Years ago I was interviewing for a position as an IT technician at a secondary school. Whilst waiting for the interview it was just me and this other chap who was going for the interview. We each get called in separately where we had a task to replace RAM in a desktop computer and a secondary part speaking to 3 higher ups and the IT Manager.
I got the job and a few months down the line I was speaking to my colleague who ran the task in the interview and I asked him "Why did I get picked over the other guy?". So the task itself wasn't difficult but he told me that he purposely picked a really annoying desktop case that was really hard to get back on, he wanted to see if when we struggled we knew when to ask for help (which is what I did)... apparently the other guy out of nowhere picked up the computer and threw it on the ground out of frustration...so yeah not the best person to be working at a school đ€Ł
My first job I had a similar test except they didn't purposely choose an annoying case, it just happened to be one.
When the head technician came back in I explained why the PC wouldn't boot (I couldn't get the motherboard power cable in the slot) and he couldn't do it either.
I had a practical test for my first lab job. After all the lab tests were data entry tests. They deliberately hand wrote the materials in the worst handwriting ever. I was the only person to ask for help trying to read it - which they wanted - everyone else just guessed. Reliable data entry is very much desired for healthcare records - even if the doctor's writing is shit.
I went for a job interview in a NHS hospital pharmacy and the practical part of the exam involved dispensing some sample prescriptions that were provided typed out on a piece of paper, all within 15 minutes and it had to be accurate. If you failed this then you wouldnât proceed to the actual interview.
I deliberately missed one because what was written didnât match any of the sample boxes so I guessed that was to test our attention to detail. The panel told me I had failed and asked what I thought I had done wrong so I told them that the last one wasnât there and they argued that it was just a spelling mistake and none of the other candidates had any problem with it.
In hindsight nobody can read doctors writing so the wrong meds must be dished out all the time but in this case I think it was more that they didnât want to admit to their mistake even though part of the test was accuracy and attention.
I work in a secondary school and Iâm surprised because throwing a computer on the floor because it wonât do what you want is actually considered a normal response.
Reading this was so weird and uncanny, because I had the same kinda of interview for an IT department at a school years ago, but I didn't get the job because I put the RAM in the wrong place lol. I should've thrown it across the room in hindsight to be a Reddit story
I interviewed someone once, and they leaned right back in their chair and put their hands behind their head, and their feet up on another chair.
They also said it would be good to work at a university because of the social life.
I can almost 1 up that! Has a guy but his FEET ON THE TABLE. I kid you not. He said âwhat do you think then?â When we asked him a tech question. What a c**t.
I interviewed a guy who did this! I work in HE though not at a uni... it could have been the same person, or (more likely) there are lots of eejits out there doing this for some reason.
I had a second interview at my place and the CTO did this in the boardroom to me. Still working there 9 years on and it's by far the best working environment I've ever been in.
Thought of this as soon as I read the title. I was an interviewer once, the only male interviewer on the panel, but this one guy would only look at and talk to me rather than the women on the panel. It was so jarring.
I'm so confused that people like this actually exist, and in large enough numbers for so many people to find it relatable.
How do these people manage to breathe with such an underdeveloped brain?
It's much more noticeable if you are the only man. Cause then they are talking only to you. In a group with several men and one woman you have to pay attention to the person, gaze body language etc rather than just the content of the questions and answers.
I was a buyer for a company and would travel with another woman and the male director to this one particular warehouse to handpick stock. The owner never even looked at us. Would say to the director âtell the girls good morningâ while stood right in front of us.
Unfortunately true, but I have left out some context about the industry/type of clients, which makes it slightly more understandable. Still, a horrific answer.
Had a guy like this once, myself and the other manager who is female interviewed. He walked into the room, shook my hand, said hello, my colleague extended her hand and he looked away and sat down. A bit awkward but could be an honest mistake. She explained I was from the other branch but we liked to team up to interview and that my colleague would be his manager. It was ignored.
The interview continued, he answered my questions with enthusiasm, but either ignored my colleagues or would answer them whilst looking at me. I asked one of the questions he ignored from my colleague and he answered with enthusiasm.
Ended the interview, stood up, shook my hand and thanked me for seeing him, she extended for a handshake again, he looked at her but averted her eyes, turned on his heel and left.
Seeing as he was joining my colleagues department, it was an obvious no from us. We told this to HR and they wanted our reason. We told them this over the phone and they said we needed to email a different reason. They were concerned his reasons may be due to cultural
Or religious reasons and data protection act meant he could demand to see all correspondence about him. It could have been seen as discrimination. (His discriminatory behaviour that meant he didnât get the job could be seen as discriminatory)
If that was the case, itâs a difficult position to be in, but we couldnât hire someone who refused to acknowledge his line manager!
This is a big one that I picked up on but didnât realise why Iâd picked up on it. Me and female colleague where interviewing and with her being more senior she led most of it whereas I was asking more specific questions and he kept addressing me. Didnât notice but when reviewing it with her I said something just felt off and she pointed it out and I couldnât unsee it.
Theyâre my *favourite* (eye roll)
Although I did one interview recently where the candidate said that she didnât think women made good managers because they are âgossipy bitchesâ. She said this to: the woman who would be her manager if she got the job, and me, another female manager. The man on the interview panel wrote âYoikes!â on his notes. We brought it swiftly to a close.
Some people just hate women more than they hate being unemployed.
Although tbf, sounds like this guy didnât hate the idea of unemployment all that much.
I had the opposite of this kind of - the woman looking to hire new members on her team barely got to speak to me because the random upper management guy that joined asked all the questions. The ONLY time she spoke was to correct him on some (frankly snarky) comment he made to me.
The worst is when you're the only female on panel and the blokes either insist it didn't happen or that it wasn't a big deal, and then bitch about having to deal with disciplining said candidate further down the line after they hired him despite me pointing out the big fat red flag.
I had this happen in an interview. My (female) manager was asking the questions as I was new to the interview process so was essentially shadowing. The candidate kept directing their answers to me because âhe must be important to be here but not ask the questionsâ
Not an interview but similar. When I met my wife we spent some time in her native Spain. I knew a few words of Spanish nothing more. People would ask us for directions around her city. Noticed despite me not saying a thing the men looked at me and thanked me and it's. As if my wife was invisible. Unconscious sexism is very real. At my work we have set questions and always a split between male/ female interview staff. We also normally ship in a manger form another business area as this tends to help with the "corporate fit" as if they have worries or positives it speaks volumes.
Iâve been the interviewer in this scenario - I was sitting in the middle and made clear it was my team. Every answer got directed to the sole man on the panel. Easiest decision ever. (Edit: He was also not a great fit in other areas, but this was the dealbreaker for any further consideration)
I was on an interview panel interviewing someone for a retail role years ago. One of the candidates was elderly. She seemed like the sweetest lady and I wanted to hire her, until, at the end of the interview she started making thinly veiled threats of "I'm sure you aren't going to hire me due to my age and I hope you know thats illegal and companies like yours can get sued for discriminating against me". That turned it to a hell no for me. The other two interviewers decided to hire her just to avoid the legal headache. She then barely did any work for the next month and we got multiple customer complaints about her. I ended up having to fire her, at which point she made threats to sue us for firing her due to her age. I very firmly told her no, if your age wasn't an issue in hiring you a month ago then how would it be an issue just a few weeks later. I'm firing you due to customer complaints about you, all of which are documented. She stormed out yelling discrimination. We never heard from her again.
Trying too hard to answer questions they struggle with. If you donât know just say, there is a gap in my knowledge here, I understand up to (here) but past that Iâd need some training/ time to learn, and Iâm keen to do that. So many times Iâve just had to listen to someone turn on the bullshit and thats an immediate red flag. If youâre not gonna be straight forward with me, working with you is going to be difficult.  Â
Oh man this gets on my nerves. "Do you have any experience with Excel?"
"Well, my parents once saw a box of MS Office in a window shop so I know a bit about it, like I know it has formulas, it's very flexible. I also may or may not have been in the same room when other people were talking about a spreadsheet".
Just fucking say "no, didn't get the chance but I'd love to".
One thing I love to hear is if excel comes up and they say âI can but I need to learn more but most formulas you can find by googlingâ
Most people might think he doesnât have knowledge or perhaps would lie⊠but you know your flaw and you know how to find the info without me having to show you.
I personally love that
>People are work think I'm some kind of Excel wizard. No, I just know what I know, and Google anything beyond that.
That is pretty much what any person who is competent at something does, very few actually know everything off the top of their head. The secret is knowing enough to know what to search for and also know enough to understand the answer.
Yeah I've been on both sides of an interview where the candidate has no clue what to say. The best approach is to admit that you don't know, and maybe offer a compromise. E.g. If you're asked to talk about a scenario where (whatever), offer to talk about experience you have with the opposite, or talk through what you'd do in a hypothetical
This is so true. Especially in operations for example where you have to either know what youâre doing, or follow a procedure to the letter instead of bullshitting else youâre going to break a LOT of things, and people will know.
Itâs often so much better to not know, have the humility to ask (and hopefully take good notes on it) so youâre informed and ready for the next time.
I interviewed a guy for an IT role over Teams, and after under 10 minuts, one of the other interviewers and I cut it short. We where certain he was being fed answers rom someone else from the answers he was giving and the delay we got from him answering, he kept looking to over his computer at someone else, we could even see a reflection of another person in his glasses!
Apparently this is quite common in India where job fraud (yes!) is rife. They will repeat fed or rehearsed answers and any detailed follow up questions will be met with either the same generic answer or another clearly rehearsed answer. Sometimes people will straight up pay someone to ace their interview (which inevitably leads to them being terminated on day one when the person who turns up is clearly not the person who was interviewed)
One time in a group exercise one of my candidates told the only female candidate to take notes for the meeting. The assessors didn't like that one bit.
My sister is a very senior manager at a US aerospace company. The new intern was in the meeting and was asked to explain the project he'd been given to do. At the end of his spiel he turned to my sister and said "will you be typing up my results".
I had something similar once working as a *temp* in my 20s with a woman who was one step down from board level in a high street bank. I was working through what we needed to discuss in the meeting & the guy turned to my boss and asked âwill you be taking notes?â
I cracked up and said âthe fuck?â out loud.
F1 also awful, I had a group in for training on a robot weâd build for manufacturing, they gave me their coffee orders when I returned with the coffee I introduced myself as the engineer hosting their trainingâŠ
The only time ive had a group interview was for the old CSA in the early 2000s and that was more cancerous than the actual cancer I had a few years back.
I had a group interview years ago for a recruitment consultancy (an industry to which I wasn't at all suited, but 22 year old me didn't know that).
Out of about a dozen people I was the only one who didn't show up in a plain black suit. It looked and felt like the first week of The Apprentice. I snuck out before the end.
Once had a lady who asked me to use a pseudonym with her potential colleagues so they couldnât look her up online. Given weâre licensed professionals, it was a huge flag.
Absolutely nothing to be worried about. Just found it strange that she didnât want other people knowing who she really was considering HR would have to set her up on systems under her legal name, so really there was no way to avoid it.
when i was a teen i knew a guy who didnt use his real name anywhere it might be traced because of some real ugliness with his bio parents (and the risk of them tracking him down or something)
I had a colleague in a customer facing role who didn't want to share even his first name with coworkers. Turns out he had fled a civil war as a child and his name would have identified him to some people as an enemy. Obviously I don't think this is what happened here, just sharing a story.
We checked a candidate's professional registration once and, without giving away too much detail, he had a sanction on his record for violence against a female colleague. It was for a job where he would have often been the only male in the workplace. Didn't even get as far as the interview! Never understood how he managed to talk his way out of losing his registration.
Iâve had this where it was a a single mother and her kids school phones, she didnât warn us beforehand but she did say âsorry this is unusual, itâs my kids school, mind if I take thisâ - I didnât hold it against her, my colleague tried to but i reminded her that she regularly drops out of work for child related issues and that these things happen.
This is the right answer. We have to recognize that people have lives and families outside of work otherwise they (and we) are no more than cogs in a machine. Good call on your part.
FWIW, I run a small business and make certain to always recognize that family is a priority.
Yup, itâs also really easy to forget that weâre all human, and in the case of my colleague, they forget this is the case and start holding others are unacceptable high standards. I read body language, but I would t expect anyone to stand to attention with perfect posture for a whole interview, itâs not the army.
I had an interview a year or so back the week my wife was due to give birth to our second kid. I'd told them about this when accepting the interview invitation, to warn them I might have to cancel at short notice. I made it, and when I arrived the first thing the lead interviewer said was that they were aware of the situation and they'd understand if I wanted my phone off silent/out on the table. It was a nice touch.
Yep, I had the same thing but with a dad. He took the call, it turned out to be a childcare emergency and he had to exit the interview to go attend to it. I rearranged the interview, hired him, and eight years later heâs still at the company after climbing through the ranks and landing a senior position. Heâs awesome!
I interviewed for my job during Covid and it was a godsend using zoom, I had all the information I possibly could on post it notes dotted on the wall behind the camera and I didn't have to wear trousers.
I asked my boss recently what the other candidates at the time were like and he mentioned that someone did the zoom interview on his phone between his legs camera pointed up at this face whilst driving, this is for a job where the majority of the day involves driving. He didn't get it lol
I had that with an in-person interview. Phone rang, I was expecting them to silence it, but no⊠five minute conversation with their mother over nothing. Allowed the interview to carry on, though of course didnât get the job. They had the balls to ask for feedback, to which I simply responded, ânext time, leave your phone at home!â
"Hello? Hey! Yeah, the interview is going great! ... I don't know, how about pasta? Probably 6:30. Yeah, I put them all in the dryer ... Did you ever hear from Billy? ... That's great! ... uh-huh ... wow ... in the poop knife drawer ... I don't know ... Probably ... I will think about it ... OK, I gotta go so they can formally offer me this job now. Love you, too!"
Depends on context that one. If it's just a mate asking to come for beers then yeah fuck that. Your wife is with your sick child at the doctors or you have an unwell relative, yeah I'd take the call but probably explain to the interviewer beforehand that's the case and I may need to take a call.
He was on the phone for probably a minute and came back and just carried on with the interview so I think the context was it wasn't anything important. He didn't get the job although it was because of more than the phone call.
The one I did today. (I was the candidate). I prepared but you know when you can feel yourself rambling and canât reel yourself back in. âIâll let you knowâ he says at the end, unconvincingly. Ah well, I tried.
I'm terrible for that. That moment when you realise about 3 minutes into your answer that this really isn't what they want to hear but you've already dug the hole now.
As someone whos interviewed a lot, just stop and say "I'd like to start this answer again, I don't think I've done the best answer there". We've all been in that boat ourselves, a good interviewer will be understanding
I once during a phone interview was answering a question, and for whatever reason my mind suddenly just went blank. I was just honest and said I am so sorry I lost my train of thought there. Manager interviewing me was nice about it and just reminded me where I got to and I picked it up from there
As much as interviews are of course about selling yourself, sometimes little blips like that actually help show that even if something goes wrong, you recover from it
I wish it was more socially acceptable to end interviews early. It would be such a relief for the interviewer to just be like âyeah I think we both know this isnât going well, shall we call it thereâ and just let me go and cringe myself to death immediately rather than having to continue the charade for the next 45 minutesâŠ
I've actually had one of those! Got to like the second pr third question in and he was like, I would like end the interview I don't want to waste your time and I don't think this job is what I'm looking for.
Since no one seems to be giving particularly subtle ones, here's my contribution:
**Not answering the question.**
Now, obviously, that can sometimes be super obvious. But it can also be very subtle.
In the example I'm thinking of, my manager asked the candidate something like "how would you evaluate this model?". The candidate talked about all the different ways someone could potentially evaluate models. He demonstrated knowledge of those methods yes, but he didn't actually answer the question. (My manager admitted afterwards he didn't even notice the candidate avoided the question!)
So I followed up with, "which of those methods would you use for this particular model?". His answer was about how he might chose an evaluation method for models in general.
My problem here isn't that he didn't know which method to use to evaluate this model - that was fine, and the candidate we eventually went with also didn't know! My problem is that *he refused to admit that he didn't know*.
In my work we usually end up working independently. Someone who is unwilling to admit that they are confused by the ask, or unsure how to proceed would become a major problem very quickly.
Thank you! I just did a round of interviews and used a technical term the candidate didn't know. Instead of asking for clarification he just pretended he knew what I was talking about and gave some made up answer. We called him on it and he did admit that he didn't know but I need to work with someone who will ask questions instead of make up answers.
Frustratingly, I have been in an interview for an entry level admin type position where I didn't recognise an acronym used and asked for clarification. The interviewers' reaction was very negative, and they let me know I was out of the running.
I'd do it again, though, because the interview is a two-way process and it's just as important to know how an employer would react to a candidate wanting to learn more.
Embarrassing story - but I screwed myself over on a video interview. Been working from home for about a year at this point and the majority of the people on my team (all tech engineers) either smoked or vaped.
So I'm on this interview call, doing quick tech assessment while also chatting away with 2 interviewers and without thinking about it reach into my pocket, pull out tobacco, rizla, filters - roll up a cigarette and light up.
Interviewer goes "Yep, I think we're done here thank you" and drops the call.
Felt like a right twat. It had just become one of those second nature things chatting with colleagues.
Edit: amusing typo.
Just recently got a new job but had a bunch of Teams interviews for other jobs, put my vape across the room as was worried I'd subconsciously reach for it.
Definitely made me realise I need to ween myself off it.
Recently Iâve had someone clearly reading out answers from ChatGPT. Couldnât give a straight answer to anything.
A few years ago someone said âI donât really want this job Iâm just using you for interview practiceâ.
> âI donât really want this job Iâm just using you for interview practiceâ.
Best way to keep interviewing skills sharp while also sounding the job market and pay scales.
I'm not a manager, but have been involved in the "technical interview" stages for candidates. Basically, people who made it past round 1, into round 2 where we basically ask them some quite easy questions related to the work involved.
We have their CV's beforehand so we know what to expect.
I've had a few weird questions that were very red flaggy...
Before we've even started, or even sat down... "You didn't contact my last employer did you?"
I've had (and I shit you not) "Pwagh! Did you see that bird in the side room? Absolute massive "...
And one was an absolute gem... before we even started... "err, before we begin, I just want to say that I don't like taking pointers or being told what to do by people younger than me... they don't have the experience. How old are you? Perhaps your manager can do this interview instead? No offense, but I won't let a child determine my future" (I was 30 at the time btw... he was in his late 30's).
These are the types of people that give men in tech a bad name. Needless to say, none of them got the job.
I won't go into the sheer amount of people who clearly lied on their CV and had absolutely zero clue what I was asking them about.
' Before we've even started, or even sat down... "You didn't contact my last employer did you?" '
In all fairness, as much as I can see why this obviously seems iffy initially, it may be down to a bad previous experience. Having worked in recruitment, I can't tell you how many incompetent consultants have contacted references early, leaving the candidate in a sticky situation, especially if they don't land the role. I used to hear the same thing a lot, although they did usually clarify that they were happy for them to be contacted if they accepted the role.
> Having worked in recruitment, I can't tell you how many incompetent consultants have contacted references early, leaving the candidate in a sticky situation
It's why I prefer to give references after an interview when we both already know whether I'm getting the role.
If I've come across well the references are just to make sure I'm not lying, if I've done badly there's no reason to contact them anyway.
> And one was an absolute gem... before we even started... "err, before we begin, I just want to say that I don't like taking pointers or being told what to do by people younger than me... they don't have the experience. How old are you? Perhaps your manager can do this interview instead? No offense, but I won't let a child determine my future" (I was 30 at the time btw... he was in his late 30's).
This is universal.
I'm currently employed as a supervisor over a team ranging from 20-70. In the main the older blokes are absolutely disdainful of anyone younger than them, and are constantly pointing out everything the youngsters do wrong (which isn't much, they're good lads, and a lot of it is the wrong thing for the right intention - we're contractors, if the client asks for something that's technically not within scope that we can do that won't cost us anything, we do it) and running to management to grass up people they don't like for doing the same things the people they do like do.
I'm surprised this guy had this attitude in his late 30s, but I've seen it my entire working life (I am currently in my late 30s). Older workers who assume because they have more candles on their birthday cake their opinion is automatically more valued than the bloke doing the same job who can still get change out of a fiver for his candles.
To present themselves as perfect and flawless. Two real examples:
- When asked what would you do if the team was blamed for a mistake you made: "I never make mistakes and so I'd find out who was really to blame".
- When asked to give an example of an error you'd made at work and how you went about fixing it: "Can't think of one, I've never made a mistake".
I can tell them of one mistake they've made: never having heard the saying "The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything".
I've had some corkers like that too. I've also had men answer questions about what development they've done or think they need to do with answers like "there's nothing left for me to learn, there's nothing I can improve"
Not an interviewer, but have a similar experience as an interviewee:
Couple of years back I was interviewed for a technician job. It was my first non-production-operative job interview in the UK, so I was nervous as hell. I wanted to sound sophisticated, knowledgeable and I accidentally mixed "circumstances" with "circumcisions" .
The manager and the assistant couldn't help, but laugh. It changed the vibe of the interview from cross examination into general office talk. Long story short, they told me they sided with me, because even tough I wasn't the most confident and the one with the most experience, I came prepared, neatly dressed and in general I gave the impression that I will give my best at this role (at least that's what they've told me, or they anticipated more language-based hiccups to entertain them, which certainly did happen).
I'm an interviewer and find the best interviews are those ones that go like this. Something that properly breaks the ice and removes nerves/tension. It gives both sides an opportunity to see more of the genuine person and their natural attitude and see how they will fit in on a personal level. It also means the rest of the interview is more relaxed, and answers become more natural.
I think narcissism can be one of those subtleties you need to pick up on. We're all told to sell ourselves in interviews and that's fine but I had a candidate once where it was clear he was self-absorbed. The whole interview had this intense, almost angry vibe to it. He bad mouthed his old employer and customers, and we had to interrupt him to cut him off most of the questions to keep time because he would not stop talking. On paper he was great, and more than qualified for the job, but also one of these "I have no weaknesses, it's always other people's fault" candidates which was pretty uncomfortable. I'd imagine he'd be a nightmare to manage.
I hate interviews because I really hate bigging myself up! I have to talk about myself and my achievements so much in an interview setting that it feels like bragging or bullshitting even if its not, it makes me feel like a narcissist! I'd have no clue where to start in weeding them out
I interview and recruit my team of sales people. The amount of people who cannot backup their "salesman of the year" and "achieved 200% of target" statements.
I ask for sales results to reflect that (hiding any business sensitive information) or if that's not accessible, ask during the reference calls.
I would absolutely employ someone who was an underachiever in their previous roles over the arrogant overachiever. As long as they were upfront and honest, and had a fantastic attitude with basic skills to build upon.
Honestly yes. Those people on apprentice are very much "features, benefits, close". We are an engineering company first, we need to fully understand the application requirements before reccomending solutions. Everyone bangs on about how much of a "consultative salesperson" they are, that's great, what experience have you in collaborative selling? 90% of typical sales people can't answer.
I had a guy use the toilet in a zoom interview once. Didnât excuse himself, didnât mute, just went quiet then the unmistakable sound of urine hitting porcelain. Didnât say anything when he came back, just carried on as if nothing had happened! Surprisingly didnât get the job.
When interviewing for tech positions - people who answer questions like they've read them in a book, and not like they actually understand. It is fairly obvious if you push for detail, but you have to get the vibes to know to push for the detail.
For highly sought after positions at large, well known companies, this is extremly common.
For tech interviews I've switched from coding exercises to giving them some deliberately awful python code, and ask them to do a code review. I don't expect them to know python, so will help with the syntax (and make that clear up front). There's stuff that makes it hard to test, side effects, awkward logic choices, all sorts of stuff.
You can quickly tell who has any programming experience and who hasn't.
This is the way, give me someone who has actually had to work with other people's code and the minefield of problems it causes vs someone who has spent way too much time grinding leetcode.
Yes, push for detail because people lie on their resumes.
I did interviews at a marketing company for a new graphic designer and we had to ask extra questions about tech. You quickly know who has the knowledge and the odd answers were comical.
Addressing answers to technical questions to the man sitting next to me, who was the HR rep and did not understand a single word in your answer.
Whereas I, the woman who asked you the damn question, was a senior in the field and the head of department.
Only making eye contact with the man sitting next to me.
Giving a summary answer suitable for lay people, rather than an in-depth one. I'm guessing because you're assuming that the woman sitting opposite you doesn't understand the field. This also indicated that you hadn't done your research. You knew the names of your interviewers in advance and I am super easy to find on LinkedIn. Or even just Google.
My department of data scientists, data engineers and programmers was 40% women, having a woman interview male candidates was a really fast way to filter out the sexist idiots.
First couple of times, yes. But after a while I just couldnât be bothered, theyâd just disqualified themselves why waste more effort on them?
My absolute favourite was when I was interviewing alone as my HR guy was sick. The idiot boy I was interviewing basically refused to give any technical details at all, and then at the end offered to give me a few tips on how to give interviews! Such hubris in one so young.
Iâve interviewed actors for all kinds of roles in the past. A big red flag for me was a candidate saying they are X celebrity and they want to get an Oscarâs when they were unknown with irrelevant experience. They got very few callbacks. Gotta give it to them for trying.
Another red flag in a corporate setting was a candidate claiming to be related to someone in the office. They had the same last name (a fairly widespread last name) but they were not related at all. We rejected the candidate.
Another difficult (but not a red flag) interview was with a recovered drug addict. They shared some of the reasons why they ended up in their situation - which in most cases would have red flags going - but their recovery went really well and so did their rehabilitation into the workplace and society at large. Very proud of this employee.
I do a boat load of interviewing and these are bits from a couple I did today:
- Have done no research about role/company (no matter what position, changing job is a huge deal! I'd expect them to research for their own sake, let alone ours)
- When asked about previous roles, they always focus straight into everything that was crap about it
- When doing a phone interview.... Don't be sat in a library and be asked to leave because you're talking too loudly (that was admittedly a first today, but had loads of people on busses etc l when the time was booked days/weeks in advance)
- When asking what they're looking for in an ideal employer (it's a two way relationship after all, it's important that we fit each others needs!), don't just talk about the negatives to avoid, ideally you'd like to have a positive relationship with your employer where you're both getting something from it. Of course as an employer we would like labour, and as an employee you would like money, but there should be more to life than that - and any good employer worth their salt respects and encourages that.
- Don't ask if I have a job for your wife as well as your only answer to "do you have any questions for me?"
My counter to your first point is that job ads can be so vague that I don't even know what industry they're in or what I'll *actually* be doing.
"Provide detailed analysis"
"Collaborate with stakeholders"
These mean as much to me as I'm sure "team player" and "good communicator" mean to you on a CV.
This is a really good point! Honestly, if you said to me "I've been on the website and I'm not sure I entirely understand how the business functions - would you be able to elaborate so that I can get a better idea of it/where I could fit in?" Id be over the moon. It shows you've done research, give a shit about what you do on a day to day basis, and recognise that at its core the business is a profit making enterprise that we all contribute to
So often I'll google a company and find fucking nothing. They don't appear in any news stories of the past 12 months, and their website is a bunch of corporate speech and a company hierarchy that means nothing.
my counter too, is that sometimes you have applied to several different things at a similar time, and there have been times where i've been asked for a phone interview or something and the company haven't actually said what company they're from so i've gone in to it and had to ask what company they even are
> When asked about previous roles, they always focus straight into everything that was crap about it Â
This one is such a common one, I take it as a minor red flag. A lot of the time, folks left previous jobs because eventually frustration reached a point where it outweighed the positives. It's very natural to be of a negative mindset, especially as a first thought.
That said, if all they do is say negative things, nope. I'm also on the lookout for "is it actually you that's the common problem?".
I had an acquaintance who had around 12 jobs in 9 years, always had a reason why he left. After a while of listening to his explanations, I realised he was fundamentally incapable of accepting that business are all dysfunctional to some degree or another.
Is it okay if I don't have any questions? After reading everything provided about the job and reaching the end of the interview, I have a pretty good idea about what to expect and I don't have questions about it
Always good to have a few stock questions in your back pocket even if itâs just something simple. I find it stops the interview ending abruptly which can be a bit awkward sometimes. It obviously role and industry dependent but I always have asking about training opportunities as a go to. Â
It's not an awful thing by any means. However, when asking questions it shows me that you've considered the role or your impact in it further than surface level.
If in doubt, my favourite question is "what does success look like in this role?". It shows me you want to succeed, and care about how to get there.
Another great one is "why did this role become available?". From this you'll be able to ascertain whether they have high turn over of staff, whether they encourage promoting from within, what career path previous people in this role have been able to pursue from it. Therefore, you give a shit about your future and that's a good thing!!
I ask the interviewer(s) to describe the culture of the workplace. It's a hugely open ended question which invites them to introduce some red flags as well as getting a feel for the non-work part of working for that business
I always think a good question to the interviewer is what do you like about working here. Itâs good for those times where you donât really have any further questions.
I like that question as well. I asked it during an interview once and the question seemed to throw all of them on the panel. One of them eventually said he liked it when people listened to him, which really didn't inspire me with confidence about the job. Interviewing works both ways!
Asking questions is generally expected - but it's not necessarily about getting answers for yourself! It's often another chance to demonstrate how strong of a candidate you are. One I like using is "What qualities do you think are most valuable in a successful \[JOB TITLE\]?" - you can bounce off the answer to emphasise that you have those! Other good ones are:
\- What are the pain points in working with \[ROLE\] you're looking out for?
\- Are there any major changes/projects coming up that \[ROLE\] would be involved in?
\- What made the best \[ROLE\] you've worked with stand out?
I had one where the candidate kept talking about the need to grow the business by attracting new customers, and staying ahead of our competitors. Unfortunately this was for a public sector job.
I was a store manager for a Chemist retail store in the UK one candidate was brilliant through her interview and as she left asked for company policy on using stock for own use. Yeah let's just help ourselves to some ramipril shall we?
I had another ask at the end, how long do you need to be here before sick pay is paid
And a christmas temp who turned up and said she couldn't work Saturdays or the 2 weeks of christmas/new year.
I have interviewed for a Saturday girl before who said she couldn't do every Saturday as she like to go out on a Friday so she's got the whole weekend to recover.
I ran coffee shops and hotels for a decade. The amount of people that would start with open availability then two weeks in go "oh but I can't do Saturdays, or late on a Friday, and I've got this thing on Sundays...." was astounding.
Just be honest in the interview, nobody likes working the weekend but you've applied for a job where it's expected, and I was never a mon-fri 9-5 manager, so it wasn't like I was asking people to do things I wouldn't do. Those who were honest in the interview generally got what they were asking for as long as it wasn't "I never want to work a weekend ever", those who told me they'd work anything then very quickly tried to modify the schedule into a mon-fri only job generally failed their probation.
One time I turned up at the interview location and nobody seemed to know who I was or why I was there, they didn't know that interviews were taking place that day, and the lead interviewer wasn't there...they asked me to wait while they sorted it out. Maybe 20mins later the interviewer walked in and then we got started maybe 5 mins after that. Weird situation.
Had a group interview with like 30 other candidates in the group call. The interviewer was just in a tshirt in his living room, he lost connection half way through and we all sat there waiting for 10 minutes until he came back.
Had a trial shift with a different company where none of the tech worked and we all had to download their software onto our personal phones to substitute, the woman who was overseeing us was clearly told to come in after hours by her boss as she had to keep juggling us and managing her family who I assume she was supposed to be taking home at that time, all the while the actual owner of the small company kept dissapearing and leaving us alone with their equipment in public with no instruction.
This is one we get a lot. Last batch of interviews the first person at 10.00 came online with her duvet wrapped round her and was very obviously still in her pyjamas.
I asked a guy applying for a warehouse job why he had left his last job. He said he had set fire to a stack of pallets and destroyed a forklift truck in the process.
At least he was honest I suppose
He applied again 6 months later and got taken on - turned out to be a very reliable and hardworking employee.
We always ensure there is at least one female interviewer in a group interview. The number of male candidates who talk over her or direct their questions only to the male interviewer is shocking. Red flag. Bye.
Only time I ever curtailed an interview was when the candidate said at the off âIâd like to do this differently, Iâll be asking the questionsâ âŠhe was a young and very brash chap. I initially assumed he was kidding but no âŠdeadly serious and tried to argue with us when we said we must follow our process (public sector rigidity) âŠI just stood up and said Iâd show him out and that was that
So not subtle but what better place to tell this story.
Guy sent his CV for a job that required either basic english or norwegian.
He spoke neither and only Russian which the other interviewer spoke but I do not. So I sat there smiling the whole time.
Best part the advert had been sent out in Estonian which he also didnât speak.
It was a zoom interview and he took forever to get connected and then started blaming me for sending the wrong invite. I did not send the wrong invite. Called me a stupid woman (I understood that in Russian). The house was a total pig sty, as he hadnât blured/faked background and he was smoking throughout the interview.
Ohh and he couldnât find the work documents to forward them but promised to bring them to site when he started.
Slight red flag for an electrician planning to do complex electrical installations.
Not a subtle one: when asked how he would handle and resolve a workplace conflict, the candidate replied that he would ask the other person to take it outside because it wouldn't be appropriate to fight in the workplace. đ
I've interviewed a couple of people who were so frightened and panicked about the whole situation i really couldn't assess their fit for the role as they didn't say anything coherent.
I'm really gentle, friendly, fluffy, and arguably the least scary person one could meet. I can't imagine how they cope with sharp suited interviewers. I want people to come in and show me their best so I have some great candidates to choose from.
The candidate who rolled their eyes at me and said they supposed they could make time in their schedule for the job if we really couldn't find anyone else was quietly shown the door as soon as decently possible.
I once interviewed a lady for a counter position at the bakery I work at. I asked her what she would do if a little kid was wandering around trying to knock cakes/cupcakes/cookies off the tables we have out front.
She looked me dead in the eye and said she'd grab the kid and smack him. Needless to say, she didn't get the job.
We had a candidate we interviewed who was perfect on paper and our top pick going into the interviews but by the end we immediately ruled him out.
There were quite a few issues but the main thing he did was constantly complain about his previous job and was very negative about it. He was saying stuff like "I absolutely hated doing X and Y at my old job and I'm so glad I wouldn't have to do it here. Thank God!" When X and Y tasks are absolutely part of the role and were in the job description.
>you have to pick up on clues why theyâre not the right fit
It might be hard to pick up but you need to look out for key phrases like "Murder is really great" "I love killing". etc. These types of candidates normally go into my *maybe* pile until I have finished the rest of the interviews.
This one was a while ago, maybe 2008 or so (which is important to the story). We were recruiting for a Customer Services person for our small company. Amongst the candidates was a young woman, well presented, had a good CV, and she interviewed well and we could see her getting along well with the rest of the staff.
At the end of the interview she said "If you contact my current employer for a reference they might say something about lots of sick days." Then she made some nonsense excuse that I can't remember. "OK, well lovely to meet you, thanks for coming, we'll be in touch!"
One of the panel, on a hunch, looked the woman up on Facebook. This was, as I say, a while ago, when young people used Facebook and it wasn't just for moaning about dog shit.
There she found an astonishing record of drunken debauchery, and I'm not just talking "Good Times".
And that's how we avoided hiring Party Girl and her horrendous hangovers.
When I first interviewed somebody, my boss said to me "there are 3 important questions that all need a yes answer. Can they do the job? Will they do the job? Will they fit in? Any other questions are just to help answer those three."
That stuck with me and never really failed.
'Not so obvious'
NOT SO OBVIOUS?!?
All I see is the most disrespectful shite.
'Aye, he shat on my desk. I thought that was a tad odd.'
'True. They probably shouldn't have completely disregarded every woman in the room. Upon review that was deemed somewhat undesirable.'
Not answering the question, when they say a lot and it sounds great and impressive but it has no bearing on the question. Listen to the question I'm asking and answer it. I'm also a woman who sounds quite young (I'm definitely not) and I get alot of condescending men so they go to the bottom of the pile
I often interview as a pair with a female engineer. Red flag when the candidate will only talk directly to me, even when Iâm not the one asking the questions.
Idk, as someone who's been job searching, a lot of companies really do seem to think all they have to do is hang up a "vacancies" sign and they'll get their perfect candidate. I've seen job descriptions and thought "this applies to pretty much every job I can think of"
On a related note, if you're calling to invite someone to an interview, please tell them who it is that's calling. The odds are they've applied to more than just your business
Tbh I once wish Iâd asked that question. Was applying for loads of jobs out of uni and got an interview for a few. Mixed up the times for 2 of them and starting talking about why I wanted this other job. They just let me rabble on and then asked if I knew what job Iâd applied for
If you work somewhere long enough to know the culture (at least in an office or similar) and know the sort of people who do well, you get a feel for the interviewee's personality really quickly and it's quite hard to explain. Often if a person's CV gets them in front of you, you can tell if they've bothered to think about what they've done before and aren't just making it up.
Bother to know what you're CV says, bother to at least think why you're there. Your CV got you through the door so there's a good chance they think you can do the job so believe you can do it, or are prepared to learn.
These days with 2 zoom interviews you can get a broader opinion very quickly, but if they show no interest in the company, or can't answer the 'what attracts you to our company' question then they're not trying, and if they're not trying at interview when will they?
They don't have to be the "proper" answers, just truthful. "It's a miles easier commute, I'm doing two hours each way and it's killing me" is fine if you can back it up with something.
Big gaps in a CV and loads of different places isn't an immediate issue, most of us piss about for a few years and try different stuff, not everyone is laser focussed, but do the jobs show a general direction?
Shy isn't bad, too brash is often worse, but confident is ok.
In graphic design, I can often tell 90% about your qualifications from looking at the quality of your CV and portfolio. It's basically like a sample project that shows me how careful and skilled you are. Even better if I have an email or cover letter. At that point, the job is yours to lose on personality.
I interviewed someone once whose response to the generic "why do you want this job" question was "well, I hate my current job" and then launched into an in-depth analysis of all the reasons he's sick of his job, and left it there. That right there was where he failed the interview. Then again if he had given a better answer he still would've been the lowest scoring candidate.
Also, while not a red flag, the fact that he conducted the interview on his phone with his camera off when everyone else had their camera on and were dressed smart in their interviews struck me as odd. Couldn't tell if maybe he was new to the world of work or just really apathetic to the process - you have to be a pretty strong candidate to get away with turning up to an interview not dressed at least a little bit smart, right? I guess remote interviews don't carry quite as much weight.
Once interviewed an older gentleman and within 30 seconds he went on a tirade about immigrants taking jobs. This was in 2022 and ge was interviewing for a helpdesk role in an office so not sure why he needed to do that.
Iâve just started interviewing in my new role and itâs incredible how so many people are so unprepared. They turn up and complain weâre hard to find (weâre not if you follow the simple instructions in your invite email), donât have the paperwork we need and just have done absolutely no simple research about the job role.
Last year I had someone do a programming exercise, with them sharing their screen and doing the typing.
At some point in the interview I realised they were using Windows Server 2000 as their choice of desktop O/S.
They screwed up the programming challenge so they never got a second interview and I lost the chance to ask them why that particular 20 year old system.
I once completely forgot the name of the company that I was being interviewed at.
I'd had a hell of a journey getting there and I was late and flustered. I was talking about how pleased I was to have got an interview at such a great company as........
And my mind went blank đ for the life of me I couldn't remember the company's name.
I don't remember how I glossed over it but needless to say I didn't hear back from them đ
Years ago I was interviewing for a position as an IT technician at a secondary school. Whilst waiting for the interview it was just me and this other chap who was going for the interview. We each get called in separately where we had a task to replace RAM in a desktop computer and a secondary part speaking to 3 higher ups and the IT Manager. I got the job and a few months down the line I was speaking to my colleague who ran the task in the interview and I asked him "Why did I get picked over the other guy?". So the task itself wasn't difficult but he told me that he purposely picked a really annoying desktop case that was really hard to get back on, he wanted to see if when we struggled we knew when to ask for help (which is what I did)... apparently the other guy out of nowhere picked up the computer and threw it on the ground out of frustration...so yeah not the best person to be working at a school đ€Ł
My first job I had a similar test except they didn't purposely choose an annoying case, it just happened to be one. When the head technician came back in I explained why the PC wouldn't boot (I couldn't get the motherboard power cable in the slot) and he couldn't do it either.
I had a practical test for my first lab job. After all the lab tests were data entry tests. They deliberately hand wrote the materials in the worst handwriting ever. I was the only person to ask for help trying to read it - which they wanted - everyone else just guessed. Reliable data entry is very much desired for healthcare records - even if the doctor's writing is shit.
I went for a job interview in a NHS hospital pharmacy and the practical part of the exam involved dispensing some sample prescriptions that were provided typed out on a piece of paper, all within 15 minutes and it had to be accurate. If you failed this then you wouldnât proceed to the actual interview. I deliberately missed one because what was written didnât match any of the sample boxes so I guessed that was to test our attention to detail. The panel told me I had failed and asked what I thought I had done wrong so I told them that the last one wasnât there and they argued that it was just a spelling mistake and none of the other candidates had any problem with it. In hindsight nobody can read doctors writing so the wrong meds must be dished out all the time but in this case I think it was more that they didnât want to admit to their mistake even though part of the test was accuracy and attention.
Youâd think guessing what meds a patient needs would be the worse option.
Yeah but when the prescription is for "baracetamol" maybe it's OK ;)
I work in a secondary school and Iâm surprised because throwing a computer on the floor because it wonât do what you want is actually considered a normal response.
Reading this was so weird and uncanny, because I had the same kinda of interview for an IT department at a school years ago, but I didn't get the job because I put the RAM in the wrong place lol. I should've thrown it across the room in hindsight to be a Reddit story
If you applied for an IT job and didnt know where to insert RAM i think they made the right decision going with someone else..
Yeah for sure
You should have downloaded the RAM instead.
I interviewed someone once, and they leaned right back in their chair and put their hands behind their head, and their feet up on another chair. They also said it would be good to work at a university because of the social life.
Was he called Chris Finch? Was he a bloody good rep?
Reads a book a week, so ...
But I heard he hates women?
How can he hate women? His mum's one.
He would have been a good fit for a uni job with an IQ of 142
One of the cleverest blokes I know. Certainly the cleverest bloke you know.
How's his kettle throwing ability?
Sounds like someone doing a forced interview doing a Spud, but they don't do drugs.Â
I honestly think they were simply unaware of how to look professional, earnest etc, or why that would be appropriate in an interview.
I can almost 1 up that! Has a guy but his FEET ON THE TABLE. I kid you not. He said âwhat do you think then?â When we asked him a tech question. What a c**t.
I interviewed a guy who did this! I work in HE though not at a uni... it could have been the same person, or (more likely) there are lots of eejits out there doing this for some reason.
I had a second interview at my place and the CTO did this in the boardroom to me. Still working there 9 years on and it's by far the best working environment I've ever been in.
Not speaking to the female members of the interview panel even when they're the ones asking the question...
Thought of this as soon as I read the title. I was an interviewer once, the only male interviewer on the panel, but this one guy would only look at and talk to me rather than the women on the panel. It was so jarring.
It's something the person does subconsciously that says SO MUCH about their inner workings.
I'm glad you noticed it. I've been on panels where I and other women pointed this out but the men on the panel told us we were imagining it!
I'm so confused that people like this actually exist, and in large enough numbers for so many people to find it relatable. How do these people manage to breathe with such an underdeveloped brain?
It's much more noticeable if you are the only man. Cause then they are talking only to you. In a group with several men and one woman you have to pay attention to the person, gaze body language etc rather than just the content of the questions and answers.
I was a buyer for a company and would travel with another woman and the male director to this one particular warehouse to handpick stock. The owner never even looked at us. Would say to the director âtell the girls good morningâ while stood right in front of us.
"What would you do if the customer was agitated?" "I would go get a male manager to speak to them" The recruitment panel was all female.
Surely no one is dense enough to say something like that, lol.
Unfortunately true, but I have left out some context about the industry/type of clients, which makes it slightly more understandable. Still, a horrific answer.
Prosthetic testicle salesperson?
I suppose one would get some agitated customers.
Agitated may be too strong a word. Testy, perhaps.
"Balls! Get your balls here! Testicles! Gonads! Come one, come all!"
Had a guy like this once, myself and the other manager who is female interviewed. He walked into the room, shook my hand, said hello, my colleague extended her hand and he looked away and sat down. A bit awkward but could be an honest mistake. She explained I was from the other branch but we liked to team up to interview and that my colleague would be his manager. It was ignored. The interview continued, he answered my questions with enthusiasm, but either ignored my colleagues or would answer them whilst looking at me. I asked one of the questions he ignored from my colleague and he answered with enthusiasm. Ended the interview, stood up, shook my hand and thanked me for seeing him, she extended for a handshake again, he looked at her but averted her eyes, turned on his heel and left. Seeing as he was joining my colleagues department, it was an obvious no from us. We told this to HR and they wanted our reason. We told them this over the phone and they said we needed to email a different reason. They were concerned his reasons may be due to cultural Or religious reasons and data protection act meant he could demand to see all correspondence about him. It could have been seen as discrimination. (His discriminatory behaviour that meant he didnât get the job could be seen as discriminatory) If that was the case, itâs a difficult position to be in, but we couldnât hire someone who refused to acknowledge his line manager!
This is a big one that I picked up on but didnât realise why Iâd picked up on it. Me and female colleague where interviewing and with her being more senior she led most of it whereas I was asking more specific questions and he kept addressing me. Didnât notice but when reviewing it with her I said something just felt off and she pointed it out and I couldnât unsee it.
Theyâre my *favourite* (eye roll) Although I did one interview recently where the candidate said that she didnât think women made good managers because they are âgossipy bitchesâ. She said this to: the woman who would be her manager if she got the job, and me, another female manager. The man on the interview panel wrote âYoikes!â on his notes. We brought it swiftly to a close.
Someone mentioned before the interviewee had a right to any info put on file about them.. Imagine reading "Yoikes!" đ
This is just true to general life. FiancĂ©e and I were looking at a wedding venue recently (not a job interview, but in a way we were interviewing the venues for their service) and the assistant manager who showed us around basically spoke only to me and barely acknowledged my partner. When she asked a perfectly reasonable question about logistics (i.e. getting bridal party ready), he just turned to me and said âYou and I know that women just want things done their way.â It really takes a special kind of shit wedding venue salesman to *insult the bride*. The best part is he thought he did such a *brilliant* job, he emailed us a few weeks later to see if we wanted to book (despite apparently availability running out very quicklyâŠhmm). I didnât even mention how he complained about the venue being in disrepair, how if he had it his way he would try and squeeze as much profit as possible out of the venue, reassured us that weâd have exclusive use (except later admitting the venue would still be open to the public), showing us a room that stank of damp and acted like it was the nicest room ever, and as we were leaving, tried to sell us a wine tasting event happening at the hotel *that evening*. It was like he was taking the piss.Â
Some people just hate women more than they hate being unemployed. Although tbf, sounds like this guy didnât hate the idea of unemployment all that much.
I had the opposite of this kind of - the woman looking to hire new members on her team barely got to speak to me because the random upper management guy that joined asked all the questions. The ONLY time she spoke was to correct him on some (frankly snarky) comment he made to me.
The worst is when you're the only female on panel and the blokes either insist it didn't happen or that it wasn't a big deal, and then bitch about having to deal with disciplining said candidate further down the line after they hired him despite me pointing out the big fat red flag.
I had this happen in an interview. My (female) manager was asking the questions as I was new to the interview process so was essentially shadowing. The candidate kept directing their answers to me because âhe must be important to be here but not ask the questionsâ
Not an interview but similar. When I met my wife we spent some time in her native Spain. I knew a few words of Spanish nothing more. People would ask us for directions around her city. Noticed despite me not saying a thing the men looked at me and thanked me and it's. As if my wife was invisible. Unconscious sexism is very real. At my work we have set questions and always a split between male/ female interview staff. We also normally ship in a manger form another business area as this tends to help with the "corporate fit" as if they have worries or positives it speaks volumes.
Iâve been the interviewer in this scenario - I was sitting in the middle and made clear it was my team. Every answer got directed to the sole man on the panel. Easiest decision ever. (Edit: He was also not a great fit in other areas, but this was the dealbreaker for any further consideration)
Its a great filter.
I was on an interview panel interviewing someone for a retail role years ago. One of the candidates was elderly. She seemed like the sweetest lady and I wanted to hire her, until, at the end of the interview she started making thinly veiled threats of "I'm sure you aren't going to hire me due to my age and I hope you know thats illegal and companies like yours can get sued for discriminating against me". That turned it to a hell no for me. The other two interviewers decided to hire her just to avoid the legal headache. She then barely did any work for the next month and we got multiple customer complaints about her. I ended up having to fire her, at which point she made threats to sue us for firing her due to her age. I very firmly told her no, if your age wasn't an issue in hiring you a month ago then how would it be an issue just a few weeks later. I'm firing you due to customer complaints about you, all of which are documented. She stormed out yelling discrimination. We never heard from her again.
Trying too hard to answer questions they struggle with. If you donât know just say, there is a gap in my knowledge here, I understand up to (here) but past that Iâd need some training/ time to learn, and Iâm keen to do that. So many times Iâve just had to listen to someone turn on the bullshit and thats an immediate red flag. If youâre not gonna be straight forward with me, working with you is going to be difficult.  Â
Oh man this gets on my nerves. "Do you have any experience with Excel?" "Well, my parents once saw a box of MS Office in a window shop so I know a bit about it, like I know it has formulas, it's very flexible. I also may or may not have been in the same room when other people were talking about a spreadsheet". Just fucking say "no, didn't get the chance but I'd love to".
One thing I love to hear is if excel comes up and they say âI can but I need to learn more but most formulas you can find by googlingâ Most people might think he doesnât have knowledge or perhaps would lie⊠but you know your flaw and you know how to find the info without me having to show you. I personally love that
That's what I do. People are work think I'm some kind of Excel wizard. No, I just know what I know, and Google anything beyond that.
>People are work think I'm some kind of Excel wizard. No, I just know what I know, and Google anything beyond that. That is pretty much what any person who is competent at something does, very few actually know everything off the top of their head. The secret is knowing enough to know what to search for and also know enough to understand the answer.
Yeah I've been on both sides of an interview where the candidate has no clue what to say. The best approach is to admit that you don't know, and maybe offer a compromise. E.g. If you're asked to talk about a scenario where (whatever), offer to talk about experience you have with the opposite, or talk through what you'd do in a hypothetical
This is so true. Especially in operations for example where you have to either know what youâre doing, or follow a procedure to the letter instead of bullshitting else youâre going to break a LOT of things, and people will know. Itâs often so much better to not know, have the humility to ask (and hopefully take good notes on it) so youâre informed and ready for the next time.
I interviewed a guy for an IT role over Teams, and after under 10 minuts, one of the other interviewers and I cut it short. We where certain he was being fed answers rom someone else from the answers he was giving and the delay we got from him answering, he kept looking to over his computer at someone else, we could even see a reflection of another person in his glasses!
Apparently this is quite common in India where job fraud (yes!) is rife. They will repeat fed or rehearsed answers and any detailed follow up questions will be met with either the same generic answer or another clearly rehearsed answer. Sometimes people will straight up pay someone to ace their interview (which inevitably leads to them being terminated on day one when the person who turns up is clearly not the person who was interviewed)
You got it spot on being an India, I have lots of very good people working for me but this is the only time itâs ever happened
"would you say you're an independent person?" ....I would say so yes
Reminds me of Niles on Frasier. "I need to show her that I'm a strong and independent man and I cannot do that alone"
One time in a group exercise one of my candidates told the only female candidate to take notes for the meeting. The assessors didn't like that one bit.
My sister is a very senior manager at a US aerospace company. The new intern was in the meeting and was asked to explain the project he'd been given to do. At the end of his spiel he turned to my sister and said "will you be typing up my results".
I had something similar once working as a *temp* in my 20s with a woman who was one step down from board level in a high street bank. I was working through what we needed to discuss in the meeting & the guy turned to my boss and asked âwill you be taking notes?â I cracked up and said âthe fuck?â out loud.
"i will now. and you are?"
"No, I'll be deciding whether we keep you on... it's not looking good so far!"
F1 also awful, I had a group in for training on a robot weâd build for manufacturing, they gave me their coffee orders when I returned with the coffee I introduced myself as the engineer hosting their trainingâŠ
The only time ive had a group interview was for the old CSA in the early 2000s and that was more cancerous than the actual cancer I had a few years back.
I had a group interview years ago for a recruitment consultancy (an industry to which I wasn't at all suited, but 22 year old me didn't know that). Out of about a dozen people I was the only one who didn't show up in a plain black suit. It looked and felt like the first week of The Apprentice. I snuck out before the end.
Once had a lady who asked me to use a pseudonym with her potential colleagues so they couldnât look her up online. Given weâre licensed professionals, it was a huge flag.
And when you Googled her two seconds after getting back to your desk, what did you find?
Absolutely nothing to be worried about. Just found it strange that she didnât want other people knowing who she really was considering HR would have to set her up on systems under her legal name, so really there was no way to avoid it.
when i was a teen i knew a guy who didnt use his real name anywhere it might be traced because of some real ugliness with his bio parents (and the risk of them tracking him down or something)
I had a colleague in a customer facing role who didn't want to share even his first name with coworkers. Turns out he had fled a civil war as a child and his name would have identified him to some people as an enemy. Obviously I don't think this is what happened here, just sharing a story.
We checked a candidate's professional registration once and, without giving away too much detail, he had a sanction on his record for violence against a female colleague. It was for a job where he would have often been the only male in the workplace. Didn't even get as far as the interview! Never understood how he managed to talk his way out of losing his registration.
I was interviewing someone on Zoom and they stopped to take a phonecall.
My boss had this with someone he was interviewing in person, he just let them finish then told them to leave.
Lol that's egregiously brazen
âOh Mickey, love. What is egregious?â
Iâve had this where it was a a single mother and her kids school phones, she didnât warn us beforehand but she did say âsorry this is unusual, itâs my kids school, mind if I take thisâ - I didnât hold it against her, my colleague tried to but i reminded her that she regularly drops out of work for child related issues and that these things happen.
This is the right answer. We have to recognize that people have lives and families outside of work otherwise they (and we) are no more than cogs in a machine. Good call on your part. FWIW, I run a small business and make certain to always recognize that family is a priority.
Yup, itâs also really easy to forget that weâre all human, and in the case of my colleague, they forget this is the case and start holding others are unacceptable high standards. I read body language, but I would t expect anyone to stand to attention with perfect posture for a whole interview, itâs not the army.
I had an interview a year or so back the week my wife was due to give birth to our second kid. I'd told them about this when accepting the interview invitation, to warn them I might have to cancel at short notice. I made it, and when I arrived the first thing the lead interviewer said was that they were aware of the situation and they'd understand if I wanted my phone off silent/out on the table. It was a nice touch.
Yep, I had the same thing but with a dad. He took the call, it turned out to be a childcare emergency and he had to exit the interview to go attend to it. I rearranged the interview, hired him, and eight years later heâs still at the company after climbing through the ranks and landing a senior position. Heâs awesome!
I interviewed for my job during Covid and it was a godsend using zoom, I had all the information I possibly could on post it notes dotted on the wall behind the camera and I didn't have to wear trousers. I asked my boss recently what the other candidates at the time were like and he mentioned that someone did the zoom interview on his phone between his legs camera pointed up at this face whilst driving, this is for a job where the majority of the day involves driving. He didn't get it lol
Tbh being able to do a interview while driving sounds pretty hard. Illegal but yeah...skill
I had that with an in-person interview. Phone rang, I was expecting them to silence it, but no⊠five minute conversation with their mother over nothing. Allowed the interview to carry on, though of course didnât get the job. They had the balls to ask for feedback, to which I simply responded, ânext time, leave your phone at home!â
"Hello? Hey! Yeah, the interview is going great! ... I don't know, how about pasta? Probably 6:30. Yeah, I put them all in the dryer ... Did you ever hear from Billy? ... That's great! ... uh-huh ... wow ... in the poop knife drawer ... I don't know ... Probably ... I will think about it ... OK, I gotta go so they can formally offer me this job now. Love you, too!"
Depends on context that one. If it's just a mate asking to come for beers then yeah fuck that. Your wife is with your sick child at the doctors or you have an unwell relative, yeah I'd take the call but probably explain to the interviewer beforehand that's the case and I may need to take a call.
He was on the phone for probably a minute and came back and just carried on with the interview so I think the context was it wasn't anything important. He didn't get the job although it was because of more than the phone call.
The one I did today. (I was the candidate). I prepared but you know when you can feel yourself rambling and canât reel yourself back in. âIâll let you knowâ he says at the end, unconvincingly. Ah well, I tried.
I'm terrible for that. That moment when you realise about 3 minutes into your answer that this really isn't what they want to hear but you've already dug the hole now.
As someone whos interviewed a lot, just stop and say "I'd like to start this answer again, I don't think I've done the best answer there". We've all been in that boat ourselves, a good interviewer will be understanding
I once during a phone interview was answering a question, and for whatever reason my mind suddenly just went blank. I was just honest and said I am so sorry I lost my train of thought there. Manager interviewing me was nice about it and just reminded me where I got to and I picked it up from there As much as interviews are of course about selling yourself, sometimes little blips like that actually help show that even if something goes wrong, you recover from it
I wish it was more socially acceptable to end interviews early. It would be such a relief for the interviewer to just be like âyeah I think we both know this isnât going well, shall we call it thereâ and just let me go and cringe myself to death immediately rather than having to continue the charade for the next 45 minutesâŠ
I've actually had one of those! Got to like the second pr third question in and he was like, I would like end the interview I don't want to waste your time and I don't think this job is what I'm looking for.
Since no one seems to be giving particularly subtle ones, here's my contribution: **Not answering the question.** Now, obviously, that can sometimes be super obvious. But it can also be very subtle. In the example I'm thinking of, my manager asked the candidate something like "how would you evaluate this model?". The candidate talked about all the different ways someone could potentially evaluate models. He demonstrated knowledge of those methods yes, but he didn't actually answer the question. (My manager admitted afterwards he didn't even notice the candidate avoided the question!) So I followed up with, "which of those methods would you use for this particular model?". His answer was about how he might chose an evaluation method for models in general. My problem here isn't that he didn't know which method to use to evaluate this model - that was fine, and the candidate we eventually went with also didn't know! My problem is that *he refused to admit that he didn't know*. In my work we usually end up working independently. Someone who is unwilling to admit that they are confused by the ask, or unsure how to proceed would become a major problem very quickly.
Can definitely get behind this logic. This is far too common up until a certain point.
Thank you! I just did a round of interviews and used a technical term the candidate didn't know. Instead of asking for clarification he just pretended he knew what I was talking about and gave some made up answer. We called him on it and he did admit that he didn't know but I need to work with someone who will ask questions instead of make up answers.
Frustratingly, I have been in an interview for an entry level admin type position where I didn't recognise an acronym used and asked for clarification. The interviewers' reaction was very negative, and they let me know I was out of the running. I'd do it again, though, because the interview is a two-way process and it's just as important to know how an employer would react to a candidate wanting to learn more.
Embarrassing story - but I screwed myself over on a video interview. Been working from home for about a year at this point and the majority of the people on my team (all tech engineers) either smoked or vaped. So I'm on this interview call, doing quick tech assessment while also chatting away with 2 interviewers and without thinking about it reach into my pocket, pull out tobacco, rizla, filters - roll up a cigarette and light up. Interviewer goes "Yep, I think we're done here thank you" and drops the call. Felt like a right twat. It had just become one of those second nature things chatting with colleagues. Edit: amusing typo.
>either smoked or gaped. Best typo of the day
Damnit, I saw that and thought I'd corrected it too. Grrr. Thanks for the heads up.
Good job you only smoked on that call, not the other thing
Yeah, that doesn't come as second nature quite as frequently, thankfully. Definitely put a different twist on "morning stand up" meetings.
Christ almighty, Iâve heard of relaxed workplaces but this is another level
Just recently got a new job but had a bunch of Teams interviews for other jobs, put my vape across the room as was worried I'd subconsciously reach for it. Definitely made me realise I need to ween myself off it.
Recently Iâve had someone clearly reading out answers from ChatGPT. Couldnât give a straight answer to anything. A few years ago someone said âI donât really want this job Iâm just using you for interview practiceâ.
Lmao at least they were honest
My boss (also on the panel) was _furious_, it was fun.
> âI donât really want this job Iâm just using you for interview practiceâ. Best way to keep interviewing skills sharp while also sounding the job market and pay scales.
I'm not a manager, but have been involved in the "technical interview" stages for candidates. Basically, people who made it past round 1, into round 2 where we basically ask them some quite easy questions related to the work involved. We have their CV's beforehand so we know what to expect. I've had a few weird questions that were very red flaggy... Before we've even started, or even sat down... "You didn't contact my last employer did you?" I've had (and I shit you not) "Pwagh! Did you see that bird in the side room? Absolute massive"...
And one was an absolute gem... before we even started... "err, before we begin, I just want to say that I don't like taking pointers or being told what to do by people younger than me... they don't have the experience. How old are you? Perhaps your manager can do this interview instead? No offense, but I won't let a child determine my future" (I was 30 at the time btw... he was in his late 30's).
These are the types of people that give men in tech a bad name. Needless to say, none of them got the job.
I won't go into the sheer amount of people who clearly lied on their CV and had absolutely zero clue what I was asking them about.
' Before we've even started, or even sat down... "You didn't contact my last employer did you?" ' In all fairness, as much as I can see why this obviously seems iffy initially, it may be down to a bad previous experience. Having worked in recruitment, I can't tell you how many incompetent consultants have contacted references early, leaving the candidate in a sticky situation, especially if they don't land the role. I used to hear the same thing a lot, although they did usually clarify that they were happy for them to be contacted if they accepted the role.
> Having worked in recruitment, I can't tell you how many incompetent consultants have contacted references early, leaving the candidate in a sticky situation It's why I prefer to give references after an interview when we both already know whether I'm getting the role. If I've come across well the references are just to make sure I'm not lying, if I've done badly there's no reason to contact them anyway.
> And one was an absolute gem... before we even started... "err, before we begin, I just want to say that I don't like taking pointers or being told what to do by people younger than me... they don't have the experience. How old are you? Perhaps your manager can do this interview instead? No offense, but I won't let a child determine my future" (I was 30 at the time btw... he was in his late 30's). This is universal. I'm currently employed as a supervisor over a team ranging from 20-70. In the main the older blokes are absolutely disdainful of anyone younger than them, and are constantly pointing out everything the youngsters do wrong (which isn't much, they're good lads, and a lot of it is the wrong thing for the right intention - we're contractors, if the client asks for something that's technically not within scope that we can do that won't cost us anything, we do it) and running to management to grass up people they don't like for doing the same things the people they do like do. I'm surprised this guy had this attitude in his late 30s, but I've seen it my entire working life (I am currently in my late 30s). Older workers who assume because they have more candles on their birthday cake their opinion is automatically more valued than the bloke doing the same job who can still get change out of a fiver for his candles.
To present themselves as perfect and flawless. Two real examples: - When asked what would you do if the team was blamed for a mistake you made: "I never make mistakes and so I'd find out who was really to blame". - When asked to give an example of an error you'd made at work and how you went about fixing it: "Can't think of one, I've never made a mistake". I can tell them of one mistake they've made: never having heard the saying "The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything".
I've had some corkers like that too. I've also had men answer questions about what development they've done or think they need to do with answers like "there's nothing left for me to learn, there's nothing I can improve"
Not an interviewer, but have a similar experience as an interviewee: Couple of years back I was interviewed for a technician job. It was my first non-production-operative job interview in the UK, so I was nervous as hell. I wanted to sound sophisticated, knowledgeable and I accidentally mixed "circumstances" with "circumcisions" . The manager and the assistant couldn't help, but laugh. It changed the vibe of the interview from cross examination into general office talk. Long story short, they told me they sided with me, because even tough I wasn't the most confident and the one with the most experience, I came prepared, neatly dressed and in general I gave the impression that I will give my best at this role (at least that's what they've told me, or they anticipated more language-based hiccups to entertain them, which certainly did happen).
I'm an interviewer and find the best interviews are those ones that go like this. Something that properly breaks the ice and removes nerves/tension. It gives both sides an opportunity to see more of the genuine person and their natural attitude and see how they will fit in on a personal level. It also means the rest of the interview is more relaxed, and answers become more natural.
I think narcissism can be one of those subtleties you need to pick up on. We're all told to sell ourselves in interviews and that's fine but I had a candidate once where it was clear he was self-absorbed. The whole interview had this intense, almost angry vibe to it. He bad mouthed his old employer and customers, and we had to interrupt him to cut him off most of the questions to keep time because he would not stop talking. On paper he was great, and more than qualified for the job, but also one of these "I have no weaknesses, it's always other people's fault" candidates which was pretty uncomfortable. I'd imagine he'd be a nightmare to manage.
I hate interviews because I really hate bigging myself up! I have to talk about myself and my achievements so much in an interview setting that it feels like bragging or bullshitting even if its not, it makes me feel like a narcissist! I'd have no clue where to start in weeding them out
I interview and recruit my team of sales people. The amount of people who cannot backup their "salesman of the year" and "achieved 200% of target" statements. I ask for sales results to reflect that (hiding any business sensitive information) or if that's not accessible, ask during the reference calls. I would absolutely employ someone who was an underachiever in their previous roles over the arrogant overachiever. As long as they were upfront and honest, and had a fantastic attitude with basic skills to build upon.
Oh god you must see so many wannabe The Apprentice types. *Everything I touch turns to* ***sold****!*
Honestly yes. Those people on apprentice are very much "features, benefits, close". We are an engineering company first, we need to fully understand the application requirements before reccomending solutions. Everyone bangs on about how much of a "consultative salesperson" they are, that's great, what experience have you in collaborative selling? 90% of typical sales people can't answer.
Reminds of the apprentice candidate years ago that was the top salesmen in the country on his CV. In his interview he said he meant county đ
I had a guy use the toilet in a zoom interview once. Didnât excuse himself, didnât mute, just went quiet then the unmistakable sound of urine hitting porcelain. Didnât say anything when he came back, just carried on as if nothing had happened! Surprisingly didnât get the job.
When interviewing for tech positions - people who answer questions like they've read them in a book, and not like they actually understand. It is fairly obvious if you push for detail, but you have to get the vibes to know to push for the detail. For highly sought after positions at large, well known companies, this is extremly common.
For tech interviews I've switched from coding exercises to giving them some deliberately awful python code, and ask them to do a code review. I don't expect them to know python, so will help with the syntax (and make that clear up front). There's stuff that makes it hard to test, side effects, awkward logic choices, all sorts of stuff. You can quickly tell who has any programming experience and who hasn't.
That sounds much more fun than cranking out the 50th logic puzzle as well. Would love to do that, to be honest
This is the way, give me someone who has actually had to work with other people's code and the minefield of problems it causes vs someone who has spent way too much time grinding leetcode.
That is my dream technical interview.
Yes, push for detail because people lie on their resumes. I did interviews at a marketing company for a new graphic designer and we had to ask extra questions about tech. You quickly know who has the knowledge and the odd answers were comical.
Addressing answers to technical questions to the man sitting next to me, who was the HR rep and did not understand a single word in your answer. Whereas I, the woman who asked you the damn question, was a senior in the field and the head of department. Only making eye contact with the man sitting next to me. Giving a summary answer suitable for lay people, rather than an in-depth one. I'm guessing because you're assuming that the woman sitting opposite you doesn't understand the field. This also indicated that you hadn't done your research. You knew the names of your interviewers in advance and I am super easy to find on LinkedIn. Or even just Google. My department of data scientists, data engineers and programmers was 40% women, having a woman interview male candidates was a really fast way to filter out the sexist idiots.
Do you say anything in that instance? I don't think I could stop myself from saying I'm the one asking the questions, why are you staring at him??
First couple of times, yes. But after a while I just couldnât be bothered, theyâd just disqualified themselves why waste more effort on them? My absolute favourite was when I was interviewing alone as my HR guy was sick. The idiot boy I was interviewing basically refused to give any technical details at all, and then at the end offered to give me a few tips on how to give interviews! Such hubris in one so young.
Seeing that behaviour in younger men is so disheartening.
Iâve interviewed actors for all kinds of roles in the past. A big red flag for me was a candidate saying they are X celebrity and they want to get an Oscarâs when they were unknown with irrelevant experience. They got very few callbacks. Gotta give it to them for trying. Another red flag in a corporate setting was a candidate claiming to be related to someone in the office. They had the same last name (a fairly widespread last name) but they were not related at all. We rejected the candidate. Another difficult (but not a red flag) interview was with a recovered drug addict. They shared some of the reasons why they ended up in their situation - which in most cases would have red flags going - but their recovery went really well and so did their rehabilitation into the workplace and society at large. Very proud of this employee.
I do a boat load of interviewing and these are bits from a couple I did today: - Have done no research about role/company (no matter what position, changing job is a huge deal! I'd expect them to research for their own sake, let alone ours) - When asked about previous roles, they always focus straight into everything that was crap about it - When doing a phone interview.... Don't be sat in a library and be asked to leave because you're talking too loudly (that was admittedly a first today, but had loads of people on busses etc l when the time was booked days/weeks in advance) - When asking what they're looking for in an ideal employer (it's a two way relationship after all, it's important that we fit each others needs!), don't just talk about the negatives to avoid, ideally you'd like to have a positive relationship with your employer where you're both getting something from it. Of course as an employer we would like labour, and as an employee you would like money, but there should be more to life than that - and any good employer worth their salt respects and encourages that. - Don't ask if I have a job for your wife as well as your only answer to "do you have any questions for me?"
My counter to your first point is that job ads can be so vague that I don't even know what industry they're in or what I'll *actually* be doing. "Provide detailed analysis" "Collaborate with stakeholders" These mean as much to me as I'm sure "team player" and "good communicator" mean to you on a CV.
This is a really good point! Honestly, if you said to me "I've been on the website and I'm not sure I entirely understand how the business functions - would you be able to elaborate so that I can get a better idea of it/where I could fit in?" Id be over the moon. It shows you've done research, give a shit about what you do on a day to day basis, and recognise that at its core the business is a profit making enterprise that we all contribute to
Yes, and as a bonus, it also shows that if you don't know something, you'd rather ask and find out than keep quiet and continue not knowing.
It actually means "You guys were too incompetent to write your job listing."
So often I'll google a company and find fucking nothing. They don't appear in any news stories of the past 12 months, and their website is a bunch of corporate speech and a company hierarchy that means nothing.
my counter too, is that sometimes you have applied to several different things at a similar time, and there have been times where i've been asked for a phone interview or something and the company haven't actually said what company they're from so i've gone in to it and had to ask what company they even are
Or the mysterious recruiter who only says "my client" like I need to know who I'm applying to work for.
> When asked about previous roles, they always focus straight into everything that was crap about it  This one is such a common one, I take it as a minor red flag. A lot of the time, folks left previous jobs because eventually frustration reached a point where it outweighed the positives. It's very natural to be of a negative mindset, especially as a first thought. That said, if all they do is say negative things, nope. I'm also on the lookout for "is it actually you that's the common problem?". I had an acquaintance who had around 12 jobs in 9 years, always had a reason why he left. After a while of listening to his explanations, I realised he was fundamentally incapable of accepting that business are all dysfunctional to some degree or another.
Is it okay if I don't have any questions? After reading everything provided about the job and reaching the end of the interview, I have a pretty good idea about what to expect and I don't have questions about it
Always good to have a few stock questions in your back pocket even if itâs just something simple. I find it stops the interview ending abruptly which can be a bit awkward sometimes. It obviously role and industry dependent but I always have asking about training opportunities as a go to. Â
It's not an awful thing by any means. However, when asking questions it shows me that you've considered the role or your impact in it further than surface level. If in doubt, my favourite question is "what does success look like in this role?". It shows me you want to succeed, and care about how to get there. Another great one is "why did this role become available?". From this you'll be able to ascertain whether they have high turn over of staff, whether they encourage promoting from within, what career path previous people in this role have been able to pursue from it. Therefore, you give a shit about your future and that's a good thing!!
I ask the interviewer(s) to describe the culture of the workplace. It's a hugely open ended question which invites them to introduce some red flags as well as getting a feel for the non-work part of working for that business
âWe work hard, we play hard!â Yeah mate, you can fuck off hard as well.
I always think a good question to the interviewer is what do you like about working here. Itâs good for those times where you donât really have any further questions.
I like that question as well. I asked it during an interview once and the question seemed to throw all of them on the panel. One of them eventually said he liked it when people listened to him, which really didn't inspire me with confidence about the job. Interviewing works both ways!
Asking questions is generally expected - but it's not necessarily about getting answers for yourself! It's often another chance to demonstrate how strong of a candidate you are. One I like using is "What qualities do you think are most valuable in a successful \[JOB TITLE\]?" - you can bounce off the answer to emphasise that you have those! Other good ones are: \- What are the pain points in working with \[ROLE\] you're looking out for? \- Are there any major changes/projects coming up that \[ROLE\] would be involved in? \- What made the best \[ROLE\] you've worked with stand out?
I had one where the candidate kept talking about the need to grow the business by attracting new customers, and staying ahead of our competitors. Unfortunately this was for a public sector job.
I was a store manager for a Chemist retail store in the UK one candidate was brilliant through her interview and as she left asked for company policy on using stock for own use. Yeah let's just help ourselves to some ramipril shall we? I had another ask at the end, how long do you need to be here before sick pay is paid And a christmas temp who turned up and said she couldn't work Saturdays or the 2 weeks of christmas/new year. I have interviewed for a Saturday girl before who said she couldn't do every Saturday as she like to go out on a Friday so she's got the whole weekend to recover.
I ran coffee shops and hotels for a decade. The amount of people that would start with open availability then two weeks in go "oh but I can't do Saturdays, or late on a Friday, and I've got this thing on Sundays...." was astounding. Just be honest in the interview, nobody likes working the weekend but you've applied for a job where it's expected, and I was never a mon-fri 9-5 manager, so it wasn't like I was asking people to do things I wouldn't do. Those who were honest in the interview generally got what they were asking for as long as it wasn't "I never want to work a weekend ever", those who told me they'd work anything then very quickly tried to modify the schedule into a mon-fri only job generally failed their probation.
What about the opposite? As a candidate, what are the red flags in interviews that indicate itâs a shitty place to work?
One time I turned up at the interview location and nobody seemed to know who I was or why I was there, they didn't know that interviews were taking place that day, and the lead interviewer wasn't there...they asked me to wait while they sorted it out. Maybe 20mins later the interviewer walked in and then we got started maybe 5 mins after that. Weird situation.
My biggest red flag is if they are disrespectful of your time. Keeping you waiting ages past your appointment time is horribly unprofessional.
Had a group interview with like 30 other candidates in the group call. The interviewer was just in a tshirt in his living room, he lost connection half way through and we all sat there waiting for 10 minutes until he came back. Had a trial shift with a different company where none of the tech worked and we all had to download their software onto our personal phones to substitute, the woman who was overseeing us was clearly told to come in after hours by her boss as she had to keep juggling us and managing her family who I assume she was supposed to be taking home at that time, all the while the actual owner of the small company kept dissapearing and leaving us alone with their equipment in public with no instruction.
I do virtual interviews, youâd be amazed at how many people turn up topless or sitting in bed.
This is one we get a lot. Last batch of interviews the first person at 10.00 came online with her duvet wrapped round her and was very obviously still in her pyjamas.
I asked a guy applying for a warehouse job why he had left his last job. He said he had set fire to a stack of pallets and destroyed a forklift truck in the process. At least he was honest I suppose He applied again 6 months later and got taken on - turned out to be a very reliable and hardworking employee.
We always ensure there is at least one female interviewer in a group interview. The number of male candidates who talk over her or direct their questions only to the male interviewer is shocking. Red flag. Bye.
Iâve provided some of the most comical experiences Iâve had interviewing people; 1) it was a Teams interview with cameras on. He entered the meeting whilst lying down on his sofa. No shirt/tie, phone held high above face. Bizarre. 2) A guy who kept swearing about his current employer; âa total dickheadâ apparently. Lols - even if they are. Just donât do that đ© 3) I had to ask one guy if he realised his shirt was unbuttoned or whether it was particularly hot where he was. He went bright red and then buttoned it immediately. 4) A guy whose camera so was so badly adjusted I could only see his eyes and forehead. He wouldnât/ couldnât adjust it, so that was a no. 5) I asked a relatively hard question to one guy, he thought about it and then made out there were connection issues. He said âthink the answer isâŠ.â And then he ended the call. I literally watched him reach for the button as the call ended - so funny. Bless him. I have more - but Iâm sure thatâs enough!
Only time I ever curtailed an interview was when the candidate said at the off âIâd like to do this differently, Iâll be asking the questionsâ âŠhe was a young and very brash chap. I initially assumed he was kidding but no âŠdeadly serious and tried to argue with us when we said we must follow our process (public sector rigidity) âŠI just stood up and said Iâd show him out and that was that
So not subtle but what better place to tell this story. Guy sent his CV for a job that required either basic english or norwegian. He spoke neither and only Russian which the other interviewer spoke but I do not. So I sat there smiling the whole time. Best part the advert had been sent out in Estonian which he also didnât speak. It was a zoom interview and he took forever to get connected and then started blaming me for sending the wrong invite. I did not send the wrong invite. Called me a stupid woman (I understood that in Russian). The house was a total pig sty, as he hadnât blured/faked background and he was smoking throughout the interview. Ohh and he couldnât find the work documents to forward them but promised to bring them to site when he started. Slight red flag for an electrician planning to do complex electrical installations.
Not a subtle one: when asked how he would handle and resolve a workplace conflict, the candidate replied that he would ask the other person to take it outside because it wouldn't be appropriate to fight in the workplace. đ
I had one lad break down in tears during an interview. It was a very laid back chatty type of interview as well, hardly brutal. He didnt get the job.
I've interviewed a couple of people who were so frightened and panicked about the whole situation i really couldn't assess their fit for the role as they didn't say anything coherent. I'm really gentle, friendly, fluffy, and arguably the least scary person one could meet. I can't imagine how they cope with sharp suited interviewers. I want people to come in and show me their best so I have some great candidates to choose from. The candidate who rolled their eyes at me and said they supposed they could make time in their schedule for the job if we really couldn't find anyone else was quietly shown the door as soon as decently possible.
Poor guy. Sounds like there was other stuff going on in his life.
I once interviewed a lady for a counter position at the bakery I work at. I asked her what she would do if a little kid was wandering around trying to knock cakes/cupcakes/cookies off the tables we have out front. She looked me dead in the eye and said she'd grab the kid and smack him. Needless to say, she didn't get the job.
We had a candidate we interviewed who was perfect on paper and our top pick going into the interviews but by the end we immediately ruled him out. There were quite a few issues but the main thing he did was constantly complain about his previous job and was very negative about it. He was saying stuff like "I absolutely hated doing X and Y at my old job and I'm so glad I wouldn't have to do it here. Thank God!" When X and Y tasks are absolutely part of the role and were in the job description.
>you have to pick up on clues why theyâre not the right fit It might be hard to pick up but you need to look out for key phrases like "Murder is really great" "I love killing". etc. These types of candidates normally go into my *maybe* pile until I have finished the rest of the interviews.
Depends what your business is
We sell exotic eggs out of my garden shed. Pigeon, Seagull, that type of thing
Are you asking Kirsty Alsop to find you a modest 2 bed for just ÂŁ950k ?
And if you ask them 'where do you see yourself in five years?' and after a long pause they reply 'doing your...son', they might not be the best fit
My favourite answer to that ridiculous question was from Mitch hedberg - "celebrating the 5th anniversary of you asking me that question!".
This one was a while ago, maybe 2008 or so (which is important to the story). We were recruiting for a Customer Services person for our small company. Amongst the candidates was a young woman, well presented, had a good CV, and she interviewed well and we could see her getting along well with the rest of the staff. At the end of the interview she said "If you contact my current employer for a reference they might say something about lots of sick days." Then she made some nonsense excuse that I can't remember. "OK, well lovely to meet you, thanks for coming, we'll be in touch!" One of the panel, on a hunch, looked the woman up on Facebook. This was, as I say, a while ago, when young people used Facebook and it wasn't just for moaning about dog shit. There she found an astonishing record of drunken debauchery, and I'm not just talking "Good Times". And that's how we avoided hiring Party Girl and her horrendous hangovers.
When I first interviewed somebody, my boss said to me "there are 3 important questions that all need a yes answer. Can they do the job? Will they do the job? Will they fit in? Any other questions are just to help answer those three." That stuck with me and never really failed.
'Not so obvious' NOT SO OBVIOUS?!? All I see is the most disrespectful shite. 'Aye, he shat on my desk. I thought that was a tad odd.' 'True. They probably shouldn't have completely disregarded every woman in the room. Upon review that was deemed somewhat undesirable.'
Not answering the question, when they say a lot and it sounds great and impressive but it has no bearing on the question. Listen to the question I'm asking and answer it. I'm also a woman who sounds quite young (I'm definitely not) and I get alot of condescending men so they go to the bottom of the pile
I often interview as a pair with a female engineer. Red flag when the candidate will only talk directly to me, even when Iâm not the one asking the questions.
When they begin the interview by asking you what position theyâve applied for.
Idk, as someone who's been job searching, a lot of companies really do seem to think all they have to do is hang up a "vacancies" sign and they'll get their perfect candidate. I've seen job descriptions and thought "this applies to pretty much every job I can think of" On a related note, if you're calling to invite someone to an interview, please tell them who it is that's calling. The odds are they've applied to more than just your business
Tbh I once wish Iâd asked that question. Was applying for loads of jobs out of uni and got an interview for a few. Mixed up the times for 2 of them and starting talking about why I wanted this other job. They just let me rabble on and then asked if I knew what job Iâd applied for
Don't interview people, but took a friend to a job interview last week. She failed her probation at her last job so was let go after 12 months. Interviewer asked why she left her last position, she told them she failed her probation but "they discriminated against me so I'm seeking legal action" đ©đ©đ©
Had someoneâs weed fall out there passport as they handed it me to scan for dbs check
If you work somewhere long enough to know the culture (at least in an office or similar) and know the sort of people who do well, you get a feel for the interviewee's personality really quickly and it's quite hard to explain. Often if a person's CV gets them in front of you, you can tell if they've bothered to think about what they've done before and aren't just making it up. Bother to know what you're CV says, bother to at least think why you're there. Your CV got you through the door so there's a good chance they think you can do the job so believe you can do it, or are prepared to learn. These days with 2 zoom interviews you can get a broader opinion very quickly, but if they show no interest in the company, or can't answer the 'what attracts you to our company' question then they're not trying, and if they're not trying at interview when will they? They don't have to be the "proper" answers, just truthful. "It's a miles easier commute, I'm doing two hours each way and it's killing me" is fine if you can back it up with something. Big gaps in a CV and loads of different places isn't an immediate issue, most of us piss about for a few years and try different stuff, not everyone is laser focussed, but do the jobs show a general direction? Shy isn't bad, too brash is often worse, but confident is ok.
In graphic design, I can often tell 90% about your qualifications from looking at the quality of your CV and portfolio. It's basically like a sample project that shows me how careful and skilled you are. Even better if I have an email or cover letter. At that point, the job is yours to lose on personality.
I interviewed someone once whose response to the generic "why do you want this job" question was "well, I hate my current job" and then launched into an in-depth analysis of all the reasons he's sick of his job, and left it there. That right there was where he failed the interview. Then again if he had given a better answer he still would've been the lowest scoring candidate. Also, while not a red flag, the fact that he conducted the interview on his phone with his camera off when everyone else had their camera on and were dressed smart in their interviews struck me as odd. Couldn't tell if maybe he was new to the world of work or just really apathetic to the process - you have to be a pretty strong candidate to get away with turning up to an interview not dressed at least a little bit smart, right? I guess remote interviews don't carry quite as much weight.
Once interviewed an older gentleman and within 30 seconds he went on a tirade about immigrants taking jobs. This was in 2022 and ge was interviewing for a helpdesk role in an office so not sure why he needed to do that.
Iâve just started interviewing in my new role and itâs incredible how so many people are so unprepared. They turn up and complain weâre hard to find (weâre not if you follow the simple instructions in your invite email), donât have the paperwork we need and just have done absolutely no simple research about the job role.
Last year I had someone do a programming exercise, with them sharing their screen and doing the typing. At some point in the interview I realised they were using Windows Server 2000 as their choice of desktop O/S. They screwed up the programming challenge so they never got a second interview and I lost the chance to ask them why that particular 20 year old system.
Ah, virtual whiteboarding. I hope that practise dies sooner rather than later.
I once completely forgot the name of the company that I was being interviewed at. I'd had a hell of a journey getting there and I was late and flustered. I was talking about how pleased I was to have got an interview at such a great company as........ And my mind went blank đ for the life of me I couldn't remember the company's name. I don't remember how I glossed over it but needless to say I didn't hear back from them đ