last candidate of the day, brought us all down. He didn't get the job (was too religious for what I do) but I saw him at something later and told him to work on his self-esteem.
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