Question of the day: What is the most absurd reason a candidate has given you for not taking the job?

From Today's RBC Daily:

What is the most absurd reason a candidate has given you for not taking the job?

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Lacey on January 10, 2012 at 11:51am

I have 2 that will stick with me for years to come.

The model of BMW on offer was not correct. (wanted a 3 series sport and it was a slightly different model from what I recall) Obviously an excuse to pull out for someone afraid to make the move.
Her father had died. This one I believed and a few months later I called her to catch up and see if she was still in her old job etc. She said she couldn't talk as she was "on her way to her dad's house" When I questioned his rise from the grave she hung up. How a person can lie about their dad dying is beyond me. Talk about tempting fate.

Sigh. Recruitment, who'd do it?

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Permalink Reply by Amber on January 10, 2012 at 12:43pm

I posted about this before, but had a candidate turn down the offer (the 3rd revised one they gave him) because he would "lose" 3 vacation days. Even though the client was giving him 2 partial days off each week, and his increased pay was way more then 3 days pay. He went back to the office manager 6 months later and is now working there.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on January 10, 2012 at 12:56pm

Last week a guy told me he couldn't take a job because his mom fell and broke her hip. Since his sister was on sabbatical in Peru, he was the only one available to make sure mom got her hyperbaric chamber treatments regularly. To fix her hip, of course. I don't even know what that is!!

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Permalink Reply by Betsy Park on January 11, 2012 at 6:51pm

I had someone turn down a position because she was getting married. Her new husband is a "self made man" and doesn't think she should work... HUH? What year is this?!?!?

Oh - and I also had someone turn down a position because she was making more $$ (broken down hourly) at her PART TIME position and wanted to make at least that amount at this new FULL TIME position, even though she would have made more because of the full time status, she was convinced it was less because the "per hour breakdown" was less...

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Bogner on January 12, 2012 at 11:12am

I had a candidate turn down a job because she had a bad dream about the job, that she considered a "bad omen". That was an awkward one to relay to the client.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Spagnola on January 12, 2012 at 11:14am

Sure is Michelle - what did you say? Curious.....

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Bogner on January 12, 2012 at 11:28am

Tim - I just told them the truth, exactly what she had told me. The interview process had been relatively short as this was for a contract position, but neither of us had any indication that she would have ended it this way. I tried to spin it as "I think you dodged a bullet on this one, obviously her decision making skills are severely lacking..." and then I just busted it to find another candidate.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Boswell on January 12, 2012 at 12:49pm

"My wife has advised me not to take the job."

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Permalink Reply by Amos on January 12, 2012 at 5:42pm

I recruited a professor once from a big university for a public company, he was a specialist in his field (very rare background) The position paid 120K + bonus + perks. He was making 62K per year (no bonus, no perks). He turned the offer down because he wanted: "Job Security" I cant even make this stuff up.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on January 12, 2012 at 6:19pm

Just today a candidate who had been actively pursuing a job with my company for 4 months cancelled an interview 15 minutes before it was supposed to start. He apparently just found out where we are and we're about 10 minutes further south from where he thought we were. Ok not turning down a job, exactly but honestly how do you not know where a company IS if you've been trying to get an interview for the past 4 months?????