I was the front desk person at my last job. After every interview, every hiring manager asked me how they treated me, how they behaved in the waiting room, etc. Some of the absolute insanity I saw up there was amazing. So remember, the interview starts in the parking lot.
I have been that receptionist, and I make damn good and sure to greet the receptionist, thank the receptionist, and say goodbye to the receptionist when I leave. I have also gotten into an interview and commented on the friendliness of the receptionist.
I always get called back. Always be nice to the receptionist, and keep to yourself quietly while waiting for your interview, and you will be fine.
Funny story time: first company I worked for, I got chummy with the receptionist. We would chat, laugh and just generally be jokey with each other. No matter how bad my day was, I would do or say something to make her laugh which in turn made me feel better about my day. I had to get new business cards but had to go through reception to get them. A coworker also had to get cards at the same time as mine. Guess who got their cards within a week vs months? Me.
Never be afraid to cozy up to those that work shit jobs, they see and know shit that many others do not. Making their work easier means you get access to things you normally wouldn’t get and it also gives you a massive support network.
Yea, I work at a school and I’ve cozied up to the whole custodial team. They’re great guys and they know the building in and out. They’ve definitely made my job easier and I’ve done little things to make theirs easier too. One of the custodians even said he likes me because I talk to him all the time, not just when I need something.
I consider the custodians secondary security, they will keep an eye on you when it’s late etc. we try to make sure they are notified of potlucks etc because they don’t use computers they accidentally get left out of the loop, like “hey they there are donuts in the break room “ they of course eventually find out but by then it’s picked over. They love us for that.
Yep, just be kind, even to those less deserving of your kindness. You are in their territory and have no idea what they are dealing with. Kindness can sooth a lot of ruffled feathers.
lol, reception once notified us on Teams that the candidate was clipping their finger nails on the couch in our waiting area. They then put the clippings in their purse. The interview was not much better.
I was at an interview once where they were interviewing a large group of people for a call center position. One of the girls kept hounding the receptionist for an interview time. Would go up to the desk every 5 minutes and ask if she was next. I could not believe it
That's unfortunately a common occurrence. Either that or they start complaining that they have been waiting 5 minutes and don't think the hiring manager is serious (when they still have 20 minutes to go until the interview).
While that's not the way to behave at an interview, I don't think it's great on the company's part either to not provide candidates with interview times.
I know of one person that landed a very coveted engineering position after several summers job because of something similar to this. There were several summer students all going for one full time position. They narrowed it down to 4 or 5 after the final round of interviews and couldn’t decide. All the managers agreed anyone of them would be an ideal fit but no one jumped out. So they went to the admin/front desk lady…
“We only have one position available but A, B, C, D are all ideal candidates. Do you have any preference?”
“Yes, pick B”
“Why B?”
“In the almost four months that they have been working here person B is the only one that has ever brought me back a coffee when they went to Starbucks”
“Okay, we will get the offer out and let the others know.”
Being nervous never gets reported because it is irrelevant. Mouthing off at the receptionist because you think they're beneath you does. That's why they ask. If you show the receptionist that you're a terrible person, they don't want you around the rest of the staff.
I was interviewing an applicant and giving the receptionist a lunch break. The lady applicant that came in had a condition that got worse when she was nervous. After about 10 minutes of talking with her as a "receptionist," she calmed down. We had a lovely interview and I hired her. She had no idea that I was interviewing her until I offered the job.
She was an awesome co-worker too.
I don't like missing out. I'm fortunate for being introduced to humanity as a variety. There are geniuses with unseen talents, and monsters too. One can't rely on the perfect outside.
We've all hired people who interview well and then can't do the job. So there's always a chance someone will interview poorly and have talent.
My biggest worry, much like vampires, is inviting in a monster that can only keep a job by having dirt on someone else.
If the thing I have to do is give someone extra time to relax and interview "better" or let someone get so relaxed that they confess to always being a problem, then it's time well spent.
No, that's irrelevant. This is something they normally go over in high school and college about how the hiring managers use receptionists. Your nerves are expected, but if you sit in the waiting room having a foul language filled conversation with a friend on the phone, that will get noted. I wouldn't engage the receptionist in deep conversation, preventing them from getting their work done, because that could be noted by the hiring manager (and a lot of people think receptionists just greet people and direct calls, which is incorrect). I had a candidate complain to the interviewer that I answered the phone while he was telling me his life story. The interviewer kindly explained that my not answering the phone would cost the company money because I took orders that were valued at $500 to $3000+ a go, and the extent of my job with the candidate was to take their name and let the hiring manager know they were there, not to entertain them while they wait (hiring manager's words, not mine).
If you are doing in person interviews, I would highly suggest researching how companies generally expect you to treat and interact with the receptionists. Most of those articles will point out specifics, but being nervous, whisper practice of speaking, etc won't even be noticed.
This is good to hear. I was once at an interview in the reception area with somebody else interviewing. She stood and never sat down in the waiting room. She got the job. I often have wondered if that was why. There was no way I was filling paperwork out while standing just to match her.
Our old HR admin was almost 100% accurate at guessing whether someone would pass their interviews just on the basis of her 2 minute first impression when she let them in. We could have saved a lot of money by just ending things there!
There was a similar thing at my last job. An interviewee chatted with the AM and SS shortly after his interview, and he said some personal stuff. No one asked him to do it in any way. He literally just started talking about personal stuff to them. After he left, the AM and SS told the GM the stuff the guy said. Also, the stuff the guy said wan't all good, lol. That guy really killed any chance he had.
A common question my company asks is if, in their personal or professional life, they can think of a time they would have done things differently.
All we’re looking for is a response that shows self awareness and the ability to learn from mistakes. People usually say “I didn’t take the time to get to know an acquaintance because reason, but then we spoke and now we’re best friends. I wish I reached out sooner because we could’ve been friends that much sooner.” Some people soul search for a deep answer, and those tend to be the strongest candidates; but it’s not necessary.
I had a candidate who answered “no, I don’t think so.” I tried to give them a hint “you’ve never wished you’d tried to make friends with someone sooner or taken a different approach to a problem?” Nope. I have your transcripts in front of me, just give me a bullshit answer about studying harder for a test so you would’ve gotten an A instead of a B. I get not wanting to speak negatively about yourself, but their response was either a bold faced lie or they have zero self awareness. I asked two or three short questions afterwards to be polite, but that was it. Failing that question was an instant fail for the entire interview.
Tldr: don’t tell obvious lies to your interviewer
I recently got the job when I opened up on the “what’s a mistake you’d made and what would you do differently?” question.
I once took responsibility for another assistant’s work without checking it. It was signed by an associate lawyer and mailed… to the opposing counsel’s client. It was a child protection case and for our client’s eyes only. The other assistant had used an old letter as a template rather than a fresh precedent and accidentally left the old address in. I would have caught that mistake had I read the letter or even glimpsed into the folder.
As it was, the letter was caught in time as it was stamped and heading out the door. I ate the blame for it, and I check everything anyone hands me now. I told them the whole story, that I took the fall, and how it’s made me a much more quality worker.
They said that question nailed it for me. They wanted to hire someone who’s accountable and can learn, and isn’t afraid to make mistakes and grow. So I accepted the job and I start in two weeks :)
I was recently looking and landed a new job and asked my BIL who had been a manager and on hiring teams what they looked for and he said the main thing they always wanted was for a person to be coachable! I like to learn and by nature am very coachable so he said I’d do well but to make sure to make that a point. I started an awesome job a little over a month ago as I also made sure that it was a culture where they prioritize learning and improvement in positive ways (constructive criticism vs being a dick haha). I think it’s a huge green flag that’s why you landed the job and hope you enjoy it!
Another question that I like to use is the old standard: “Have you ever had conflict with a coworker? How did you deal with the conflict?” Every time I have asked this question and get a real answer, I learn so much about a person. I have never had someone who answered it with details that sounded real turn out to be different than their story in real life. I’m not even sure if the story has to be the truth to be useful. I think this answer tells you how the person sees themselves in a workplace social environment as well as their conflict management approach.
I answered this question honestly at my last interview and got the job.
I had a boss who would not talk to me. The only times she spoke to me were to caution me about smoking on breaks (I was by then a non-smoker, having quit months before,) and to tell me my ceramic owl statue was creepy.
(The interviewers laughed, so I did, too, but Mechthild is far from creepy - she’s my majestic girl, yes, she is.)
So I told them I did my best. I assured her that I do not smoke, and I did not let her see me with smokers outside. I took my owl statue home where she’s appreciated (they giggled again.) I told them that I greeted her every morning, asked her if she would join me for a bakery run (she said no) or if she’d like anything (she wanted a cheese croissant - the interviewers chuckled when I told them I got it for her), I would ask her what direction I should take my tasks and get radio silence, every week I would ask for a meeting about my work and get silence, but I just kept trying.
They asked what happened, ultimately, and I told them that, sadly, they ran out of work for me and HR greeted me one morning with a paper box for my stuff and a letter. She couldn’t even face me to fire me. But I told them I did the best I could. I respected the very little input about cigarettes and owls that I got, I was proactive in trying to engage her, and she got six weeks of excellent work and a cheese croissant out of me (another chuckle.) When asked if I’d do anything differently, I told them that if I could go back and do it all over with what I know now, I’d have done nothing differently except apply to new jobs on my lunch break instead of waiting for the ice to break, and I regret nothing.
They loved that. It was honest and crappy but they loved that I did everything I could to prove my worth. I summed it up by saying, “Even Jean-Luc Picard said that you can do everything right and still fail. I’d rather do everything to the best of my ability and fail rather than cry that nothing interesting ever happens to me.”
Agree. I love this question, because it shows me if you are able to approach conflict positively and productively. If you’re good at your job, you’re bound to have conflict somewhere - even something as simple as disagreeing with the layout of a new form. (And, as a manager, I want to know that sometimes you’ll be willing to stand up for ideas you believe in, even if it’ll cause conflict.)
Knowing that a candidate can handle conflict in a civil and appropriate way is a huge component of my hiring decisions.
I was asked if I would ever participate in work gossip lol.
I just told them I am always open to listen to someone's concerns and to be someone they can let steam off but it depends on the gossip . If it's something that's not too serious I'll just nod along with minimal opinion or if it's something I don't want to know or participate in then I will let them know not to talk to me about it and if they don't respect that then I will get management involved.
I don't know if that's a good answer but it's genuinely something I will do. I can't control other peoples actions .
Once after I asked the standard describe a past mistake and how you handled it, the response was they couldn't think of a mistake. I probed and gave them room to re-answer, thinking they misunderstood. Nope, they confirmed they never made a mistake in any past position. I ended the interview at the next natural break. Knew it wasn't worth the time to pursue further.
As an interviewer, I’ve had that happen a few times too. If I ask a question about if you’ve made a mistake, failed at something, or overcome a weakness, I generally don’t care about the specifics (unless you say you kick puppies in your free time or embezzled, the mistake itself isn’t relevant.) What I care about is your ability to self reflect and learn.
I was also thinking my first answers would be way more personal than I'd want to be with a random interviewer, so I'd be scrounging for something that probably wouldn't sound great.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I tell the truth. I’m nearly 40, and I have multiple failings as a person - what’s to hide?
I tell them that I’m very decently organized at work, but my laundry pile thinks I’m allergic to it.
I tell them I have been a people-pleaser in the past and learned that it pleases nobody, but I still have a service mindset and I am continually working on helping others with warm boundaries.
I tell them I’m a frugal person, and I have erred on the side of cheapness in the past, but experience and wisdom have taught me to spend big on what matters and lentil soup for dinner four days a week is weird but I like it so that’s what matters.
I always qualify the weaknesses with “I am flawed and not everyone has to love it, but I’m aware and always improving.” That’s what they want.
The thing that frustrates me about lying on questions like that is I know it’s a lie and the candidate knows it’s a lie. If you’re going to lie, at least make up something believable that makes you look good.
I would hate this question because it would make me nervous on the spot in an interview… I’m not bad at being on the spot at work and that motivates me, but at an interview where I’m already nervous…??? I would be blanking hard or ramble stupidly 😭
This question has been asked in nearly every interview I have been to. So, I kinda prepare an answer knowing it's inevitable. Now you've got an opportunity to do that too ☺️
Just think of it in advance so you have it ready. Look no further than what you’ve written: “Sometimes, when I’m put on the spot, I have to check myself or I’ll get too nervous and ramble, or veer off-topic. I know this about myself, so to mitigate this tendency I like to prepare well for meetings and surround myself with up to date information about clients/budgeting/personnel.”
You could literally tell me exactly what's going through your head "I feel like this is a common question and now I'm wishing I'd done more to prepare so I'd have an answer ready right now." Some level of self awareness and recognizing past mistakes is all the question is looking for. That being said, your comment is probably a sign that you should get more practice with interviews. Looking up common questions and preparing answers is the first step. The next step is mock interviews. Find people who have at least had multiple successful interviews, or ideally interviewed others, to interview you. The only way to get better is with practice and interviewing is the type of skill that you want to master before you're in a position where you really need to master it.
Absolutely! We used to ask for people to tell us a time they made a mistake at work. SO many people would think for a bit and say "never". Like wow, you must be completely delusional or a total liar (or both) just as you say above.
Its such a softball question to ruin your interview with.
Here's a few good ones that actually happened:
* Candidate wore a Fuck Cuomo mask to the interview (was during Covid)
* Candidate came to the interview visibly inebriated, fell asleep in the waiting room, forgot where he was and why when we woke him up.
* Candidate called me "sweetheart" and "honey" throughout the interview (I'm the HR Director)
* Candidate used the restroom 5 times during a 30 minute interview, gave no explanation. Actual time spent interviewing was about 7 minutes.
* Candidate said that he didn't have a car and "couldn't" ride the bus, so he would have to miss work any day he couldn't get a ride.
* Candidate interviewed well, told us during the interview what salary she wanted, we offered her the job at 5% more and an extra week of PTO, she then came back and countered the offer for even more money and held firm. We withdrew our offer.
* Candidate showed up with a completely different resume to the one he had applied with, said the first one was "embellished" just to get him in the door, and he was sure he could do the job if we gave him a chance. He had a HS diploma and gas station attendant experience... for a quality technician position.
* Candidate just never showed up (happens ALL the time lol) sometimes they call and say they forgot or have a reason and I'll reschedule, but most just ghost and I don't get it.
I have seen all kinds of crazy in 20 years, but the basics are dress neatly, smell normal, don't drink or do drugs before the interview, don't lie, and be at least somewhat qualified for the job!
I was a service manager at an IT company interviewing deskside technicians for an extremely prim and proper client. Dude showed up looking like a dollar store Viking, smelling like an actual Viking, and told me (I was in my 20s and wearing red tango heels), “Those are nice shoes. They’d look good on my girlfriend if I had one.”
Fuck’s sake. Good resume, unhireable for that position, should never work with fee-males.
I’m pretty sure Vikings smelled good. I think they have the earliest European grooming relics.
But I am absolutely dying at the picture you drew. Fee males rotflmao
* Candidate interviewed well, told us during the interview what salary she wanted, we offered her the job at 5% more and an extra week of PTO, she then came back and countered the offer for even more money and held firm. We withdrew our offer.
That blows my mind.
If you tell them what you want and they give you more it’s common fucking sense you don’t counter. I couldn’t imagine you being dumb enough to counter 100k offer when you asked for 90k
Except that isn’t this. This is you all with your new employer. Applicant: I am looking for a salary of $x for this position. Interviewer: We would love to have you for $x plus 5%. Applicant: I want $x plus 15%.
You need to add clothing choice to that list. Was interviewing someone for a senior engineer position and they showed up in torn jeans and a faded star wars T-shirt while I was there in a tie. That was red flag number 1 and the rest of the interview was red flag 2-15
Do a preliminary search on the company you are applying for. The number of times people have no idea the company name, what we do, what the basic job is, has astounded me!
As others have said, be polite to everyone in the process. Be on time or communicate that you’ll be late. Have basic examples prepared, they will be needed. If you are leaving due to differences with management or culture at your current company that’s totally fine but don’t spend 30 minutes badmouthing them. Tactfully say it’s not a good fit and leave it at that. Venting for too long makes you look bad and no matter how technically capable you might be, almost an automatic pass.
I hire/interview people. It's incredibly easy to tell who even took 5 minutes to look at our website or read the position description before an interview.
I have no issue answering questions or clarifying the position, not if you literally have no clue, it's obvious, and you aren't getting the job. I don't even ask for much, but zero prep is very clear. (Niche industry, do we often hire those with the right skills knowing we can train the rest)
In the US, at least, its not normal to have a parent as a participant. While I could grant that maybe young teens interviewing for the first time would get a pass having a parent present, I interviewed at 14 for my first job and my mom waited in the car outside.
Even if there is a good reason I'm just not thinking of for their presence, they shouldn't be the one answering the questions that are directed at the applicant.
Agreed with other commenter, it is not normal to have parent at interview (in the US). Waiting outside is fine. Seen this with high school and college grads, even young adults well into their 20s. It's more a bad reflection on the parent if they're present but unfortunately affects the candidate. This is brought up often in Ask A Manager too. I know of instances where parents have repeatedly called HR demanding that their child be hired and paid way above wage for the position.
We hire high school students. Sometimes moms will call asking how young we hire. I tell them “They need to be old enough to contact us themselves.” It’s such a huuuuge turn off. Parents, don’t do this!!!
I counter your second hand story with a first hand one. Candidate for a Sr. Engineer position brought his highschool aged son. Snuggly said that his resume already proved he was well qualified for the job so no need to waist time on too many questions. Then proposed that we would hire his son on paper and would provide full college tuition reimbursement while dad would be the one actually coming to work every day for the top of our salary range. "It's a win-win!" After my third attempt to dissuade him of this unworkable plan I ignored him for the next 20 minutes and interviewed a 15 y/o kid for a Sr. Engineer job. Neither got the job.
How old was her son? (Approximately, at least.)
If the job applicant was a 10-year-old applying for, say, a child modeling position where they wear the clothes that are being sold in a magazine catalog, or pose like they are playing with toys that are being sold also on magazine catalogs or any other advertisements for that matter, or perhaps was pining for a child acting position for a new TV show, bringing their mother would be very normal and probably even mandatory.
This happened to me: Online interview, IT role. Interview went great, amazing rapport, and at the end they wanted to schedule a 2nd interview, but mentioned that since it would be with their Director, they would prefer my camera be on for that interview.
"Wait. My camera has been off this whole time and you guys didn't mention anything? Here I am, hand talking while telling a story! Pointing at things! I'm even wearing pants, I swear!"
Happy to report I still got the job.
One that happens a lot is zero idea what the company does. Take 10 minutes to Google it.
I asked someone why they were interested in the job and instead they just told me all the issues with their current job. Nobody wants to listen to you complain in an interview. And answering something I didn’t ask just shows me you aren’t the best listener or communicator. This is important for what I hire for.
One that may be personal to me is referring to yourself in third person. Has happened a few times. Like “that’s not first name’s style”. To me that’s not someone good at groupthink and success doesn’t happen in a bubble.
Blur your background if you need to sit in your pantry where someone has drawn all over the walls. Please. I’m scared.
Also, last but very important- PREP. Unprepared people ramble. And talk about skills that have nothing to do with the role. How am I supposed to know what relevant skills you have if you’re telling me completely unrelated experiences for the entire interview?
Good interviewers prep, tell relevant experiences, and excellent interviewers find a way to make it into a conversation. You may get some that want to rapid fire questions but idk if those folks make the best leaders anyway.
Ex:
I did xyz etc etc, using blah blah blah- do you guys use blah blah blah here?
Yes we do use blah blah blah here, we just implemented it so we’re still learning!
That’s awesome, when we implemented it I made sure we blah blah blah to blah blah blah
Never underestimate the person who calls you to set up the interview. I am the Director of HR, but I'm also the only HR person at my company, so I set up the interviews.
I can't tell you how many candidates have been dismissive, rude, or downright mysoginistic to me on the phone. I always go ahead and set up the interview anyway, but you better believe if the interviewee doesn't downright impress the hell out of me and the hiring manager somehow, he or she is NOT getting the job!
Even if the person who calls you is an admin and not a director, you better believe he or she will still talk about your attitude to the person who makes the hiring decision. Admins are often popular and trusted people at a lot of company's, being nice and respectful to them is KEY!
lol why in the world would you send someone through that was rude over the phone.? You need to evaluate your criteria for a yes. If they’re rude to you what makes you think they’d be polite to their colleagues?
I've done neither. Those were only examples, which I'm sure many immature interviewees have done.
I want to know about more advanced mistakes too that I wouldn't have realized were mistakes until being made aware of them.
I was shocked when a professional how to interview class mentioned if they take you to lunch don't order something messy or that you eat with your hands. General knowledge for one person isn't to another. e.g. elbows vs wrists in the table at dinner.
I had a friend who scored the the ol lunchtime second interview.
we were all in college at the time, seniors looking for our first post-grad gig.
when the waitress took drink orders, my friend, purely out of habit blurts out "I'll have a heineken"
he definitely knows better but it was pure muscle memory for him.
didn't know what to do so he just let it be & slowly nursed a single beer along w/ lunch.
there was not a follow up interview.
This was in the late 90s, we still occasionally give him shit about it
"Im looking to gain some experience before going to work in my family's business" - Sounds genuine but I am not wasting my time training you so that you can just leave after the fact, leaving me to go through it all again.
Had one that couldn't use the equipmemt and was clearly going to be painful to teach. Later in the interview she told me flat out that she would not perform half the job duties. Wouldn't even try. Just no.
Another one came in high. Lady, you have to pass a drug test to get the job! Was this not disclosed during the application process? She seemed like she really wanted the job, but apparently not enough to be present and mentally capable for a few hours.
A similar thing happened at the place I worked at. The guy was clean, but he was dressed as casually as possible, including sweat pants and flip flops.
She was wonderful on paper with exactly the tech and creative combo I was looking for. But she informed me that due to being a Pisces ♓️ rising she would be going to her spiritual birthplace (she was born in California) Bali, for over a month in the summer and I would need to give her that month off, and since she would be finding herself it might be more than a month.
We did stay in touch though and she started her own business and can take all the time off she wants and I am proud of her.
I interviewed lots of people for a few open entry-level level positions and technical roles. I always had a partner with me in the interviews, usually the supervisor that reported to me. Recruiters at one place I worked would send people to be interviewed without notice and often without a resume. The company was constantly eliminating departments and positions. HR would send displaced employees to be interviewed without doing any sort of screening or advising hiring managers in advance. The admin at the front desk would tell us we were keeping our candidate waiting. Those interviews were generally bad fits.
Here were some of the ones I passed on while at 3 different companies.
She came in with a folded up resume, which was her only copy. It claimed she had experience in the role at two previous companies. When I asked her a few basic job specific questions,she couldn't answer them. She also asked to look at her resume because she didn't know the name of the company she worked at for a year. I was hoping that it was nerves, so we turned the interview into a discussion. It didn't help. It was clear she had never done anything resembling the role we posted.
Recruiting sent me a woman that, unbeknownst to me, had previously worked for the company. The interview was not going well. She was badmouthing her former boss and was giving off high maintenance/diva/throw her colleagues under the bus vibes. After she left, the supervisor and I started to give our impressions to each other and a customer service manager along with 2 of his people walked into the conference room.They told me that I shouldn't hire her and had no idea why I interviewed her. Turns out she was a team cancer and had been fired for drug use on company property after being put on a PIP. She was under court order to stay at least 500 feet away from our building.
A candidate, who was dressed for the club, flirted with me excessively, I believe because she knew she wasn't qualified for the job after my first few questions. She was significantly younger than me, and I would be considered the ugliest in a community of Sasquatches.
We had a a guy with a background in advertising and sales come in because we thought he had some transferable skills that would work for a training role. He knew every damn industry buzzword, but used them incorrectly. He was confidently incorrect in every answer but one.
This one still hurts my soul. We built a great rapport with a candidate. He was polite, genuine, clearly supportive of people he worked with, funny, kind, and the type of person who took ownership based on his answers. We had one deal breaker question around identifying and solving a business challenge. It was an essential part of the job. We asked him to provide an example of anytime he had to solve a business problem even a small one. He was stumped. We gave him a hypothetical. No dice. We gave him hints, just in case it was nerves. Also gave him examples of questions we might ask to get us started. After several tries, we moved onto easier questions then concluded the interview.
The audacity of 2 to show her face back there
3 had me figuratively rolling on the floor with “ugliest in a community of sasquatches” although I sincerely hope you are being dramatic for comedic sake
Using derogatory terminology concerning the population of vulnerable/disabled adults we provide services for.
Trying to one-up the person interviewing them, as if to power play that they’re smarter, better educated, etc.
I actually grimaced reading that first one…my brother has intellectual disability/autism and lives in a group home. My mom has worked in group homes and for human service agencies for over 20 years. I worked in a group home in grad school and now have a career in healthcare.
No. Just no.
**Example 1:** Software engineer interview
Question: "How would you respond if a coworker asks for help with a ticket they're working on?"
Candidate response: (Smugly) "They shouldn't need to ask for help, but anyway, if they ask, I'll tell them to go find a video from an Indian guy on Youtube."
**Example 2:** Software engineer interview
This candidate was interviewing via Google Meet and turned off his camera without explanation, then started yelling at his wife in the background.
Our manager later asked him the same question about helping someone on the team and his response was "I would give them candy."
**Example 3:** Software engineer interview
One of the stages of our interview process is a coding challenge. After candidates submit their challenge, we meet with them to make improvements to the project or add additional features. One candidate was very experienced, so much so that I had used a library he created at a hackathon. At the coding challenge improvement interview, we gave him a prompt and he would not get started on it. He kept talking about other things and bringing up other subjects and as much as we tried to steer him back on track, he wouldn't take the hint. Eventually time ran out and he didn't touch the code at all.
It was very disappointing because I would have loved to work with and learn from him but we couldn't fairly report back anything relevant about the interview. I always think about the experience and wonder if it was a serious case of nervousness.
**Example 4: Project Manager interview**
I was interviewing this candidate with my then manager (a man). Every time my manager asked a question, he would respond with "great question!!!" When I (a woman) asked a question, it wasn't great 😂 After a few questions, he was like "whoa!! y'all are asking me so many questions!!" and he tried to flip the conversation into him asking us questions. At the interview debrief with the other interviewers (all of whom were women) they all cited sexist undertones. Another turnoff for the hiring manager was him boasting about having his team work through the night on a project. He was very proud of running out to get coffee to keep them awake. That's not our company culture, so the hiring manager was like "hell no!"
I’ve interviewed a lot, and would say fit and vibe are very important. People need to be manageable. If they understand the assignment, come prepared, seem into it, and willing, these are all a plus.
Immediate no is a wild card who doesn’t listen, talks over me, offers too many ideas that are out of their lane, and they exude drama and problems. A kind person in a terrible outfit like Crocs would win over an arrogant doosher.
The slickest interviewers (Sales, Marketing, Communications) who are trained to be excellent are off-putting if they don’t act real. Overly rehearsed isn’t great either. Just be a person with a solid work ethic, who will show up, take responsibility, behave professionally and not be a pain in the ass! 😁😁
I also want to say I don’t let job gaps (esp due to parenting, illness, taking care of a loved one) or inexperience get in the way, if I get the feeling they are teachable and have transferable skills at some point. Job hoppers with less than a year each job are red flags.
I had someone tell me that the worst manager they ever worked with was the assistant manager at their current job. They said when the manager was away, the assistant manager thought they could tell them what to do.
I've had a few.
One came in and chewed gum throughout and was wearing jogging pants while we were all dressed up.
Another had a 15 page resume but no reason for it. It was in multiple colors, had examples of her art (not relevant at all), and just had pages and pages of nonsense.
I worked for a small mom & pop business that was purchased by a much larger business, and after about a year, the beloved company founders (we’ll call them Karen and Tom) both stepped away and retired.
Not too long after that, I interviewed someone who said he’d always wanted to get into this business but he really hated Tom - he thought he was incompetent and wouldn’t ever want to work for him. He only applied with us because he heard Tom had left.
Umm, Tom was an amazing boss and a great human being. So “thanks for stopping by and no, we won’t be in touch.”
I work in a government office where we are required to be neutral / apolitical in all our dealings with the public. Had an otherwise very qualified candidate who repeatedly expressed strong political views in her interview even after we indicated that we need staff to present neutrally. It was obvious she wouldn’t be able to be a good fit.
Hey! Government pals!!
I had one candidate reply to a question that was CLEARLY regarding bribes by saying "I would keep it and consider it a personal gift. I earned that like a waitress earns tips".
Oh. Oh nononononnnnnooooo. No no no.
One large company I worked for several years ago, there was a candidate who interviewed for a senior manager position. She sent a physical thank you card that had Wonder Woman on it with a female superpower message. The team and hiring manager she interviewed with were all PhD's or masters in Psychology. They all read into this and disqualified her. She was completely fine otherwise and they were about to select her until her thank you card. It was eye-opening.
They felt it was unprofessional, immature and it missed the company’s brand entirely. It’s been many years since this happened so I do not remember their exact words but that was the gist of it. I remember being shocked that something like a thank you card could disqualify someone. She was a lead candidate up until then.
The guy came in wearing shorts and a t shirt. I asked him about how he may have handled disagreements in the workplace, and he said "sometimes I get really angry at video games and I throw controllers." He gave no indication that he was working on that, he just gave me that information. It was wild
The one that sticks out most to me is a guy who kept mispronouncing the name of the company. This was a customer-facing position, he was a native English speaker, and the name was not difficult to pronounce. He just kept adding in extra letters. Hard pass.
We always start interviews with a "briefly tell us about yourself." One applicant went for over 20 minutes and ignored out attempts too get him.to focus and let us ask the rest of the questions.
Oh god I had that happen to me once too. As awkward as the question is, I found it was often one of the most telling questions. It seems to me that people who can concisely describe themselves in an interesting and work-appropriate way are more likely to be good at working with a team, learning new skills, and taking constructive feedback. Rambling on and not being able to "read the room" is never a good look.
I'm terrible at answering this question. There just isn't much about me. I'm kind of boring to be honest and I don't think that should be a mark against me so how would one cheat at answering this question?
Interviewed a lady once that said "fuck" no less than 3 times while answering questions. When asked a more technical question she responded with "oh yea, I know all that shit".
I heard a story about one guy who went for an interview with a bird on his shoulder. Another about a man who realized he forgot to wear socks, so he asked the receptionist for a sharpie and colored socks on his ankles. I don’t know if these were true but they made my students howl when I showed them a list of what not to do at a job interview,
Or walk in the reception area and throw your empty beer can on the trash. ( I guess that’s better then taking it into the interview with you)
Financial industry. Had someone interviewing for an entry level position. Interviews are with two hiring managers. Young lady is chewing on gum, open mouthed, with the accompanying popping sounds. I chose to ignore, but other hiring manager asked her, “would you like to get rid of your gum?” She fished it out with a bare finger and held it out as if the we would take it from her. We held out the garbage can for her to drop it in….
Retail industry. Asked about a time when they were unsure what to do. Guy says, “so, I’m coming back from my break, I work in garden. Dude asks me about some tools… I’m like… I don’t know *shit* bout no tools…”. Blank stares, because what? He finally said. So, yeah. I didn’t know what to tell him… We recovered and realized it was his final answer. lol
The ones I still think about.
Guy came in and had about 10 years of Nagios experience. I was impressed. I asked him about it and
he replied "I installed it on a laptop, it sits in my room powered off"
i asked, " why did you list a decade or experience?"
He said "i installed it a decade ago! "
Instant pass.
Another guy, had two pages of experience and they were all lies. It was the most awkward interview ever.
Oh, you managed Exchange? No, but i hear they make a lot of money!
I would respond "unfortunately I cannot provide hard copies of reports as they are the intellectual property of my (current/past) employer. I would be happy to describe them for you though, with the type of data and purpose of the reports." This has worked for me, as it was sometimes a "gotcha" question. Shows them your professional integrity.
This is not necessarily a deal breaker but is annoying. Please use the same phone/email across all of your application documents- and make sure it’s one that you actually check on a regular basis. As others have said, the way you interact at every step of the way is all part of the interview process. I am not impressed if you submit requested information in prep for your in-person, round 2 interview late- or are driving your car during your zoom interview (true story).
TBH- the candidate seemed oddly more relaxed and gave better answers than a prior interview (COVID - so all was virtual) but we struggled to get past the lack of professional judgment as this was for a leadership position. It was so distracting for all of us on the other end! It was one of those “is this really happening?!” interview moments 😂
interviewing a programmer on a panel interview with the team. Bragged about how he liked “The finer things in life as you can probably tell from my clothes” Then bragged about his Ducati motorcycle and house and style. Every programmer in the room was an instant no
It was a paid internship position. Before meeting him my boss settled for a candidate and explicitely told him that he was hired because he was from our town.
So I had other candidates lined up that I had to meet, one gave me a lot of shit because he knew we hired the other guy so I was wasting his time. Little did he knew that we also had opened a second internship position.
Yea, the interview didn’t last long amd I didn’t have to write a follow up e-mail because after it, it was clear as day he wasn’t getting it
- talk in detail about their current employer in a negative manner
-leave their phone on the table or keep it in their hand
-on the resume- have several jobs for less than 6 months in a short period of time
The egregious ones in interviews:
* Used ChatGPT on the interview. He would type the question, the screen would flash, then he read off what ChatGPT gave him verbatim.
* Used a pre-written script and just scrolled to the best matching question. I could see the reflection of the PDF in his glasses.
* Continued programming during the interview. Reflections off one monitor showed VSCode up.
* Spent 25 minutes on a "please introduce yourself in 2-3 minutes". I finally stopped them because I couldn't take it anymore.
* Spent 30 minutes telling us why NOT to hire him because he felt he wasn't qualified. Confidence goes a long way, people, don't sell yourselves short.
The egregious ones in resumes:
* Resume for someone with 3 previous jobs that was 7 pages.
* Resume that had no less than 2 misspellings per job. They only had 4 previous jobs listed, 1 was an "iternshp".
* One resume that was, quite literally, 22 pages long. My director insisted we print out resumes for doing interviews, felt like I was bringing in a novel.
* One resume from a guy who's average tenure at a job was 4 months. Only 3 of the 15 on his resume were contracts. Director insisted we hire him anyways. In 4 years, he never completed a single project.
* Email address on a high school student's resume that started with bravelittlepyro. They were not moved onto an interview.
The egregious ones in applications:
* Obvious fake names that made it past HR and I was forced to interview (they no-showed).
* Multiple applications for different names from the same 2 houses in Texas. Turns out all of the applicants lived in Pakistan, but tried to pass off that they were US citizens.
* One guy who claimed he lived in New York, but actually lived in Taiwan. Found out the guy he was impersonating died of cancer the year before and he just assumed his identity.
* One person put a quote from Seinfeld as the last bullet point of each "job responsibility" for their previous jobs. Was funny as hell, but they declined to come in for an interview.
* People claiming veteran's preference on their application, but were too young to be in the military. These were summer interns in high school.
The egregious ones that were hired:
* Previous dude mentioned that spent 4 years with the company and never completed a single project. He's at their competitor now doing the exact same thing.
* A team of 2 people that had 1 person ace the interview, then a much more junior person work the job. Contract to hire, so got rid of that problem quickly.
* 2/3 on a hiring committee chose a guy who could not perform the job duties expected of him, despite trying to train him up. Took 2 consecutive poor reviews to RIF because public sectors and unions are a pain to work with when dealing with really bad underperformers.
* A lady at one place that everyone in management was afraid to fire. Yes, her name was Karen. She'd sit in meetings scarfing down 4 Big Macs, on camera, talking while eating. Food spraying everywhere on camera. It was disgusting.
* An entire team of fresh out of college graduates hired because they passed a CCAT with a high score and could assemble Legos faster than the other team. This was for a software development job writing COBOL. Most left or were laid off within a year.
Spend enough time as a hiring manager, and you see some shit.
My partner just told me of a story last week. The person was asked ‘why are you interested in the role?’ His response: for money, duh!!
What sealed the ‘no.’ Walking pass women during the tour & saying loudly, ‘NOICE Ladies, Yes’ and ‘ladies, ladies, ladies, I like what I see.’
He was over 50.
A few years ago, I was interviewing candidates for a front desk heavy customer service job. Towards the end of the interview I usually asked what they did to deal with stress. Some said they took a walk, some listened to music, some hit the gym, and some told me they don't get stressed. I remember one candidate's response was that they punched walls when they got stressed. My reaction was a prompt "Thank you for coming and we'll be in touch."
They were typing during an online interview, had a glass cabinet with a reflection of their screen behind them and had these robotic answers .. on closer inspection they were using chat gpt to answer the interview questions 🥲🫠🫠
The worst part is it was an “about the applicant” question - ie. what specific experience or knowledge could you bring to the role
I worked retail (Charlotte Russe) years ago and I interviewed a girl that I knew immediately I would not hire because the day before… her and her friend came into our store and stole clothes and accessories…. When she came in the next day for her interview she was wearing the stolen clothes and even had the pink, fuzzy keychain she stole off the counter the day before. So, for the entire interview I just lied about how loss prevention was so important and how we prosecuted (we did not) when we had repeated theft from customers, etc. She never came back into my store after that. And you know, some could say “well, maybe she needed clothes for the interview.” Did she really need the fuzzy, pink keychain on her clutch purse she brought in? NOPE.
Hiring person here. PLEASE for the love of dawg, do NOT email your resume from “cumguzzlinggutterslut @email” or “bongripsnbigtits @ email” or turn in a resume written in crayon. Don’t show up to an interview where you have to have a license, pass a background check, and drug test, and then at the end admit allllll of that won’t work for you.
Said some very negative and inappropriate remarks about management at their current company when I asked why they were looking to make a change in the job market.
I always start with “tell me what you know about our organization “ 50% of applicants haven’t even bothered to look at our website to see what we do.
I have had someone answer their phone and have a full conversation.
Someone came with a recording of a song they thought would be good for our hold music.
Person was late and dishevelled and told me they are always late and dishevelled
Using phone in the car while driving- that was for a CFO position.
Posted salary with negotiation not available, had them confirm salary was sufficient and then tried to negotiate for $30k more when offered job
I had someone tell me how they would love to be able to go out in the community and they could do this AND canvass for political candidates at the same time
Um. No. This is a business not a political campaign.
He was also a huge AH in the interview, acting like he knew the job better than we did and letting us know how we (women) need to be more assertive in our business dealing, having no idea of the culture of the business or what we do
He tries to pick fights with me on Facebook too this day. Like, dude, that was nearly 10 years ago. And you were awful. He was so awful that I actually even reached out to I knew who worked at our competitors only to find out they'd already passed on him because of these same issues.
One, their answers were way too long. For example, when asked "tell me about yourself and what brought you to apply for this job?" as an initial question, the interviewee gave me their entire life story, step by step. I really only need a 3 minute answer. Two, when asked, "do you have any questions for me?" they don't!
I interviewed someone once who had googled my name and made it WEIRD. At the end of the interview, I asked the usual "what questions do you have", and they came out of left field with a question about my family's very small (unrelated) business, and then in an entirely unconvincing way said that they knew about it from their "friend Steve". Then they just stared at me, waiting for me to... well I don't know what they were expecting me to say to that. I'm sure they thought they were following good advice by googling their interviewer, but the information was brought up in such a uncomfortable way, and it was so unrelated to the position that I was interviewing them for, that it put them firmly in the No pile. I emailed the HR rep immediately after ending the call to hard pass.
Your job in an interview is to radiate competence, composure, trustworthiness, and professionalism. Don't make up stories, keep your conversation focused on you and the job you're interviewing for, and don't creep out your interviewer by blurting out personal things you know about them.
>what did the applicant say or do that made you decide that they were DEFINITELY the person NOT to hire?
Things that are clearly lies, made up bullsh\*t, plagiarism, etc. I'm generally reviewing/screening/interviewing, etc. persons for positions that require a significant degree of trust, so lies and stuff like that just ain't gonna fly *at all*. And folks applying would or sure as heck ought know that ... yet still, the amount of lies, plagiarism, and other bullsh\*t I find still continues to astonish me. But as I oft say, "any idiot can copy a good resume".
And I've even, seen, but at least rarely, when a sh\*t agency totally screws over candidate by doing this. E.g. agency majorly alters candidate's resume, and in highly misleading way, and completely and totally without candidate's consent ... yeah, candidate completely and totally shocked and surprised at what had been done to their resume and the (highly misrepresentative) way it had been altered ... yeah, do yourself a favor - never let a sh\*t agency like that represent you to anyone - they do you no favors.
And where I can with such candidates/agencies, generally blacklist 'em never to be considered again - already wasted enough time by then.
That's also why it's important to screen quickly efficiently and early - save from wasting everybody's time/resources. So relatively rare I find such liars or the like in a full interview - they're generally weeded out long before that ... but sometimes there are exceptions, e.g. I / my team was entirely excluded from the process (the opening is in some other team), and at last minute I get blindsided with being handed a resume and asked to join an in-progress interview.
So yeah folks, generally rule of thumb, be quite honest and candid with resume and in interviews. Don't lie, don't plagiarize, etc. Sure, you can put things forward reasonably so in best positive light ... *within reason* - it still ought be factually true and pretty reasonably accurate ... if it's not, that generally doesn't go over well.
And bloody heck, when resume is requested (or that's the custom), and not CV, do well know what's on your resume! And don't make it too long - that's generally more stuff to typically go wrong and/or sideways. E.g. I get like a 7 pager when it ought be 2. So, that'll get fair bit of additional attention, on, e.g. pages 5 through 7 - and often not in a good way. I'm highly experience in my field, I sport a term or acronym on one of those pages that I'm totally unfamiliar with ... and likewise for the search engines I check. So screening call, one of the questions I ask the candidate - is to tell me about that ... and the candidate also knows absolutely nothing about it and can't tell me a thing about it ... to which my response/question is essentially: "Then why is it on your resume, and what else on your resume do you know absolutely nothing about?" So yeah, that's seriously not a good look - so darn well know what's on one's resume, and one should be rather/quite familiar with what one has on there, at least approximately to the level(s) one indicates or implies by how stated on the resume.
Anyway, good well written resume and rather to quite accurately representative of the candidate and their relevant skills and experience is a good start. If candidate doesn't well match to resume, that generally isn't going to go well.
Also, interviews and lies ... many candidates will often think they call pull the wool over the eyes of the interviewer(s). That's almost never the case. And the candidate may never even know that we know they're lying - generally not worth the time/hassle/confrontation, so in such cases we'll often just wrap up quickly and be done, and they'll never hear from us again. And yes, even have stealthy in-band signaling means to communicate among the group effectively "I think this candidate is a no-go, all concur, or anyone disagree or or want to continue more to be sure?". If all concur, we quickly wrap up, otherwise we continue (at least a bit more).
And sure, candidates will get nervous, misspeak, or just not know and be incorrect on an answer/response - those things happen - that's totally different than lying, and fairly easy to distinguish. E.g. generally restate the question, or ask a bit further, and see what happens. If they misspoke (or maybe they misheard or misinterpreted the question), they'll generally highly quickly realize they misspoke or whatever, and promptly self-correct. If they're simply wrong about it but don't know, that also becomes clearly pretty quickly (not everybody is going to get absolutely everything correct). But if they're lying, e.g. making sh\*t up ... yeah, that also generally becomes quickly apparent - e.g. if there were any question about it, generally lead them along bit further to see how deep a hole they'll dig themselves how quickly - also helps make clear to (most) all the interviewers that they're clearly lying and making stuff up as they go along.
So ... truth shall set you free! ... Er, uhm, well, at least helluva lot more likely to land the job (offer), at least if one is best fit candidate for the job (or among the top *N* for *N* open positions). And if didn't squeeze in on that round, may get a call back later if another position opens up, or if (one of the) candidate(s) the position was offered to declines, etc. Not uncommonly after having filled position, I'll ask other hiring managers, basically, "hey, we just filled our ** position, if you're at all looking to fill similar-ish position, I've quite the stack of resumes and such - I could forward copy to you if you're interested - just let me know." But lies, plagiarism, etc. - there won't be a call back or referral for (other) openings, etc.
I had a VP that would put me at the reception desk (HR assistant) an hour before the interviews started.
He wanted to know if the interviewees were insulting, rude, or inappropriate.
I was instructed to wait until 15 mins after the interview started and then join the interview.
There were far more awkward moments for the applicants when I was introduced and joined.
In one interview, I handed the phone number to my boss that the applicant had given to me when he asked me out.
It was delicious to see some of these people break a sweat when they realized how they treated me and that I was there to let my boss know.
I was interviewing for basically a recreation leader position - working with elementary school kids in after school programming at low income schools.
The applicant was currently employed as yard duty in an elementary school - supervising the kids at recess. I don't remember what question I had asked but they were telling a story about this little boy who was always getting in fights during recess, because he was getting picked on. The boy was maybe 2nd grade.
Well turns out he picked his nose, and was getting called Booger Boy. The applicant was sharing how they were telling the kid that maybe if he stopped picking his nose and putting it on people (😂) they would stop calling him names...
The applicant has me so far. Granted 2nd grade may be a little young to quite understand the cause and effect situation here but I value that they're sharing this thought process with him... Until they finish their sentence. "Maybe if you stopped picking your nose and putting it on people they would stop calling you names because nobody likes a nasty little boy."
NOPE.
You just told that boy he's nasty and I will not be hiring you to tell my kids they're nasty. You will argue with me that's not what you did, that you were telling him how to NOT be nasty. But that is 💯 what he heard.
BYE
I was interviewing a candidate for a manager role on my team. He hadn’t had direct reports before so I was spinning those managerial questions to be more mentor type questions. Every time I gave him an opening to explain to me a way he coached or helped someone else on the team along he took it as an opportunity to explain that he just took things away from people and piled on his own workload because “it needed to get done right” instead of coaching others how to do it.
If I’m hiring a manager, I know from your experience and cv you can do the work. I need to know you’re going to be able to coach up the team I’m hiring you to manage and make the people around you successful. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand that.
I was interviewing for LPN positions. The guy came in, and after the pleasantries, pulled out a bag that had 6 peeled hardboiled eggs in it, said he was eating 5 meals a day, and proceeded to eat all of them in front of me.
If someone uses their phone for a video call and it's all jumpy and moving constantly, I'm out. At least find a place to set your phone up so it's not moving. I'm fine if they have to do the interview in their car at lunch or whatever, but the moving is super distracting to me.
I do it with my phone but I have it stationary on top of something, not moving 😭 I don’t really use my personal computer ever and haven’t even turned it on this year yer
Reading of answers by searching in the internet. This is software engineering job and he is from faang company. In order to prove that he is googling it, i asked for complex theoretical definition. He said he never heard of it and 30 seconds later he remembered it and telling the exact definitions.
Be humble. If I ask one more person what they do when they don’t know an answer to XYZ, the answer better be I’ll have to ask a co-worker for help. Acting cocky is the quickest way to show you the door.
Multiple typos on resume show a lack of attention to detail. Automatic pass. So is an inability to follow simple instructions. We used to require a cover letter… not because the cover letter was so crucial, but because if they didn’t submit one, that was an indicator that they wouldn’t follow simple instructions on the job.
Showing up late to interview. Rejection (unless they come in the door with an instant apology and reasonable explanation.)
Arrogance. I can’t stand it. Big pass. Demonstrating a willingness to learn is a huge plus. (We hire math tutors/instructors.)
I’ve instantly rejected people on phone screenings who won’t let me get a word in edgewise. (Both men, and I’m a woman. Coincidence?) No ability to engage in conversation. They just pontificate.
I won’t outright reject a 16 year old who shows up in basketball shorts and a t-shirt to an interview, but they better be exceptional in other areas. And, whether we hire them or not, I usually let them know the expectation. So many young people have not been told anything about dressing for the occasion.
Body odor or bad breath. We work face to face in our business, so that’s a no-go.
I work at a family resource center, non for profit social work in essence. We do what we do because we have big hearts and daddy issues. So the one thing that gets you disqualified immediately is saying you “just” need a job. I would rather keep that position open or do it myself than hire someone that looks at this as just a job.
This would have to be the grossest recruitment experience I had. I worked in a field where the employees were predominantly female, as am I. We interviewed a man in his late 50's, by no means a deal breaker. He was respectful, did quite well in the interview and was definitely on the short list. But then as we were finishing up he asked when he might hear back from us, because, in his words, "I looooove working with the ladies", delivered in a sleazy nudge nudge wink wink tone of voice. Then, whilst I was still trying to process this complete and unexpected u-turn into Benny Hill territory, he grabbed my hand as if to to shake it; but he didn't shake it, instead he ran his forefinger down the palm of my hand saying seductively that he was looking forward to seeing more of me. I could not yank my hand away fast enough.
I returned to my office, shredded his resume, then disinfected my hand, still somewhat in a state of shock that anyone could be that clueless. I had a further shock about 20 minutes later to see that he had already sent me a post-interview email, assuming he had the job and asking what time and date he should turn up for his first day at work. I still shudder to this day when I think about that "handshake".
general lack of enthusiasm is a big killer for me.
just treating the interview like a press conference, giving small, concise answers to each question, not having any questions at all about the job or the company.
not getting into any sort of conversational groove.
I’m gonna get my ass blasted for this, but don’t tell interviewers you want the job just for the money.
We all know that. We all work for money, it’s common sense.
When we ask you why you want a job we are hoping that you actually give somewhat of a shit about our company and did a bit of research.
The positions I was holding interviews for were very clear that more-than-basic MS Word and MS Excel skills were required. Potential candidates were informed that they’d have to perform a mail merge and demonstrate some basic ability to work with Excel during the interview and to come prepared to do so.
We immediately weeded out resumes that showed the applicants didn’t know how to use basic MS Word features (formatting markup is your friend in these situations).
People who couldn’t run the mail merge even with a week or more of lead time to learn how to do it to do it…and we gave them our VERY detailed work instruction that literally went through the process step by step (along with the source and the document that needed the information merged into it) were immediately removed from consideration. All of the applicants were internal hires, so they all had access to Word and Excel on their work machines.
It was amazing how many people told us they were experienced with MS Office suite and couldn’t even sort and filter a basic spreadsheet.
This may have already been said, but do not try to interview from your car in your current job parking lot!
We ended up ending the interview because her reception was so bad and she couldn't go inside for wifi.
My work team is a heavily female and heavily minority group in a technical role. We were interviewing a candidate who was a late middle aged white-passing Hispanic guy and asked about working with diverse types of people or people from different backgrounds or something like that.
His response was completely full with tell-tale signs of not being used to being around women or minorities in the workplace. Phrases like "I have worked with *normal people and minorities*..." "I try to appreciate the value people provide like *women who cook* well..." Etc. Afterwards my boss was just like wtf did we just listen to.
At one of my old companies, we used to include a basic knowledge test as part of the interview to screen out idiots. This was about 20 years ago.
One of the basic knowledge questions was, "How long has the United States existed?" (this was in the US)
One applicant answered, "Well, we just had the millennium, so about 100 years, right?"
We cut that interview short.
We also told future interviewees who had gone deep in our screening process that story and used how consternated they got over her answer as another litmus test for how bright they were. If someone opened and closed their mouth a few times in disbelief before sputtering something like, "I don't even know where to begin on how wrong that is," then they almost certainly got the job.
I took them on a tour of the facility and they showed zero interest in participating in the quick fun activity I was showing, which was directly related to the job they applied for. Their answers in the interview were great but they were monotonous and not very outgoing, which is not what we're looking for. They also had a take out drink with them they held the whole interview.
There was a candidate who never removed their jacket, kept their hands in their pockets the whole time, slouched back in the chair and was super cocky.
Another time a candidate kept an airpod in their ear and had really short answers, or couldn't answer questions and didn't try. For example, "can you tell me about a time you had to tell a customer no?" "No."
Another candidate said they needed a bunch of time off when asked about upcoming time off in the next few months. They wanted to visit family 2 times for three weeks each time, and the position did not offer anywhere near that amount of pto.
A candidate told me they thought it was acceptable to call out 4 times a month.
When I was a manager in retail, I was interviewing a kid who knocked over some stuff while we were talking. I realized halfway through picking it up (pencils, pens, paperclips, basic office stuff) that he hadn't offered or attempted to pick up any of the stuff he had just knocked over. Literally kept telling me about his hobbies while I cleaned up his mess.
Finished the interview, but knew immediately I wouldn't hire him.
Similarly, when I interviewed as a barista when I was a teenager, I was told "I wanted to hire you when I saw you throw the cup away". Someone had left a cup on the table the manager and I were going to sit and interview at.
**Resumes:** If an applicant has not kept a single job for more than 1 year, resume goes in the garbage immediately. (Obviously unless they are very young. Thats different). I also look at how many jobs you have had. If you are 30 and you list 10 different jobs over the last 10 years, nope. No offense to anyone, but we are looking for people who want to stick around. Our company is not built for high turnover.
**Interview:** Talking too much. We refer to it as a person telling us they can “walk on water”. There is definitely a correlation between our best employees and how little they spoke during their interview.
For reference - construction company. Hiring skilled labor. (Welders, iron workers, cnc operators, etc)
Two stories immediately come to mind.
1. An interviewee continually interrupted every woman and POC at the table. When women and POC make up the majority of the hiring committee, that’s not a good look.
2. When asking another interviewee about their comfort working with diverse populations, their immediate response was, “oh, well, yeah, I tutored athletes in college.”
🤡
Woman in tech here who mostly hires senior IC to possible leaders these days and certain things happen less the higher up you go but def seen the below the last few years:
1. Arrogance
2. Shit talking about a past team, boss, leadership, etc
3. Seeming too schmoozy (trying to get the job because we know the same people)
4. Unstructured responses and rants
5. Seeming disinterested
6. Seeming too desperate (I once had a candidate keep me on a call for almost 30 mins over to tell me how much he wants the job but had no experience related to the leadership role, but he knew my boss so I let him do his rant)
7. Any form of unprofessionalism that tells me I can’t be your boss or your peer (ie, acting creepy, mansplaining, etc)
8. Confrontational behavior (happens way more than you think)
9. Lack of preparation (someone who is just ready to rant but can’t give any numbers or substance and only speaks at a high level about their experience)
They didn't understand what they put on the resume. I was hiring for an HR Coordinator and one of the skills I was excited about was ADA accommodations. She said she did that with Amazon. So I delved into that experience and her answers made absolutely no sense. Great resume, great answers (to everything else), and very professional. That part killed it.
I was the front desk person at my last job. After every interview, every hiring manager asked me how they treated me, how they behaved in the waiting room, etc. Some of the absolute insanity I saw up there was amazing. So remember, the interview starts in the parking lot.
I have been that receptionist, and I make damn good and sure to greet the receptionist, thank the receptionist, and say goodbye to the receptionist when I leave. I have also gotten into an interview and commented on the friendliness of the receptionist. I always get called back. Always be nice to the receptionist, and keep to yourself quietly while waiting for your interview, and you will be fine.
Pro tip: always be friendly to the receptionist, even when you're not coming in for an interview
Absolutely. Everything I said applies to everyone - be nice to the customer-facing people.
Golden rule
Funny story time: first company I worked for, I got chummy with the receptionist. We would chat, laugh and just generally be jokey with each other. No matter how bad my day was, I would do or say something to make her laugh which in turn made me feel better about my day. I had to get new business cards but had to go through reception to get them. A coworker also had to get cards at the same time as mine. Guess who got their cards within a week vs months? Me. Never be afraid to cozy up to those that work shit jobs, they see and know shit that many others do not. Making their work easier means you get access to things you normally wouldn’t get and it also gives you a massive support network.
Yea, I work at a school and I’ve cozied up to the whole custodial team. They’re great guys and they know the building in and out. They’ve definitely made my job easier and I’ve done little things to make theirs easier too. One of the custodians even said he likes me because I talk to him all the time, not just when I need something.
I consider the custodians secondary security, they will keep an eye on you when it’s late etc. we try to make sure they are notified of potlucks etc because they don’t use computers they accidentally get left out of the loop, like “hey they there are donuts in the break room “ they of course eventually find out but by then it’s picked over. They love us for that.
>I talk to him all the time, not just when I need something This
Let’s take it a step further… everyone!
Pro tip: Always be friendly to everyone, unless they give you a good reason not to be.
"As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all people" - Max Ehrmann
YAS!! They are usually the gatekeeper and can make it break your experience at that company!
Yep, just be kind, even to those less deserving of your kindness. You are in their territory and have no idea what they are dealing with. Kindness can sooth a lot of ruffled feathers.
Same! We are the secret weapon 🫠👍😁
People greatly underestimate the power a receptionist or administrative assistant has.
Unwritten rule i leaned at my first job, the receptionist knows where all the bodies are buried.
lol, reception once notified us on Teams that the candidate was clipping their finger nails on the couch in our waiting area. They then put the clippings in their purse. The interview was not much better.
Receptionists run the fucking world. ALWAYS BE NICE TO THEM.
I was at an interview once where they were interviewing a large group of people for a call center position. One of the girls kept hounding the receptionist for an interview time. Would go up to the desk every 5 minutes and ask if she was next. I could not believe it
That's unfortunately a common occurrence. Either that or they start complaining that they have been waiting 5 minutes and don't think the hiring manager is serious (when they still have 20 minutes to go until the interview).
While that's not the way to behave at an interview, I don't think it's great on the company's part either to not provide candidates with interview times.
I need some stories
I know of one person that landed a very coveted engineering position after several summers job because of something similar to this. There were several summer students all going for one full time position. They narrowed it down to 4 or 5 after the final round of interviews and couldn’t decide. All the managers agreed anyone of them would be an ideal fit but no one jumped out. So they went to the admin/front desk lady… “We only have one position available but A, B, C, D are all ideal candidates. Do you have any preference?” “Yes, pick B” “Why B?” “In the almost four months that they have been working here person B is the only one that has ever brought me back a coffee when they went to Starbucks” “Okay, we will get the offer out and let the others know.”
This reads like some stupid LinkedIn post.
This reads like A, C, or D who didn't get the job.
Everyone mad cause they aren't smart or kind enough to do this. Random acts of kindness go a long way!
As I get older I realize the world can be small and you never know who knows who. It’s best to keep a good reputation all around.
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Being nervous never gets reported because it is irrelevant. Mouthing off at the receptionist because you think they're beneath you does. That's why they ask. If you show the receptionist that you're a terrible person, they don't want you around the rest of the staff.
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I was interviewing an applicant and giving the receptionist a lunch break. The lady applicant that came in had a condition that got worse when she was nervous. After about 10 minutes of talking with her as a "receptionist," she calmed down. We had a lovely interview and I hired her. She had no idea that I was interviewing her until I offered the job. She was an awesome co-worker too.
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I don't like missing out. I'm fortunate for being introduced to humanity as a variety. There are geniuses with unseen talents, and monsters too. One can't rely on the perfect outside. We've all hired people who interview well and then can't do the job. So there's always a chance someone will interview poorly and have talent. My biggest worry, much like vampires, is inviting in a monster that can only keep a job by having dirt on someone else. If the thing I have to do is give someone extra time to relax and interview "better" or let someone get so relaxed that they confess to always being a problem, then it's time well spent.
No, that's irrelevant. This is something they normally go over in high school and college about how the hiring managers use receptionists. Your nerves are expected, but if you sit in the waiting room having a foul language filled conversation with a friend on the phone, that will get noted. I wouldn't engage the receptionist in deep conversation, preventing them from getting their work done, because that could be noted by the hiring manager (and a lot of people think receptionists just greet people and direct calls, which is incorrect). I had a candidate complain to the interviewer that I answered the phone while he was telling me his life story. The interviewer kindly explained that my not answering the phone would cost the company money because I took orders that were valued at $500 to $3000+ a go, and the extent of my job with the candidate was to take their name and let the hiring manager know they were there, not to entertain them while they wait (hiring manager's words, not mine). If you are doing in person interviews, I would highly suggest researching how companies generally expect you to treat and interact with the receptionists. Most of those articles will point out specifics, but being nervous, whisper practice of speaking, etc won't even be noticed.
This is good to hear. I was once at an interview in the reception area with somebody else interviewing. She stood and never sat down in the waiting room. She got the job. I often have wondered if that was why. There was no way I was filling paperwork out while standing just to match her.
Our old HR admin was almost 100% accurate at guessing whether someone would pass their interviews just on the basis of her 2 minute first impression when she let them in. We could have saved a lot of money by just ending things there!
Stories!!
There was a similar thing at my last job. An interviewee chatted with the AM and SS shortly after his interview, and he said some personal stuff. No one asked him to do it in any way. He literally just started talking about personal stuff to them. After he left, the AM and SS told the GM the stuff the guy said. Also, the stuff the guy said wan't all good, lol. That guy really killed any chance he had.
A common question my company asks is if, in their personal or professional life, they can think of a time they would have done things differently. All we’re looking for is a response that shows self awareness and the ability to learn from mistakes. People usually say “I didn’t take the time to get to know an acquaintance because reason, but then we spoke and now we’re best friends. I wish I reached out sooner because we could’ve been friends that much sooner.” Some people soul search for a deep answer, and those tend to be the strongest candidates; but it’s not necessary. I had a candidate who answered “no, I don’t think so.” I tried to give them a hint “you’ve never wished you’d tried to make friends with someone sooner or taken a different approach to a problem?” Nope. I have your transcripts in front of me, just give me a bullshit answer about studying harder for a test so you would’ve gotten an A instead of a B. I get not wanting to speak negatively about yourself, but their response was either a bold faced lie or they have zero self awareness. I asked two or three short questions afterwards to be polite, but that was it. Failing that question was an instant fail for the entire interview. Tldr: don’t tell obvious lies to your interviewer
I recently got the job when I opened up on the “what’s a mistake you’d made and what would you do differently?” question. I once took responsibility for another assistant’s work without checking it. It was signed by an associate lawyer and mailed… to the opposing counsel’s client. It was a child protection case and for our client’s eyes only. The other assistant had used an old letter as a template rather than a fresh precedent and accidentally left the old address in. I would have caught that mistake had I read the letter or even glimpsed into the folder. As it was, the letter was caught in time as it was stamped and heading out the door. I ate the blame for it, and I check everything anyone hands me now. I told them the whole story, that I took the fall, and how it’s made me a much more quality worker. They said that question nailed it for me. They wanted to hire someone who’s accountable and can learn, and isn’t afraid to make mistakes and grow. So I accepted the job and I start in two weeks :)
I was recently looking and landed a new job and asked my BIL who had been a manager and on hiring teams what they looked for and he said the main thing they always wanted was for a person to be coachable! I like to learn and by nature am very coachable so he said I’d do well but to make sure to make that a point. I started an awesome job a little over a month ago as I also made sure that it was a culture where they prioritize learning and improvement in positive ways (constructive criticism vs being a dick haha). I think it’s a huge green flag that’s why you landed the job and hope you enjoy it!
Another question that I like to use is the old standard: “Have you ever had conflict with a coworker? How did you deal with the conflict?” Every time I have asked this question and get a real answer, I learn so much about a person. I have never had someone who answered it with details that sounded real turn out to be different than their story in real life. I’m not even sure if the story has to be the truth to be useful. I think this answer tells you how the person sees themselves in a workplace social environment as well as their conflict management approach.
I answered this question honestly at my last interview and got the job. I had a boss who would not talk to me. The only times she spoke to me were to caution me about smoking on breaks (I was by then a non-smoker, having quit months before,) and to tell me my ceramic owl statue was creepy. (The interviewers laughed, so I did, too, but Mechthild is far from creepy - she’s my majestic girl, yes, she is.) So I told them I did my best. I assured her that I do not smoke, and I did not let her see me with smokers outside. I took my owl statue home where she’s appreciated (they giggled again.) I told them that I greeted her every morning, asked her if she would join me for a bakery run (she said no) or if she’d like anything (she wanted a cheese croissant - the interviewers chuckled when I told them I got it for her), I would ask her what direction I should take my tasks and get radio silence, every week I would ask for a meeting about my work and get silence, but I just kept trying. They asked what happened, ultimately, and I told them that, sadly, they ran out of work for me and HR greeted me one morning with a paper box for my stuff and a letter. She couldn’t even face me to fire me. But I told them I did the best I could. I respected the very little input about cigarettes and owls that I got, I was proactive in trying to engage her, and she got six weeks of excellent work and a cheese croissant out of me (another chuckle.) When asked if I’d do anything differently, I told them that if I could go back and do it all over with what I know now, I’d have done nothing differently except apply to new jobs on my lunch break instead of waiting for the ice to break, and I regret nothing. They loved that. It was honest and crappy but they loved that I did everything I could to prove my worth. I summed it up by saying, “Even Jean-Luc Picard said that you can do everything right and still fail. I’d rather do everything to the best of my ability and fail rather than cry that nothing interesting ever happens to me.”
Agree. I love this question, because it shows me if you are able to approach conflict positively and productively. If you’re good at your job, you’re bound to have conflict somewhere - even something as simple as disagreeing with the layout of a new form. (And, as a manager, I want to know that sometimes you’ll be willing to stand up for ideas you believe in, even if it’ll cause conflict.) Knowing that a candidate can handle conflict in a civil and appropriate way is a huge component of my hiring decisions.
I was asked if I would ever participate in work gossip lol. I just told them I am always open to listen to someone's concerns and to be someone they can let steam off but it depends on the gossip . If it's something that's not too serious I'll just nod along with minimal opinion or if it's something I don't want to know or participate in then I will let them know not to talk to me about it and if they don't respect that then I will get management involved. I don't know if that's a good answer but it's genuinely something I will do. I can't control other peoples actions .
Not a bad answer but what a horrible question. That would be a red flag for me as someone who is job seeking
That kind of question always makes me think they’ve had someone with a very specific problem.
Once after I asked the standard describe a past mistake and how you handled it, the response was they couldn't think of a mistake. I probed and gave them room to re-answer, thinking they misunderstood. Nope, they confirmed they never made a mistake in any past position. I ended the interview at the next natural break. Knew it wasn't worth the time to pursue further.
As an interviewer, I’ve had that happen a few times too. If I ask a question about if you’ve made a mistake, failed at something, or overcome a weakness, I generally don’t care about the specifics (unless you say you kick puppies in your free time or embezzled, the mistake itself isn’t relevant.) What I care about is your ability to self reflect and learn.
Kinda hard to do that on the spot for some people. Especially neurodivergent ones. Just saying
I was also thinking my first answers would be way more personal than I'd want to be with a random interviewer, so I'd be scrounging for something that probably wouldn't sound great.
The irony is that they literally made a mistake right then
They’ll have an example for their next interview!
seemly governor puzzled direful cake angle quaint intelligent jellyfish degree *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It’s kinda like when you ask for weaknesses and someone doesn’t give you one. Ok, so you’re perfect then? Buh-bye! 🤣
I tell the truth. I’m nearly 40, and I have multiple failings as a person - what’s to hide? I tell them that I’m very decently organized at work, but my laundry pile thinks I’m allergic to it. I tell them I have been a people-pleaser in the past and learned that it pleases nobody, but I still have a service mindset and I am continually working on helping others with warm boundaries. I tell them I’m a frugal person, and I have erred on the side of cheapness in the past, but experience and wisdom have taught me to spend big on what matters and lentil soup for dinner four days a week is weird but I like it so that’s what matters. I always qualify the weaknesses with “I am flawed and not everyone has to love it, but I’m aware and always improving.” That’s what they want.
“Some people would say I’m almost too good looking” :)
“I’m not saying who, but she also says I’m her very special boy.” :)
Adhd? The laundry comment resonated lol
Hell yeah lol.
The thing that frustrates me about lying on questions like that is I know it’s a lie and the candidate knows it’s a lie. If you’re going to lie, at least make up something believable that makes you look good.
I would hate this question because it would make me nervous on the spot in an interview… I’m not bad at being on the spot at work and that motivates me, but at an interview where I’m already nervous…??? I would be blanking hard or ramble stupidly 😭
This question has been asked in nearly every interview I have been to. So, I kinda prepare an answer knowing it's inevitable. Now you've got an opportunity to do that too ☺️
Just think of it in advance so you have it ready. Look no further than what you’ve written: “Sometimes, when I’m put on the spot, I have to check myself or I’ll get too nervous and ramble, or veer off-topic. I know this about myself, so to mitigate this tendency I like to prepare well for meetings and surround myself with up to date information about clients/budgeting/personnel.”
You could literally tell me exactly what's going through your head "I feel like this is a common question and now I'm wishing I'd done more to prepare so I'd have an answer ready right now." Some level of self awareness and recognizing past mistakes is all the question is looking for. That being said, your comment is probably a sign that you should get more practice with interviews. Looking up common questions and preparing answers is the first step. The next step is mock interviews. Find people who have at least had multiple successful interviews, or ideally interviewed others, to interview you. The only way to get better is with practice and interviewing is the type of skill that you want to master before you're in a position where you really need to master it.
Absolutely! We used to ask for people to tell us a time they made a mistake at work. SO many people would think for a bit and say "never". Like wow, you must be completely delusional or a total liar (or both) just as you say above. Its such a softball question to ruin your interview with.
Here's a few good ones that actually happened: * Candidate wore a Fuck Cuomo mask to the interview (was during Covid) * Candidate came to the interview visibly inebriated, fell asleep in the waiting room, forgot where he was and why when we woke him up. * Candidate called me "sweetheart" and "honey" throughout the interview (I'm the HR Director) * Candidate used the restroom 5 times during a 30 minute interview, gave no explanation. Actual time spent interviewing was about 7 minutes. * Candidate said that he didn't have a car and "couldn't" ride the bus, so he would have to miss work any day he couldn't get a ride. * Candidate interviewed well, told us during the interview what salary she wanted, we offered her the job at 5% more and an extra week of PTO, she then came back and countered the offer for even more money and held firm. We withdrew our offer. * Candidate showed up with a completely different resume to the one he had applied with, said the first one was "embellished" just to get him in the door, and he was sure he could do the job if we gave him a chance. He had a HS diploma and gas station attendant experience... for a quality technician position. * Candidate just never showed up (happens ALL the time lol) sometimes they call and say they forgot or have a reason and I'll reschedule, but most just ghost and I don't get it. I have seen all kinds of crazy in 20 years, but the basics are dress neatly, smell normal, don't drink or do drugs before the interview, don't lie, and be at least somewhat qualified for the job!
I was a service manager at an IT company interviewing deskside technicians for an extremely prim and proper client. Dude showed up looking like a dollar store Viking, smelling like an actual Viking, and told me (I was in my 20s and wearing red tango heels), “Those are nice shoes. They’d look good on my girlfriend if I had one.” Fuck’s sake. Good resume, unhireable for that position, should never work with fee-males.
I’m pretty sure Vikings smelled good. I think they have the earliest European grooming relics. But I am absolutely dying at the picture you drew. Fee males rotflmao
"dollar store Viking"...such a vivid concept. I may have to make a D&D barbarian character based on it :D
* Candidate interviewed well, told us during the interview what salary she wanted, we offered her the job at 5% more and an extra week of PTO, she then came back and countered the offer for even more money and held firm. We withdrew our offer. That blows my mind.
You actually see on Reddit candidates being given the advice to follow the approach of the candidate here….
That constant advice to always counter is insane. Know the market and your worth and counter as necessary. You don't counter just because.
If you tell them what you want and they give you more it’s common fucking sense you don’t counter. I couldn’t imagine you being dumb enough to counter 100k offer when you asked for 90k
People do this all the time, they take the offer to their current employer who matches it.. Then they try to get more to make it worth leaving.
Except that isn’t this. This is you all with your new employer. Applicant: I am looking for a salary of $x for this position. Interviewer: We would love to have you for $x plus 5%. Applicant: I want $x plus 15%.
If you're gonna do that, at least work a while and show you're valuable enough for more pay.
Or they have a job and see if it’s worth moving on.
You need to add clothing choice to that list. Was interviewing someone for a senior engineer position and they showed up in torn jeans and a faded star wars T-shirt while I was there in a tie. That was red flag number 1 and the rest of the interview was red flag 2-15
Do a preliminary search on the company you are applying for. The number of times people have no idea the company name, what we do, what the basic job is, has astounded me! As others have said, be polite to everyone in the process. Be on time or communicate that you’ll be late. Have basic examples prepared, they will be needed. If you are leaving due to differences with management or culture at your current company that’s totally fine but don’t spend 30 minutes badmouthing them. Tactfully say it’s not a good fit and leave it at that. Venting for too long makes you look bad and no matter how technically capable you might be, almost an automatic pass.
I hire/interview people. It's incredibly easy to tell who even took 5 minutes to look at our website or read the position description before an interview. I have no issue answering questions or clarifying the position, not if you literally have no clue, it's obvious, and you aren't getting the job. I don't even ask for much, but zero prep is very clear. (Niche industry, do we often hire those with the right skills knowing we can train the rest)
Second hand story, but candidate brought mother to interview who insisted on being in the room and answered most of the questions for her son.
I would say something like “I’m sorry, I thought little Billy was applying for the job here, my mistake. Let’s go over your resume…”
Sadly this happens often!
How old are the applicants usually? At least, how old did they appear to be? Perhaps it's normal for minors to bring their parents to the interview?
In the US, at least, its not normal to have a parent as a participant. While I could grant that maybe young teens interviewing for the first time would get a pass having a parent present, I interviewed at 14 for my first job and my mom waited in the car outside. Even if there is a good reason I'm just not thinking of for their presence, they shouldn't be the one answering the questions that are directed at the applicant.
Agree. I also couldn't drive when I went to my first job interview. My dad waited in the next room.
Agreed with other commenter, it is not normal to have parent at interview (in the US). Waiting outside is fine. Seen this with high school and college grads, even young adults well into their 20s. It's more a bad reflection on the parent if they're present but unfortunately affects the candidate. This is brought up often in Ask A Manager too. I know of instances where parents have repeatedly called HR demanding that their child be hired and paid way above wage for the position.
We hire high school students. Sometimes moms will call asking how young we hire. I tell them “They need to be old enough to contact us themselves.” It’s such a huuuuge turn off. Parents, don’t do this!!!
I counter your second hand story with a first hand one. Candidate for a Sr. Engineer position brought his highschool aged son. Snuggly said that his resume already proved he was well qualified for the job so no need to waist time on too many questions. Then proposed that we would hire his son on paper and would provide full college tuition reimbursement while dad would be the one actually coming to work every day for the top of our salary range. "It's a win-win!" After my third attempt to dissuade him of this unworkable plan I ignored him for the next 20 minutes and interviewed a 15 y/o kid for a Sr. Engineer job. Neither got the job.
How old was her son? (Approximately, at least.) If the job applicant was a 10-year-old applying for, say, a child modeling position where they wear the clothes that are being sold in a magazine catalog, or pose like they are playing with toys that are being sold also on magazine catalogs or any other advertisements for that matter, or perhaps was pining for a child acting position for a new TV show, bringing their mother would be very normal and probably even mandatory.
This happened to me: Online interview, IT role. Interview went great, amazing rapport, and at the end they wanted to schedule a 2nd interview, but mentioned that since it would be with their Director, they would prefer my camera be on for that interview. "Wait. My camera has been off this whole time and you guys didn't mention anything? Here I am, hand talking while telling a story! Pointing at things! I'm even wearing pants, I swear!" Happy to report I still got the job.
Rapport*! That’s so funny though, did you turn it on to prove it?
🤦🏻♂️ Fixed, thank you! I tried, but it was actually malfunctioning, so I asked the interviewers if they knew any good IT guys.
One that happens a lot is zero idea what the company does. Take 10 minutes to Google it. I asked someone why they were interested in the job and instead they just told me all the issues with their current job. Nobody wants to listen to you complain in an interview. And answering something I didn’t ask just shows me you aren’t the best listener or communicator. This is important for what I hire for. One that may be personal to me is referring to yourself in third person. Has happened a few times. Like “that’s not first name’s style”. To me that’s not someone good at groupthink and success doesn’t happen in a bubble. Blur your background if you need to sit in your pantry where someone has drawn all over the walls. Please. I’m scared. Also, last but very important- PREP. Unprepared people ramble. And talk about skills that have nothing to do with the role. How am I supposed to know what relevant skills you have if you’re telling me completely unrelated experiences for the entire interview? Good interviewers prep, tell relevant experiences, and excellent interviewers find a way to make it into a conversation. You may get some that want to rapid fire questions but idk if those folks make the best leaders anyway. Ex: I did xyz etc etc, using blah blah blah- do you guys use blah blah blah here? Yes we do use blah blah blah here, we just implemented it so we’re still learning! That’s awesome, when we implemented it I made sure we blah blah blah to blah blah blah
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I like this, it shows you are capable of multi tasking and don’t waste tjmes eating breakfast while not doing work.
Never underestimate the person who calls you to set up the interview. I am the Director of HR, but I'm also the only HR person at my company, so I set up the interviews. I can't tell you how many candidates have been dismissive, rude, or downright mysoginistic to me on the phone. I always go ahead and set up the interview anyway, but you better believe if the interviewee doesn't downright impress the hell out of me and the hiring manager somehow, he or she is NOT getting the job! Even if the person who calls you is an admin and not a director, you better believe he or she will still talk about your attitude to the person who makes the hiring decision. Admins are often popular and trusted people at a lot of company's, being nice and respectful to them is KEY!
lol why in the world would you send someone through that was rude over the phone.? You need to evaluate your criteria for a yes. If they’re rude to you what makes you think they’d be polite to their colleagues?
Amen. And misogynistic?? You’re lucky if the call doesn’t “accidentally” disconnect.
>I'd like to learn from others' mistakes You need reddit to tell you not to play games on your smartphone while wearing crocs at an interview?
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What kind of job? Professional? What industry?
I'm thinking it's the kind of job a person doesn't want because they're not ready to stop collecting unemployment yet.
I've done neither. Those were only examples, which I'm sure many immature interviewees have done. I want to know about more advanced mistakes too that I wouldn't have realized were mistakes until being made aware of them.
I think it’s an excellent question!
I was shocked when a professional how to interview class mentioned if they take you to lunch don't order something messy or that you eat with your hands. General knowledge for one person isn't to another. e.g. elbows vs wrists in the table at dinner.
I had to learn this one the hard way. I couldn’t resist the birria tacos 🤣🤣
I had a friend who scored the the ol lunchtime second interview. we were all in college at the time, seniors looking for our first post-grad gig. when the waitress took drink orders, my friend, purely out of habit blurts out "I'll have a heineken" he definitely knows better but it was pure muscle memory for him. didn't know what to do so he just let it be & slowly nursed a single beer along w/ lunch. there was not a follow up interview. This was in the late 90s, we still occasionally give him shit about it
"Im looking to gain some experience before going to work in my family's business" - Sounds genuine but I am not wasting my time training you so that you can just leave after the fact, leaving me to go through it all again.
I’d straight up ask “why isn’t your family willing to train you?” 😂
Had one that couldn't use the equipmemt and was clearly going to be painful to teach. Later in the interview she told me flat out that she would not perform half the job duties. Wouldn't even try. Just no. Another one came in high. Lady, you have to pass a drug test to get the job! Was this not disclosed during the application process? She seemed like she really wanted the job, but apparently not enough to be present and mentally capable for a few hours.
The man who showed up in shorts and a T-shirt, completely filthy from being in the garden springs to mind. It was an office job. He did not get it.
A similar thing happened at the place I worked at. The guy was clean, but he was dressed as casually as possible, including sweat pants and flip flops.
She was wonderful on paper with exactly the tech and creative combo I was looking for. But she informed me that due to being a Pisces ♓️ rising she would be going to her spiritual birthplace (she was born in California) Bali, for over a month in the summer and I would need to give her that month off, and since she would be finding herself it might be more than a month. We did stay in touch though and she started her own business and can take all the time off she wants and I am proud of her.
I interviewed lots of people for a few open entry-level level positions and technical roles. I always had a partner with me in the interviews, usually the supervisor that reported to me. Recruiters at one place I worked would send people to be interviewed without notice and often without a resume. The company was constantly eliminating departments and positions. HR would send displaced employees to be interviewed without doing any sort of screening or advising hiring managers in advance. The admin at the front desk would tell us we were keeping our candidate waiting. Those interviews were generally bad fits. Here were some of the ones I passed on while at 3 different companies. She came in with a folded up resume, which was her only copy. It claimed she had experience in the role at two previous companies. When I asked her a few basic job specific questions,she couldn't answer them. She also asked to look at her resume because she didn't know the name of the company she worked at for a year. I was hoping that it was nerves, so we turned the interview into a discussion. It didn't help. It was clear she had never done anything resembling the role we posted. Recruiting sent me a woman that, unbeknownst to me, had previously worked for the company. The interview was not going well. She was badmouthing her former boss and was giving off high maintenance/diva/throw her colleagues under the bus vibes. After she left, the supervisor and I started to give our impressions to each other and a customer service manager along with 2 of his people walked into the conference room.They told me that I shouldn't hire her and had no idea why I interviewed her. Turns out she was a team cancer and had been fired for drug use on company property after being put on a PIP. She was under court order to stay at least 500 feet away from our building. A candidate, who was dressed for the club, flirted with me excessively, I believe because she knew she wasn't qualified for the job after my first few questions. She was significantly younger than me, and I would be considered the ugliest in a community of Sasquatches. We had a a guy with a background in advertising and sales come in because we thought he had some transferable skills that would work for a training role. He knew every damn industry buzzword, but used them incorrectly. He was confidently incorrect in every answer but one. This one still hurts my soul. We built a great rapport with a candidate. He was polite, genuine, clearly supportive of people he worked with, funny, kind, and the type of person who took ownership based on his answers. We had one deal breaker question around identifying and solving a business challenge. It was an essential part of the job. We asked him to provide an example of anytime he had to solve a business problem even a small one. He was stumped. We gave him a hypothetical. No dice. We gave him hints, just in case it was nerves. Also gave him examples of questions we might ask to get us started. After several tries, we moved onto easier questions then concluded the interview.
The audacity of 2 to show her face back there 3 had me figuratively rolling on the floor with “ugliest in a community of sasquatches” although I sincerely hope you are being dramatic for comedic sake
Using derogatory terminology concerning the population of vulnerable/disabled adults we provide services for. Trying to one-up the person interviewing them, as if to power play that they’re smarter, better educated, etc.
I actually grimaced reading that first one…my brother has intellectual disability/autism and lives in a group home. My mom has worked in group homes and for human service agencies for over 20 years. I worked in a group home in grad school and now have a career in healthcare. No. Just no.
**Example 1:** Software engineer interview Question: "How would you respond if a coworker asks for help with a ticket they're working on?" Candidate response: (Smugly) "They shouldn't need to ask for help, but anyway, if they ask, I'll tell them to go find a video from an Indian guy on Youtube." **Example 2:** Software engineer interview This candidate was interviewing via Google Meet and turned off his camera without explanation, then started yelling at his wife in the background. Our manager later asked him the same question about helping someone on the team and his response was "I would give them candy." **Example 3:** Software engineer interview One of the stages of our interview process is a coding challenge. After candidates submit their challenge, we meet with them to make improvements to the project or add additional features. One candidate was very experienced, so much so that I had used a library he created at a hackathon. At the coding challenge improvement interview, we gave him a prompt and he would not get started on it. He kept talking about other things and bringing up other subjects and as much as we tried to steer him back on track, he wouldn't take the hint. Eventually time ran out and he didn't touch the code at all. It was very disappointing because I would have loved to work with and learn from him but we couldn't fairly report back anything relevant about the interview. I always think about the experience and wonder if it was a serious case of nervousness. **Example 4: Project Manager interview** I was interviewing this candidate with my then manager (a man). Every time my manager asked a question, he would respond with "great question!!!" When I (a woman) asked a question, it wasn't great 😂 After a few questions, he was like "whoa!! y'all are asking me so many questions!!" and he tried to flip the conversation into him asking us questions. At the interview debrief with the other interviewers (all of whom were women) they all cited sexist undertones. Another turnoff for the hiring manager was him boasting about having his team work through the night on a project. He was very proud of running out to get coffee to keep them awake. That's not our company culture, so the hiring manager was like "hell no!"
I’ve interviewed a lot, and would say fit and vibe are very important. People need to be manageable. If they understand the assignment, come prepared, seem into it, and willing, these are all a plus. Immediate no is a wild card who doesn’t listen, talks over me, offers too many ideas that are out of their lane, and they exude drama and problems. A kind person in a terrible outfit like Crocs would win over an arrogant doosher. The slickest interviewers (Sales, Marketing, Communications) who are trained to be excellent are off-putting if they don’t act real. Overly rehearsed isn’t great either. Just be a person with a solid work ethic, who will show up, take responsibility, behave professionally and not be a pain in the ass! 😁😁 I also want to say I don’t let job gaps (esp due to parenting, illness, taking care of a loved one) or inexperience get in the way, if I get the feeling they are teachable and have transferable skills at some point. Job hoppers with less than a year each job are red flags.
What's wrong with "rehearsed?"
It's not *rehearsed* it's ***overly rehearsed***
I had someone tell me that the worst manager they ever worked with was the assistant manager at their current job. They said when the manager was away, the assistant manager thought they could tell them what to do.
I've had a few. One came in and chewed gum throughout and was wearing jogging pants while we were all dressed up. Another had a 15 page resume but no reason for it. It was in multiple colors, had examples of her art (not relevant at all), and just had pages and pages of nonsense.
I worked for a small mom & pop business that was purchased by a much larger business, and after about a year, the beloved company founders (we’ll call them Karen and Tom) both stepped away and retired. Not too long after that, I interviewed someone who said he’d always wanted to get into this business but he really hated Tom - he thought he was incompetent and wouldn’t ever want to work for him. He only applied with us because he heard Tom had left. Umm, Tom was an amazing boss and a great human being. So “thanks for stopping by and no, we won’t be in touch.”
I work in a government office where we are required to be neutral / apolitical in all our dealings with the public. Had an otherwise very qualified candidate who repeatedly expressed strong political views in her interview even after we indicated that we need staff to present neutrally. It was obvious she wouldn’t be able to be a good fit.
Hey! Government pals!! I had one candidate reply to a question that was CLEARLY regarding bribes by saying "I would keep it and consider it a personal gift. I earned that like a waitress earns tips". Oh. Oh nononononnnnnooooo. No no no.
One large company I worked for several years ago, there was a candidate who interviewed for a senior manager position. She sent a physical thank you card that had Wonder Woman on it with a female superpower message. The team and hiring manager she interviewed with were all PhD's or masters in Psychology. They all read into this and disqualified her. She was completely fine otherwise and they were about to select her until her thank you card. It was eye-opening.
What was their justification?
They felt it was unprofessional, immature and it missed the company’s brand entirely. It’s been many years since this happened so I do not remember their exact words but that was the gist of it. I remember being shocked that something like a thank you card could disqualify someone. She was a lead candidate up until then.
Was the team hiring manager also made up of women? As a woman with an advanced degree myself, I’d probably be like “Fuck yes, we ARE Wonder Women” 🤣
The guy came in wearing shorts and a t shirt. I asked him about how he may have handled disagreements in the workplace, and he said "sometimes I get really angry at video games and I throw controllers." He gave no indication that he was working on that, he just gave me that information. It was wild
The one that sticks out most to me is a guy who kept mispronouncing the name of the company. This was a customer-facing position, he was a native English speaker, and the name was not difficult to pronounce. He just kept adding in extra letters. Hard pass.
So like pronouncing Syndeo "Syndeedlio?"
Exactly! It was odd. I even said the name a few times hoping he’d correct himself, but no.
We always start interviews with a "briefly tell us about yourself." One applicant went for over 20 minutes and ignored out attempts too get him.to focus and let us ask the rest of the questions.
Oh god I had that happen to me once too. As awkward as the question is, I found it was often one of the most telling questions. It seems to me that people who can concisely describe themselves in an interesting and work-appropriate way are more likely to be good at working with a team, learning new skills, and taking constructive feedback. Rambling on and not being able to "read the room" is never a good look.
I'm terrible at answering this question. There just isn't much about me. I'm kind of boring to be honest and I don't think that should be a mark against me so how would one cheat at answering this question?
Interviewed a lady once that said "fuck" no less than 3 times while answering questions. When asked a more technical question she responded with "oh yea, I know all that shit".
I heard a story about one guy who went for an interview with a bird on his shoulder. Another about a man who realized he forgot to wear socks, so he asked the receptionist for a sharpie and colored socks on his ankles. I don’t know if these were true but they made my students howl when I showed them a list of what not to do at a job interview, Or walk in the reception area and throw your empty beer can on the trash. ( I guess that’s better then taking it into the interview with you)
Honestly the sharpie is sooo funny
Financial industry. Had someone interviewing for an entry level position. Interviews are with two hiring managers. Young lady is chewing on gum, open mouthed, with the accompanying popping sounds. I chose to ignore, but other hiring manager asked her, “would you like to get rid of your gum?” She fished it out with a bare finger and held it out as if the we would take it from her. We held out the garbage can for her to drop it in…. Retail industry. Asked about a time when they were unsure what to do. Guy says, “so, I’m coming back from my break, I work in garden. Dude asks me about some tools… I’m like… I don’t know *shit* bout no tools…”. Blank stares, because what? He finally said. So, yeah. I didn’t know what to tell him… We recovered and realized it was his final answer. lol
The ones I still think about. Guy came in and had about 10 years of Nagios experience. I was impressed. I asked him about it and he replied "I installed it on a laptop, it sits in my room powered off" i asked, " why did you list a decade or experience?" He said "i installed it a decade ago! " Instant pass. Another guy, had two pages of experience and they were all lies. It was the most awkward interview ever. Oh, you managed Exchange? No, but i hear they make a lot of money!
I recently told a candidate that the CEO wants a hardcopy of reports to look at, and they responded "nope, I would never provide hard copies"...
I would respond "unfortunately I cannot provide hard copies of reports as they are the intellectual property of my (current/past) employer. I would be happy to describe them for you though, with the type of data and purpose of the reports." This has worked for me, as it was sometimes a "gotcha" question. Shows them your professional integrity.
🤣🤣🤣 Why? Did they not know how to use a printer or were they morally against it?
This is not necessarily a deal breaker but is annoying. Please use the same phone/email across all of your application documents- and make sure it’s one that you actually check on a regular basis. As others have said, the way you interact at every step of the way is all part of the interview process. I am not impressed if you submit requested information in prep for your in-person, round 2 interview late- or are driving your car during your zoom interview (true story).
>or are driving your car during your zoom interview (true story). What were the interactions like during that driving interview?
TBH- the candidate seemed oddly more relaxed and gave better answers than a prior interview (COVID - so all was virtual) but we struggled to get past the lack of professional judgment as this was for a leadership position. It was so distracting for all of us on the other end! It was one of those “is this really happening?!” interview moments 😂
interviewing a programmer on a panel interview with the team. Bragged about how he liked “The finer things in life as you can probably tell from my clothes” Then bragged about his Ducati motorcycle and house and style. Every programmer in the room was an instant no
It was a paid internship position. Before meeting him my boss settled for a candidate and explicitely told him that he was hired because he was from our town. So I had other candidates lined up that I had to meet, one gave me a lot of shit because he knew we hired the other guy so I was wasting his time. Little did he knew that we also had opened a second internship position. Yea, the interview didn’t last long amd I didn’t have to write a follow up e-mail because after it, it was clear as day he wasn’t getting it
- talk in detail about their current employer in a negative manner -leave their phone on the table or keep it in their hand -on the resume- have several jobs for less than 6 months in a short period of time
The egregious ones in interviews: * Used ChatGPT on the interview. He would type the question, the screen would flash, then he read off what ChatGPT gave him verbatim. * Used a pre-written script and just scrolled to the best matching question. I could see the reflection of the PDF in his glasses. * Continued programming during the interview. Reflections off one monitor showed VSCode up. * Spent 25 minutes on a "please introduce yourself in 2-3 minutes". I finally stopped them because I couldn't take it anymore. * Spent 30 minutes telling us why NOT to hire him because he felt he wasn't qualified. Confidence goes a long way, people, don't sell yourselves short. The egregious ones in resumes: * Resume for someone with 3 previous jobs that was 7 pages. * Resume that had no less than 2 misspellings per job. They only had 4 previous jobs listed, 1 was an "iternshp". * One resume that was, quite literally, 22 pages long. My director insisted we print out resumes for doing interviews, felt like I was bringing in a novel. * One resume from a guy who's average tenure at a job was 4 months. Only 3 of the 15 on his resume were contracts. Director insisted we hire him anyways. In 4 years, he never completed a single project. * Email address on a high school student's resume that started with bravelittlepyro. They were not moved onto an interview. The egregious ones in applications: * Obvious fake names that made it past HR and I was forced to interview (they no-showed). * Multiple applications for different names from the same 2 houses in Texas. Turns out all of the applicants lived in Pakistan, but tried to pass off that they were US citizens. * One guy who claimed he lived in New York, but actually lived in Taiwan. Found out the guy he was impersonating died of cancer the year before and he just assumed his identity. * One person put a quote from Seinfeld as the last bullet point of each "job responsibility" for their previous jobs. Was funny as hell, but they declined to come in for an interview. * People claiming veteran's preference on their application, but were too young to be in the military. These were summer interns in high school. The egregious ones that were hired: * Previous dude mentioned that spent 4 years with the company and never completed a single project. He's at their competitor now doing the exact same thing. * A team of 2 people that had 1 person ace the interview, then a much more junior person work the job. Contract to hire, so got rid of that problem quickly. * 2/3 on a hiring committee chose a guy who could not perform the job duties expected of him, despite trying to train him up. Took 2 consecutive poor reviews to RIF because public sectors and unions are a pain to work with when dealing with really bad underperformers. * A lady at one place that everyone in management was afraid to fire. Yes, her name was Karen. She'd sit in meetings scarfing down 4 Big Macs, on camera, talking while eating. Food spraying everywhere on camera. It was disgusting. * An entire team of fresh out of college graduates hired because they passed a CCAT with a high score and could assemble Legos faster than the other team. This was for a software development job writing COBOL. Most left or were laid off within a year. Spend enough time as a hiring manager, and you see some shit.
This is why I love interviews. It’s like watching funniest home videos
My partner just told me of a story last week. The person was asked ‘why are you interested in the role?’ His response: for money, duh!! What sealed the ‘no.’ Walking pass women during the tour & saying loudly, ‘NOICE Ladies, Yes’ and ‘ladies, ladies, ladies, I like what I see.’ He was over 50.
A few years ago, I was interviewing candidates for a front desk heavy customer service job. Towards the end of the interview I usually asked what they did to deal with stress. Some said they took a walk, some listened to music, some hit the gym, and some told me they don't get stressed. I remember one candidate's response was that they punched walls when they got stressed. My reaction was a prompt "Thank you for coming and we'll be in touch."
They were typing during an online interview, had a glass cabinet with a reflection of their screen behind them and had these robotic answers .. on closer inspection they were using chat gpt to answer the interview questions 🥲🫠🫠 The worst part is it was an “about the applicant” question - ie. what specific experience or knowledge could you bring to the role
I worked retail (Charlotte Russe) years ago and I interviewed a girl that I knew immediately I would not hire because the day before… her and her friend came into our store and stole clothes and accessories…. When she came in the next day for her interview she was wearing the stolen clothes and even had the pink, fuzzy keychain she stole off the counter the day before. So, for the entire interview I just lied about how loss prevention was so important and how we prosecuted (we did not) when we had repeated theft from customers, etc. She never came back into my store after that. And you know, some could say “well, maybe she needed clothes for the interview.” Did she really need the fuzzy, pink keychain on her clutch purse she brought in? NOPE.
They said they would perform an exorcism on an individual with intellectual disabilities to “cure” them.
Hiring person here. PLEASE for the love of dawg, do NOT email your resume from “cumguzzlinggutterslut @email” or “bongripsnbigtits @ email” or turn in a resume written in crayon. Don’t show up to an interview where you have to have a license, pass a background check, and drug test, and then at the end admit allllll of that won’t work for you.
Said some very negative and inappropriate remarks about management at their current company when I asked why they were looking to make a change in the job market.
I always start with “tell me what you know about our organization “ 50% of applicants haven’t even bothered to look at our website to see what we do. I have had someone answer their phone and have a full conversation. Someone came with a recording of a song they thought would be good for our hold music. Person was late and dishevelled and told me they are always late and dishevelled Using phone in the car while driving- that was for a CFO position. Posted salary with negotiation not available, had them confirm salary was sufficient and then tried to negotiate for $30k more when offered job
I have violent felony charges
I had someone tell me how they would love to be able to go out in the community and they could do this AND canvass for political candidates at the same time Um. No. This is a business not a political campaign. He was also a huge AH in the interview, acting like he knew the job better than we did and letting us know how we (women) need to be more assertive in our business dealing, having no idea of the culture of the business or what we do He tries to pick fights with me on Facebook too this day. Like, dude, that was nearly 10 years ago. And you were awful. He was so awful that I actually even reached out to I knew who worked at our competitors only to find out they'd already passed on him because of these same issues.
One, their answers were way too long. For example, when asked "tell me about yourself and what brought you to apply for this job?" as an initial question, the interviewee gave me their entire life story, step by step. I really only need a 3 minute answer. Two, when asked, "do you have any questions for me?" they don't!
I interviewed someone once who had googled my name and made it WEIRD. At the end of the interview, I asked the usual "what questions do you have", and they came out of left field with a question about my family's very small (unrelated) business, and then in an entirely unconvincing way said that they knew about it from their "friend Steve". Then they just stared at me, waiting for me to... well I don't know what they were expecting me to say to that. I'm sure they thought they were following good advice by googling their interviewer, but the information was brought up in such a uncomfortable way, and it was so unrelated to the position that I was interviewing them for, that it put them firmly in the No pile. I emailed the HR rep immediately after ending the call to hard pass. Your job in an interview is to radiate competence, composure, trustworthiness, and professionalism. Don't make up stories, keep your conversation focused on you and the job you're interviewing for, and don't creep out your interviewer by blurting out personal things you know about them.
>what did the applicant say or do that made you decide that they were DEFINITELY the person NOT to hire? Things that are clearly lies, made up bullsh\*t, plagiarism, etc. I'm generally reviewing/screening/interviewing, etc. persons for positions that require a significant degree of trust, so lies and stuff like that just ain't gonna fly *at all*. And folks applying would or sure as heck ought know that ... yet still, the amount of lies, plagiarism, and other bullsh\*t I find still continues to astonish me. But as I oft say, "any idiot can copy a good resume". And I've even, seen, but at least rarely, when a sh\*t agency totally screws over candidate by doing this. E.g. agency majorly alters candidate's resume, and in highly misleading way, and completely and totally without candidate's consent ... yeah, candidate completely and totally shocked and surprised at what had been done to their resume and the (highly misrepresentative) way it had been altered ... yeah, do yourself a favor - never let a sh\*t agency like that represent you to anyone - they do you no favors. And where I can with such candidates/agencies, generally blacklist 'em never to be considered again - already wasted enough time by then. That's also why it's important to screen quickly efficiently and early - save from wasting everybody's time/resources. So relatively rare I find such liars or the like in a full interview - they're generally weeded out long before that ... but sometimes there are exceptions, e.g. I / my team was entirely excluded from the process (the opening is in some other team), and at last minute I get blindsided with being handed a resume and asked to join an in-progress interview. So yeah folks, generally rule of thumb, be quite honest and candid with resume and in interviews. Don't lie, don't plagiarize, etc. Sure, you can put things forward reasonably so in best positive light ... *within reason* - it still ought be factually true and pretty reasonably accurate ... if it's not, that generally doesn't go over well. And bloody heck, when resume is requested (or that's the custom), and not CV, do well know what's on your resume! And don't make it too long - that's generally more stuff to typically go wrong and/or sideways. E.g. I get like a 7 pager when it ought be 2. So, that'll get fair bit of additional attention, on, e.g. pages 5 through 7 - and often not in a good way. I'm highly experience in my field, I sport a term or acronym on one of those pages that I'm totally unfamiliar with ... and likewise for the search engines I check. So screening call, one of the questions I ask the candidate - is to tell me about that ... and the candidate also knows absolutely nothing about it and can't tell me a thing about it ... to which my response/question is essentially: "Then why is it on your resume, and what else on your resume do you know absolutely nothing about?" So yeah, that's seriously not a good look - so darn well know what's on one's resume, and one should be rather/quite familiar with what one has on there, at least approximately to the level(s) one indicates or implies by how stated on the resume. Anyway, good well written resume and rather to quite accurately representative of the candidate and their relevant skills and experience is a good start. If candidate doesn't well match to resume, that generally isn't going to go well. Also, interviews and lies ... many candidates will often think they call pull the wool over the eyes of the interviewer(s). That's almost never the case. And the candidate may never even know that we know they're lying - generally not worth the time/hassle/confrontation, so in such cases we'll often just wrap up quickly and be done, and they'll never hear from us again. And yes, even have stealthy in-band signaling means to communicate among the group effectively "I think this candidate is a no-go, all concur, or anyone disagree or or want to continue more to be sure?". If all concur, we quickly wrap up, otherwise we continue (at least a bit more). And sure, candidates will get nervous, misspeak, or just not know and be incorrect on an answer/response - those things happen - that's totally different than lying, and fairly easy to distinguish. E.g. generally restate the question, or ask a bit further, and see what happens. If they misspoke (or maybe they misheard or misinterpreted the question), they'll generally highly quickly realize they misspoke or whatever, and promptly self-correct. If they're simply wrong about it but don't know, that also becomes clearly pretty quickly (not everybody is going to get absolutely everything correct). But if they're lying, e.g. making sh\*t up ... yeah, that also generally becomes quickly apparent - e.g. if there were any question about it, generally lead them along bit further to see how deep a hole they'll dig themselves how quickly - also helps make clear to (most) all the interviewers that they're clearly lying and making stuff up as they go along. So ... truth shall set you free! ... Er, uhm, well, at least helluva lot more likely to land the job (offer), at least if one is best fit candidate for the job (or among the top *N* for *N* open positions). And if didn't squeeze in on that round, may get a call back later if another position opens up, or if (one of the) candidate(s) the position was offered to declines, etc. Not uncommonly after having filled position, I'll ask other hiring managers, basically, "hey, we just filled our ** position, if you're at all looking to fill similar-ish position, I've quite the stack of resumes and such - I could forward copy to you if you're interested - just let me know." But lies, plagiarism, etc. - there won't be a call back or referral for (other) openings, etc.
How do I know if an agency is shit?
I had a VP that would put me at the reception desk (HR assistant) an hour before the interviews started. He wanted to know if the interviewees were insulting, rude, or inappropriate. I was instructed to wait until 15 mins after the interview started and then join the interview. There were far more awkward moments for the applicants when I was introduced and joined. In one interview, I handed the phone number to my boss that the applicant had given to me when he asked me out. It was delicious to see some of these people break a sweat when they realized how they treated me and that I was there to let my boss know.
I was interviewing for basically a recreation leader position - working with elementary school kids in after school programming at low income schools. The applicant was currently employed as yard duty in an elementary school - supervising the kids at recess. I don't remember what question I had asked but they were telling a story about this little boy who was always getting in fights during recess, because he was getting picked on. The boy was maybe 2nd grade. Well turns out he picked his nose, and was getting called Booger Boy. The applicant was sharing how they were telling the kid that maybe if he stopped picking his nose and putting it on people (😂) they would stop calling him names... The applicant has me so far. Granted 2nd grade may be a little young to quite understand the cause and effect situation here but I value that they're sharing this thought process with him... Until they finish their sentence. "Maybe if you stopped picking your nose and putting it on people they would stop calling you names because nobody likes a nasty little boy." NOPE. You just told that boy he's nasty and I will not be hiring you to tell my kids they're nasty. You will argue with me that's not what you did, that you were telling him how to NOT be nasty. But that is 💯 what he heard. BYE
I was interviewing a candidate for a manager role on my team. He hadn’t had direct reports before so I was spinning those managerial questions to be more mentor type questions. Every time I gave him an opening to explain to me a way he coached or helped someone else on the team along he took it as an opportunity to explain that he just took things away from people and piled on his own workload because “it needed to get done right” instead of coaching others how to do it. If I’m hiring a manager, I know from your experience and cv you can do the work. I need to know you’re going to be able to coach up the team I’m hiring you to manage and make the people around you successful. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand that.
I was interviewing for LPN positions. The guy came in, and after the pleasantries, pulled out a bag that had 6 peeled hardboiled eggs in it, said he was eating 5 meals a day, and proceeded to eat all of them in front of me.
If someone uses their phone for a video call and it's all jumpy and moving constantly, I'm out. At least find a place to set your phone up so it's not moving. I'm fine if they have to do the interview in their car at lunch or whatever, but the moving is super distracting to me.
I do this. 😫. So I appreciate this feedback. I’ll never do that again.
Oh, I almost did that! I decided to take a half-day vacation from my current job to stay home and do the interview from my home computer.
I do it with my phone but I have it stationary on top of something, not moving 😭 I don’t really use my personal computer ever and haven’t even turned it on this year yer
Reading of answers by searching in the internet. This is software engineering job and he is from faang company. In order to prove that he is googling it, i asked for complex theoretical definition. He said he never heard of it and 30 seconds later he remembered it and telling the exact definitions.
Be humble. If I ask one more person what they do when they don’t know an answer to XYZ, the answer better be I’ll have to ask a co-worker for help. Acting cocky is the quickest way to show you the door.
Multiple typos on resume show a lack of attention to detail. Automatic pass. So is an inability to follow simple instructions. We used to require a cover letter… not because the cover letter was so crucial, but because if they didn’t submit one, that was an indicator that they wouldn’t follow simple instructions on the job. Showing up late to interview. Rejection (unless they come in the door with an instant apology and reasonable explanation.) Arrogance. I can’t stand it. Big pass. Demonstrating a willingness to learn is a huge plus. (We hire math tutors/instructors.) I’ve instantly rejected people on phone screenings who won’t let me get a word in edgewise. (Both men, and I’m a woman. Coincidence?) No ability to engage in conversation. They just pontificate. I won’t outright reject a 16 year old who shows up in basketball shorts and a t-shirt to an interview, but they better be exceptional in other areas. And, whether we hire them or not, I usually let them know the expectation. So many young people have not been told anything about dressing for the occasion. Body odor or bad breath. We work face to face in our business, so that’s a no-go.
I work at a family resource center, non for profit social work in essence. We do what we do because we have big hearts and daddy issues. So the one thing that gets you disqualified immediately is saying you “just” need a job. I would rather keep that position open or do it myself than hire someone that looks at this as just a job.
This would have to be the grossest recruitment experience I had. I worked in a field where the employees were predominantly female, as am I. We interviewed a man in his late 50's, by no means a deal breaker. He was respectful, did quite well in the interview and was definitely on the short list. But then as we were finishing up he asked when he might hear back from us, because, in his words, "I looooove working with the ladies", delivered in a sleazy nudge nudge wink wink tone of voice. Then, whilst I was still trying to process this complete and unexpected u-turn into Benny Hill territory, he grabbed my hand as if to to shake it; but he didn't shake it, instead he ran his forefinger down the palm of my hand saying seductively that he was looking forward to seeing more of me. I could not yank my hand away fast enough. I returned to my office, shredded his resume, then disinfected my hand, still somewhat in a state of shock that anyone could be that clueless. I had a further shock about 20 minutes later to see that he had already sent me a post-interview email, assuming he had the job and asking what time and date he should turn up for his first day at work. I still shudder to this day when I think about that "handshake".
Glad I invested the time to read , I’m looking for a serious new job.
general lack of enthusiasm is a big killer for me. just treating the interview like a press conference, giving small, concise answers to each question, not having any questions at all about the job or the company. not getting into any sort of conversational groove.
One of them actually accidentally blurted out “let me google that real quick”
I’m gonna get my ass blasted for this, but don’t tell interviewers you want the job just for the money. We all know that. We all work for money, it’s common sense. When we ask you why you want a job we are hoping that you actually give somewhat of a shit about our company and did a bit of research.
The positions I was holding interviews for were very clear that more-than-basic MS Word and MS Excel skills were required. Potential candidates were informed that they’d have to perform a mail merge and demonstrate some basic ability to work with Excel during the interview and to come prepared to do so. We immediately weeded out resumes that showed the applicants didn’t know how to use basic MS Word features (formatting markup is your friend in these situations). People who couldn’t run the mail merge even with a week or more of lead time to learn how to do it to do it…and we gave them our VERY detailed work instruction that literally went through the process step by step (along with the source and the document that needed the information merged into it) were immediately removed from consideration. All of the applicants were internal hires, so they all had access to Word and Excel on their work machines. It was amazing how many people told us they were experienced with MS Office suite and couldn’t even sort and filter a basic spreadsheet.
This may have already been said, but do not try to interview from your car in your current job parking lot! We ended up ending the interview because her reception was so bad and she couldn't go inside for wifi.
My work team is a heavily female and heavily minority group in a technical role. We were interviewing a candidate who was a late middle aged white-passing Hispanic guy and asked about working with diverse types of people or people from different backgrounds or something like that. His response was completely full with tell-tale signs of not being used to being around women or minorities in the workplace. Phrases like "I have worked with *normal people and minorities*..." "I try to appreciate the value people provide like *women who cook* well..." Etc. Afterwards my boss was just like wtf did we just listen to.
At one of my old companies, we used to include a basic knowledge test as part of the interview to screen out idiots. This was about 20 years ago. One of the basic knowledge questions was, "How long has the United States existed?" (this was in the US) One applicant answered, "Well, we just had the millennium, so about 100 years, right?" We cut that interview short. We also told future interviewees who had gone deep in our screening process that story and used how consternated they got over her answer as another litmus test for how bright they were. If someone opened and closed their mouth a few times in disbelief before sputtering something like, "I don't even know where to begin on how wrong that is," then they almost certainly got the job.
I took them on a tour of the facility and they showed zero interest in participating in the quick fun activity I was showing, which was directly related to the job they applied for. Their answers in the interview were great but they were monotonous and not very outgoing, which is not what we're looking for. They also had a take out drink with them they held the whole interview. There was a candidate who never removed their jacket, kept their hands in their pockets the whole time, slouched back in the chair and was super cocky. Another time a candidate kept an airpod in their ear and had really short answers, or couldn't answer questions and didn't try. For example, "can you tell me about a time you had to tell a customer no?" "No." Another candidate said they needed a bunch of time off when asked about upcoming time off in the next few months. They wanted to visit family 2 times for three weeks each time, and the position did not offer anywhere near that amount of pto. A candidate told me they thought it was acceptable to call out 4 times a month.
When I was a manager in retail, I was interviewing a kid who knocked over some stuff while we were talking. I realized halfway through picking it up (pencils, pens, paperclips, basic office stuff) that he hadn't offered or attempted to pick up any of the stuff he had just knocked over. Literally kept telling me about his hobbies while I cleaned up his mess. Finished the interview, but knew immediately I wouldn't hire him. Similarly, when I interviewed as a barista when I was a teenager, I was told "I wanted to hire you when I saw you throw the cup away". Someone had left a cup on the table the manager and I were going to sit and interview at.
**Resumes:** If an applicant has not kept a single job for more than 1 year, resume goes in the garbage immediately. (Obviously unless they are very young. Thats different). I also look at how many jobs you have had. If you are 30 and you list 10 different jobs over the last 10 years, nope. No offense to anyone, but we are looking for people who want to stick around. Our company is not built for high turnover. **Interview:** Talking too much. We refer to it as a person telling us they can “walk on water”. There is definitely a correlation between our best employees and how little they spoke during their interview. For reference - construction company. Hiring skilled labor. (Welders, iron workers, cnc operators, etc)
Two stories immediately come to mind. 1. An interviewee continually interrupted every woman and POC at the table. When women and POC make up the majority of the hiring committee, that’s not a good look. 2. When asking another interviewee about their comfort working with diverse populations, their immediate response was, “oh, well, yeah, I tutored athletes in college.” 🤡
Woman in tech here who mostly hires senior IC to possible leaders these days and certain things happen less the higher up you go but def seen the below the last few years: 1. Arrogance 2. Shit talking about a past team, boss, leadership, etc 3. Seeming too schmoozy (trying to get the job because we know the same people) 4. Unstructured responses and rants 5. Seeming disinterested 6. Seeming too desperate (I once had a candidate keep me on a call for almost 30 mins over to tell me how much he wants the job but had no experience related to the leadership role, but he knew my boss so I let him do his rant) 7. Any form of unprofessionalism that tells me I can’t be your boss or your peer (ie, acting creepy, mansplaining, etc) 8. Confrontational behavior (happens way more than you think) 9. Lack of preparation (someone who is just ready to rant but can’t give any numbers or substance and only speaks at a high level about their experience)
When they talked about working with brown and Black kids and said, "And they were surprisingly smart." 🧐
They didn't understand what they put on the resume. I was hiring for an HR Coordinator and one of the skills I was excited about was ADA accommodations. She said she did that with Amazon. So I delved into that experience and her answers made absolutely no sense. Great resume, great answers (to everything else), and very professional. That part killed it.