Interview Horror Stories

Hi all, I'm running a seminar for an unemployed professionals group, and during it, we discuss do's and don'ts in interviews. I'd love to hear any horror stories you've been part of where an interviewee made irreparable gaffs....

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kunal on November 10, 2008 at 3:40pm

Hi Jason,
This is an interesting work you are doing.
I would like to share my experience with you about my very second interview in life. This is about pro language that should be used when in an interview.
During my school days I used to be a member of a rock band and you know how those guys speak, anyways, right after my college I went for an interview with a well known company and I called my interviewer DUDE and used F@$# word once.
This was the worst thing to do in an interview. I was not hired for this reason only. This happens more with the fresh school guys.
One should not be VERY friendly with the interviewer.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Brekka on November 10, 2008 at 4:40pm

Hi Jason,
We are hosting a free webinar tomorrow on interviewing, maybe you want to listen in: http://www.recruitingtrends.com/webinars/index.html
Anna

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kate Purdy on November 10, 2008 at 4:43pm

My candidate had an outstanding IT resume and I was anxious to meet with him in person.
When we were meeting, he constantly looked at his watch. Finally, I asked him if he had another commitment and he responded that he was waiting for a phone call from "Bill". "You know who Bill is, right?" he demanded. I told him that I did not who he was referring to.
"Bill Gates, as in Microsoft!", he shouted. At this time, I encouraged him to go and take his call from the owner of Microsoft and he replied that "Bill" would leave him a message as he always does.
I determined that he was trying to impress me, but he was really starting to scare me, and it backfired. He became very irate at the end of our meeting when he could see I wasn't impressed nor was I buying his story. After he left, he threatened me when he called me from the parking lot. "I know where your office is and you're going to be sorry!" Sorry that I met him...yes. Sorry that I didn't hire him, NO!!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Adam Krueger on November 10, 2008 at 5:11pm

I had a candidate go out on a dinner interview with a Fortune 500 company I was working with. His interview went poorly anyway, but during dinner he apparently had not had enough to eat and ordered a second entree. This isn't necessarily a faux pas that was written in any book, but I would have expected him to know that this was a no-no...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dan Nuroo on November 10, 2008 at 6:51pm

I have been interviewing day in day out for over 10 years now (yes i am tired), however ;ast year something happened in an interview which has never happened before. (I wrote about this on ERE.net at the time) Now let me say this, I have experienced many things in an interview, the weird, the wonderful and the occaisional t hing that just leaves you scratching your head.

This one however really took my breath away, literally almost. Now I've had people swear, cry, laugh, burp, make phone calls, leave the room so full of BO that we quarantined it off for over an hour. This person, took the cake however. Mid way through our interview, in a fairly serious moment, this person's body decided it was time to expel some excess air, no he didn't burp. Now this was loud, extremely audiable, in so much as the receptionist asked me a question about this "noise" after the interview. My candidate continued on like nothing had happened, no smirk, no "oops" or excuse me... nothing.

I am rarely lost for words but this one stumped me.