More WSJ Support On Interviews
August 3rd, 2006Sometimes I harp on interview behaviors. I do so only partly because I used to be a recruiter. Also, it’s because interviewing is routinely done so poorly that sometimes it boggles my mind.
I understand WHY people stink at interviews. There are all kinds of reasons, but basically, gross lack of preparation is the big one. I just wish it weren’t so, because it’s not hard to understand the system.
Unfortunately, there are so many people doing so many WACKY things, I’m convinced that a narrow, step by step (you are surprised?) system is the only way to go through the process.
Here is is a WSJ article about HOW wacky people get. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.
I don’t want to give it away - there are so MANY dumb moments. But here’s one: checking your Blackberry DURING the interview? Reminds me of something I said recently on the boards: “NEVER hire this person.”
My point is simple: these people thought they were doing the right thing.
They were NOT.
What is it you are doing that YOU think is right?
Anybody care to share stories of what they did, or watched someone else do?
Best story gets a book from our list. (Best is defined as Mike’s and my best judgment.)
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August 3rd, 2006 at 3:57 am
Many from time as recruiter…
- guy that I remember the most fondly turned up for an interview straight from his battle renactment club.. e.g http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/SIX/SIX013/uni-724.jpg
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:04 am
I recently interviewed sopmeone for a technical position on my team. His CV said he had a few years experience of team leadership, mentoring, coaching, etc. When I asked him about the size of his team during the interview, he said “Well, there was just me and this other guy. We did all the work between us.”
He thought he was being impressive. All he did was point out that his CV was exaggerated to the point of being worthless. I decided there and then not to hire him.
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:41 am
Had an applicant show up coming directly from her aerobic workout. Skin tight 1/2 top and even more skin tight bottoms. Said she didn’t have time to change! While it certainly it was probably the most intriguing interview I’ve ever had and she certainly would have added to the scenery around here, she doomed herself upon walking in the door! Not to mention that since I have an all female staff,after they saw this, had I given her any serious consideration, they would have tarred, feathered and ran me out of town.
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:57 am
… Here is a WSJ article about … Article only available to subscribers …
oh well.
If I still lived in the ‘States I’d still be a subscriber. No really.
I have a story but I have posted it [url=http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1590#1590] in the forum[/url] with the plan that I’ll update it as the story unfolds…
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:05 am
Peter-
Good grief! I am so sorry. Working on it…
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:49 am
I was conducting a phone interview two years ago. We were looking for someone to work on our datamart so we needed a pretty geeky database person with decent interpersonal skills since they’d be fielding a lot of requirements docs and would have to push back to the business areas for clarification. Also, this was a 6 month position - no wiggle room there. This was all communicated in advance through HR’s preliminary screening.
So I’m on the phone with a gentleman. I can hear his children and dog in the background. He sounds out of breath the entire time. He keeps referring to me as Luke (Hello, did you read my email where I signed with my name?).
So we cover the basics of his background. He appears to have the necessary skillset. I then proceed to ask him about how he handles incomplete business requirements. Oh boy, here it comes. He stars going off on how he’s never had incomplete requirements before and that when he did he would assign his staff to handle it. I clarified that we often have incomplete requirements, and that there is no staff - or rather that he IS the staff. He proceeds to educate me on how he’s really a manager who hit some hard times with a bad boss and he’s looking for a long term full time situation with at least 3 or 4 direct reports. With that he could assemble the team to build my datamart.
Right, so did you read the job description or my follow-up email to each candidate where I very clearly indicated that it’s a 6 month contract position where YOU would be doing the job? And stop calling me LUKE!
I was trying to maintain composure and figured that if anything I’d take more notes on this person in order to make sure that HR excluded him from all future searches in the rest of the company. Just out of curiosity, since he seemed to be pushing for management so hard and claimed to have been in management before, I asked why his resume had all staff positions on it (Technical Analyst, Programmer, etc). He became very patronizing and told me about how he customized his resume just for me. Oh, you mean that you lied on your resume creating experience you don’t have in order to get an interview for a position that you don’t even want? Yeah. Goodbye.
Luckily we found a candiate who was very adept, was well prepared for this simple interview, and loved contract work. Perfect. As for this guy, he turned up in the HR queue a few months later for another contract position I had. Same guy, completely different resume. Unbelievable.
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:50 pm
I can’t top any of these interviews, but it reminds me of the resume I received from a high school coach who wanted a career change. It was in pencil. On notebook paper.
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Deciding is going to be WAAAAAY harder than I imagined!
CLASSIC!
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 1:52 pm
one of the managers here based his search to fill two positions completely on personality. No resume required just eye catching responses about why you should be hired. it was a fun process to watch. He received poems, songs and image only submissions. I’m not sure this was bad but it was fascinating.
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:03 pm
I’m sure.
It was bad.
Talk about insulting to the existing staff.
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:07 pm
My favourite story is the guy who turned up drunk, twice. But that’s sad rather than funny. There’s the guy who told me you can’t teach Arabs maths, because it’s against the Koran, but that was just confusing. There’s lots of people who can’t tell a story with a beginning a middle or an end (oh please, let them end!). Candidates who tell me ‘good question’ and I have to bite my tongue not to say ‘I thought so, that’s why I asked it!’.
But my favourite candidate this week told me ‘you havn’t asked any of the right questions’. So, despite my shock, politely I said, ‘what would you like to tell us that we havn’t given you the opportunity to?’. ‘Well,’ she said ‘I’m very good at finding solutions. Let me tell you a story. I used to keep my kyaks on some private land where I walked my dog. And the house was sold and the new owners hid my kyaks and wouldn’t give them back’ And she’s telling me this story and I’m wondering how on earth it’s relevant to being a technical author.. and it turns out it wasn’t! 20 minutes later, she finished with taking them to court. Not the win/win solution I was expecting!
She’s my favourite, because every time I think about her, I wonder what made her choose that example at 6pm after 90 minutes of interview, and my mind boggles. It’s like the ultimate soduku. And I don’t think I’ll ever work it out.
Wendii
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Wendii-
“I thought so, that’s why I asked it”. Brilliant.
My version of that is, as drolly and as drily as an American can (which is, of course, less so than John Gielgud or Anthony Hopkins):
“I shall alert the media.”
Nobody ever gets it.
August 3rd, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I have an inverse story. Not about the interviewee (me), but about the interviewer. I think it is somewhat relevant as I consider interviews to be bidirectional (though weighted towards the interviewer).
I arrived at an interview around 10 mins early for a job a major investment bank. I was escorted to the office I was supposed to meet, and left in the hall while he finished up on a phone call. 20 mins after the phone call, he invites me in. We assume the standard opposed seating over the desk position. He asks for minute to find my resume (strike 1 in my book).
He asks a few interview questions that have no real value (where do I live, how do I like it there, any good bars) and then finally asks a significant question - AND - picks up the phone and makes a phone call!!!! (strike 2)
I wait for a few minutes, trying very hard not to listen to him talk about ANOTHER interview candidate. He hangs up after a few minutes, so I continue. He then proceeds to check his email.
We go through a few more fluff questions, when he picks up the phone and makes another call. When he hangs up, he asks ‘where were we?’
At this point I politely stated that I do not believe I am good fit for this role and asked to be excused. After a few pleasantries - he made yet another phone call during the goodbye.
All of his calls were about other interview candidates.
The end result is that I have refused to go back to that bank for an interview for the last 7 years. It does not matter who I would be working for. My opinion is that any company that allows management like that, I do not want to work for.
David
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:01 pm
David-
Ah, well. Every place I’ve worked has had one bad manager. Maybe you got him.
Because…. EVERY company allows management like that.
I wouldn’t turn down an interview opportunity with them. Who knows? When your bank acquires them, you’ll know a little more. Or vice versa.
Mark
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:23 pm
I’m sorry for double dipping here but I forgot about this one.
I interviewed a candidate who told me this was his “practice interview for the job he really wanted.” I sent him to the airport early.
August 4th, 2006 at 1:59 am
HA! This is my practice for managing my priorities. Good luck elsewhere.
H
August 4th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
I interviewed a guy for a tech job and when I asked how he went about escalating or more strongly following through on getting an answer to an issue he claimed “to be a major pain in the @**” when he wanted answers. And I could be assured he “would do that with me too if hired”. What a hoot.
August 4th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
When I go into an interview, I want to make sure I have (at my fingertips) all of my past jobs and what goals I achieved when I worked them. I am trying to lead the interviewer to my primary goal, which is to land the job. I want to tie in my past experiences in a way that shows WHY I want this job. I want THIS job because it builds upon my career goals; The goals I’ve already met and ones I have yet to achieve.
August 4th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
In the last week we had to conduct interviews with 6 people for a supervisor position in a distribution center. The very first person we interviewed set the stage for all the rest. He was a psych major with a Masters degree who stated at the outset “I may just talk myself out of a job but that’ll be your loss for not knowing how good I really am.” And then he proceeded to do just that.
HIs best answer was to the question “How do you assemble a team of people from very diverse backgrounds and social differences?” Managing the ability to create a cooperative team environment with multiple ethnicities and nationalities is important in our area. He proceeded to give us an example of how he once facilitated an undertsanding between all his team members by getting all the african-americans together in one corner of the room and choosing the one who could speak the best to talk to “their people”, having all the hispanics in another corner and finding the one who speaks the best english to relay his words of wisdom and gathering all the white people together and talking to them himself and then, in one big convergance of understanding, brought them all together and they (magically) all understood each other!
Honestly, it was all I could do not to just cut him off after that pearl of wisdom and politely escort him to the exit. But because the co-workers who were in there with me could see the expression of disbelief and aggravation in my face, they proceeded to pepper him with question after question for the sheer entertainment value!
Brad
August 5th, 2006 at 10:40 am
“I shall alert the media.”
So, the “H” you sign off with is actually short for “Hobson” then?
G.
August 5th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
When interviewing many years ago for a secretarial post, a candidate arrived flustered and late and then explained at length that she had been having a difficult time in her relationship with her boyfriend but that that morning they had made up and she was late because… She then went on to explain (in more detail than I wanted to hear) that he was a wonderful lover and hadn’t wanted to break up with him so the reconciliation was very important to her… more important than turning up on time. She wasn’t hired.
More embarrassing than the interview was the reaction of the female colleague who was helping me with it. She laughed uproariously afterwards at my obvious discomfiture throughout the interview, and then proceeded to tell everyone else in the office!
B
August 5th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Gary-
Ah, caught. That role was sublimely played by Sir John.
When I wish I could be droll, yes.
H
August 5th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Bruce-
It appears this young lady wouldn’t know when not to alert the media.
;-)
Mark
August 16th, 2006 at 9:11 am
I just wanted to add a quick item that occured the other day. We had a candidate who, during the phone interview, indicated a salary range of 75-85. Great, fine, that’s in line with what we were thinking.
During the first face to face he states that he misspoke and now he’s looking 80-90. Okay, we assume he got another offer at 80 and he’s pushing up. Not a big deal but a bit disturbing since he didn’t come out and say it straight up.
Now he’s on the phone pushing for 95 with HR. Yeah… ok. Let’s all climb that ladder together. I wish my salary would go up 18% every two weeks as well. Canned.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Recently I interviewed a guy that took three calls during the interview.
The first was with a recruiter where he talked for about 5 minutes while I waited for him to get his schedule straight for his future interviews. Less than a minute later, his wife called. The sad part is he told her he didn’t have time to talk. Figuring he had turned off the phone at this point, he took the third call from another recruiter and he made me wait another 3 minutes before I told him I wasn’t interested. He was a bit surprised with all the experience he had and this was a perfect match.
Since he talked to two recruiters, I figured one was who scheduled our interview. I asked the recruiter I was working with why she would call him during my interview. Obviously, he had at least three recruiters in his pocket.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:44 pm
I was once in a group interview with four other candidates for a summer job working in a park as an interpreter. The three interviers each made it clear at the outset the the best candidate was going to have excellent customer service skills and be able to think on their feet.
I am at a loss even today to decide which of two candidates actually made out worse in that interview. First their was the girl who aggresivly attacked other peoples answers and wanted to explain exactly how their experience was a little wrong for the position and how she probably would have handled the situation differently. She was specifically asked to hold her answers for the questions directed at her. I remember her telling me that being a president of a student society isn’t really experience because it was probably me and my buddies just goofing around.
The next candidate was a guy who took the ‘think on your feet’ point to absurd extremes. He answered one question about how he would react if he found another staff member in the accomodations drinking or doing drugs on time off (a prohibited activity in the staff housing) he said he would use a plastic garbage bag to hold them in custody - like a pair of zip-cuffs - until his supervisor arrived to take them away.
Now on their own they would have been just plain bad candidates, but together!
After to guy responed with such zeal the cynical girl told him that was ridiculous and it would never work. I watched in horror as he showed her how it would work with the wastebasket garbage bag in the room. He tied her up to shcoked silence of the interviewers and the laughing of the other candidates. When she got out of the little wrap he had done she simply said “I told you it wouldn’t work, try something else like rope idiot.”
The interviews were trying hard not to laugh as they let us out of the room. I don’t know if I never had a second interview because I was a bad applicant or if they wrote the whole lot of us off because of these two.
Icing on the cake - Mr. Improve invited us all out for beer after the interview - while we were in the interview.
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:57 pm
My worst interview was with a woman who came in looking for a clerical position in my department. I assume she was trying to explain to me that she was returning to the workforce after raising her children. What she said was, “…after I got knocked up the second time I figured I’d better stay home so I could get more money from the baby’s father. Now he’s laid off again so I guess I have to get off my a** and work.”
It took me a minute to recover and ask another question.
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:31 am
My worst interviews are not nearly as colorful as those shared here…just simple proof of how little people prepared. I was lucky enough to actually have Mark guide me through my first time that I was in charge of interviewing and making the final decision. Following his advice, I had sent all the candidates an email outlining EXACTLY what I was looking for and also giving them advice on how to prepare and conduct themselves during a phone interview. I was stunned that out of nearly 10 candidates, only one actually used the words/phrases that I had used to describe what I wanted. The first line of the job description read “Implement 3 year plan” for the program area I manage. When asked for their thoughts/feedback on the 3 year plan, only 2 had actually read it, 2 admitted that they hadn’t, and the rest tried to fake their way through it… finally admitting upon my follow up questions to their responses that they hadn’t read it at all.
It was quite a wake up call to the real world of management!