WHAT, Pray Tell Were You Thinking?

I was having one of those fun discussions with another recruiter last night. You know the kind where one of you says, "you are not going to believe what my candidate or my client did today". They tell you , you laugh and say, "My friend, the first story always suffers." After about 30 minutes of that we reached a learned consensus that the world is doing "weird shit" right now. Maybe we are too, but of course we didn't seem to think so, or at least i didn't think he was doing a lot of "weird shit", maybe a little of it but not really a lot, but not me, i never do weirds. Ha!

To be explicit. He sent a sales candidate on an interview. The first fifteen minutes went well but it seems his candidate suddenly started jamming out playing his air guitar. Scared the young lady who was interviewing him right out of her professional control mode and had her screaming for security. They hauled him out with his jam still going on. Did it end there. Oh, no. That is not near weird enough to be considered "weird shit", but here is what is. HR rapidly sent him a thank you but no thank you letter. Declined, no interest, blah, and blah. He picked up the phone and called the young lady who interviewed him and screamed for security. Told her he had received the rejection letter and could not understand why in the world he would be rejected, said it was "sad, just sad" that they could not see what an asset he would be and he knew several of the other sales reps and they thought it was "sad". Now that is some "weird shit".

Most of the time i can come up with some kind of explanation as to why a candidate or a company did something and have a pretty good idea of what they were thinking. In the past two weeks, i have become convinced that there is something in the water supply or the ozone that is causing otherwise sane people to do "WS" they cannot be thinking.

I had an engineering candidate, great background, phone interviews went well, she was invited into the companies office in another city for two days of interviews, dinner with the executive team, the whole dog and pony show. When i followed up i was told that they would not be moving forward with her candidacy. Good skills but not a fit for what they were doing.

PC answer so i pressed. Seems that she was late for the first round of interviews, late meeting the team for dinner and late the next morning for the second day of interviews. She gave no explanation just late like 30 minutes three times. Additionally after being told in three phone interviews that time/motion studies were to be a big part of this position she made it very clear that time studies were not high on her list of things she liked or wanted to do.

What in the World was she thinking? "Weird Shit", just WS. At that point i didn't much care sent a decline email mentioning the time studies and the concern about her being late to all three appointed times to meet. No response, no explanation, nada. WS is the only explanation.

Next: Candidate goes into interview with a startup division for a key position as a business analyst. I spent hours on the phone with this fellow, good candidate in all respects. Follow up after the interview. Interview went well but one exec. mentions he is a little concerned about his work ethic..How so? Another exec. says he is a contender but a little concerned about his commitment..How so? Weird. So i press, seems my candidate went into an interview in a startup with 350 employees, none of whom know each other , have not worked together, new clients that they have not supported in the past and within 10 minutes of the each interview asked if there would be an opportunity for him to do this job from home because he really didn't like to travel to work and back each day. What, pray tell were you thinking? Maybe a year from now after everybody gets to know everybody, you know the job,you know the clients.

He never mentioned a word about working from home. Should i have asked , do you? I think people are just doing "Weird Shit" Maybe it's me. But it's sure weird.

Comment by Theresa Hunter on June 20, 2012 at 2:00pm: The first part of Sandra's post was pretty funny but the question about the rental car was a legitimate question as I was asked that when my car was hit and than at the bottom the lady just wanted to know if her EXT was an SUV or a Sport Utility Vehicle. To me that was a reasonable question not that she was trying to be a smartass. Yes, I am a party pooper but I have worked in customer service and it is a very trying job when a customer is mad or upset and you are trying to help. Yes, the lady did have some issues and did not have a clue on a lot of the questions.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on June 20, 2012 at 2:00pm: @Dyll, by the time that conversation was over my only thought was, "this is going to make. Great story". I could not make this stuff up if I tried and I have a vivid sense of humor.

Yes we have raccoons in Texas, along with every other kind of varmint on the planet. I have given a great deal of thought to what was in her mind as to what sort of animal I might have run over that could do all that to a big ass truck. The only thing I can think of is possibly a reindeer but we don't have those. I came very close to saying, " we have folks in this part of the world who sing songs about Grandma being run over by a reindeer but I sort of think they smoke wacky tabacky."

No telling where that would have gone. I can hardly wait to see what she sent to the appraiser.

Comment by Bill Schultz on June 20, 2012 at 2:08pm: LOL, Sandra- Don't you know that before you talk to customer service, you have to have 2 or 3 glasses of wine?

I've had a weekly call going with ATT about a deal I was promised and not given. Thy all start by saying "Well,

we're going to clear this up right here and now. Alas....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7uvttu8ct0

Comment by Sandra McCartt on June 20, 2012 at 2:13pm: Theresa, I think an SUV is a sport utility vehicle. Since they are in the car insurance business I would think she might have something as to identifying makes and models of vehicles but when I clarified that it was the model that looked like an avalanche it was a bit of a headbanger when she came back saying she thought I told her it was a Cadillac.
I wasn't upset or angry just trying to answer her questions. She wasn't trying to be a smartass, she is dumber than a box of rocks or one of those critters that Darwin missed on the first pass.

Comment by Darryl Dioso on June 20, 2012 at 2:29pm: I had a candidate get up in the middle of our interview and dance in front of me and a colleague. Not only was it odd and inappropriate - he had no rhythm. If you're going to bring it, at least have some moves.

Comment by Amber on June 20, 2012 at 3:00pm: @Darryl Disco - aren't we all still waiting for your dance video, lol!

@Bill, do not even get me started about AT&T, just had another go 'round this morning with them....

@Sandra, this week's prize so far goes to the candidate I called -based on contact info he gave - and had to go through a "gatekeeper" that gave me the 3rd degree. No, not a spouse. It was his mother. He sent me an email later that day that he had received my message from (in his words) "his personal assistant, who is also my mother". He is well over 40 years old, and she wasn't even that professional. Then again this is the same guy that a former client hired behind my back, it didn't work out, and there was a physical altercation thrown in there somewhere.

Comment by Darryl Dioso on June 20, 2012 at 3:05pm: @Amber We may all need to get together at The Recruitment Conference in Vegas and get a "Dance Circle" going. LOL

Comment by Sandra McCartt on June 20, 2012 at 3:29pm: Bill, holy hell, i didn't call them they called me. That wombat asked me three times if i needed a rental car. I told her no, three times. Guess what came in email that night. A notification from Enterprise that a rent car had been reserved for me. I have not decided yet whether to respond to that or not. If i do it is going to be an excerpt from war and peace that is going to give somebody a giggle.

Daryl, I just love it when the spirit moves them. I had one once who kept saying "Praise Jesus" at the end of every answer. He finally stood up and waved his hands in the air and said, "Praise Jesus", this job is perfiect for me the lord has led me to you." I could not stand it. I said , "We have a problem, i think the lord has given you the wrong address." He looked at me for a minute then said, "Our prayers are always answered, sometimes the answer is , no."

I said, "Praise Jesus, you are correct, thanks for coming by I think the lord has bigger plans for you than i can offer."

@Amber, I would have sent him an email back that said, "My personal assistant (who is also my husband) will be contacting your personal assistant (who is also your mother) to see if either of them feel it is prudent to continue our conversation. Say hello to momma and the folks, hear.

As to ATT. I used to get fast action when i stopped a conversation with those throwbacks to the great apes with this response. "It does not appear that we are speaking the same language, I am hanging up and my next call will be to the Public Utility Commission to file a complaint" My next call will be to your executive complaint number, you didn't know i had that one did you. I am sure this crap will roll back downhill, have a wonderful day. Just for the record if you can make one of them mad enough to hang up on you, everything is recorded so if they hang up on you , you call back and ask for the call center manager to report a rep hanging up on you, it will go through and the rep will be given a day off without pay and written up.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on June 20, 2012 at 3:44pm: @Erin, i missed your comment, sorry. Those dudes are weird to begin with. I guess it would be boring working on a cure for cancer day after day. Go figure. In fact those dudes are the weirdest of the weird and for the most part they bring new meaning to the word boring. I had one that i started every call by asking him "So how is your dna today?"

Took him four times before he sort of chuckled and said, "You are kind of funny". Yes, baby and you are not very quick on the uptake maybe i should have asked about your rna.

Comment by Barbara Goldman on June 20, 2012 at 7:19pm: I love this! I had a candidate who was a no show for the interview. We called her several times to see if she had some kind of excuse, but no return call. It turns out that she went to the wrong hospital, met with people who had different names than the ones on her agenda, and was hired. Our client was not happy, no fun for us, either.