Hilarious Interview Mistakes
March 12, 2008 — recruiterJennifer Tortorella’s one of the best agency recruiters I know (seriously - if you don’t believe me, just ask her :) She’s good, and a great partner/ vendor to ZoomInfo. Her latest post drew my attention to CareerBuilder’s annual interview mistakes survey - sad, but true stuff. I’d add in the guy who, when I walked out to greet him, was on his laptop. Not a big deal, but when I said “Hi [name removed to avoid lawyers], I’m Martin Burns, nice to meet you,” he glanced up, raised his finger to let me know he needed a minute, then went back to typing… When he was done playing Scrabulous (or whatever), I sat him in a conference room and went to grab the first interviewer - within those 2 minutes, he had plugged his network into a data line in the office, and gone on-line to do some surfing….
One more - that same day (honest), we had another candidate in for a QA role. When the QA Manager asked her where she saw herself in a few years (standard softball question with a hidden edge), she answered “As a software engineer - I’m too cerebral for QA.”
Needless to say, not exactly people we chased after….
March 14, 2008 at 5:25 am
I have a good interview mistake, which I experienced personally. I was interviewing someone for a mid-level Supply Chain job, but it wasn’t going very well for them. I was asking tough questions, as usual, and they were struggling, despite a resume that showed good experience.
At the end of the interview, I assume in an attempt to salvage things with some flattery, the candidate told me that I looked like Ralph Fiennes. I don’t look like him at all, not even close. Also, comparing your interviewer to the evil Nazi concentration camp leader from Schindler’s List is never a good idea.
April 14, 2008 at 2:03 pm
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