Have You Had a Nightmare Interview?
So, I'll tell you a story about the last time I took a candidate to lunch for a client company. She had applied for a sales position and I genuinely liked her and found her qualified for the role. Her potential manager had some concerns about her sales abilities but was comfortable with her experience in business development. But, the sales role would have taken her on the road with clients quite a bit, so I thought a lunch meeting was in order.
Midway through our lunch, the local tornado sirens went off, and amidst thunder, lightning, hail, and a curtain of rain, we were forced to move away from the restaurant window back behind a retaining wall. The next fifteen minutes made the candidate a nightmare. She started by taking out her compact and proceeded to publicly pick her teeth in front of the other customers and me.
Then, she informed me that she wanted to get several coffees for the road and that she'd add them to our bill. Upon her return, I noticed she had also ordered a dessert to go, too. These actions in combination with the fact that she talked to me when her mouth was full all during lunch, had convinced me that I didn't want her to be the public face of my client company.
She called the next morning to say she was no longer interested in the job. My suspicion is that she had already decided that when we went to lunch. But, even then, wouldn't you think she'd want our final taste of her professional presence to be positive?
Have you had a nightmare interview? Please respond in "comments" below.
Comments
O.K…… I currently perform the pre-entrance interviews at our business. I had received a phone call, and a resume from a woman whom was interested in one of our positions. From her resume she seemed qualified, but when I spoke to her on the phone, she just had a rude tone to her voice. Against my better judgment, I decided to interview her anyway, based on her work experience.
I had been in a meeting that day, and asked my assistant to please come to my office in case my interview arrived early (which she had, 1/2 an hour early, and was very disgusted by the time I arrived back in my office to greet her, which was still about 15 minutes before our scheduled meeting)
When I came back to my office, my assistant shot me “the look” as she walked out the door, and mouthed to me the word “NO”. (Later I found out it was because the applicant proceeded to do nothing but complain to her in the few minutes they were together)
I walked in my office, and introduced myself. The woman sat in the chair with her legs crossed, and did not even rise when she introduced herself, as she reluctantly shook my hand.
She then proceeded to complain about the weather, and such. (Sometimes when I get these “Star” applicants, I wonder if I am on a hidden camera show! Thinking……There is no way this is a genuine applicant interested in applying…..Sadly, I am always wrong!)
When I spoke to her on the phone I had told her that the position would not be available for another month, but if she would like to meet at this time, we could. She had agreed to this, hence, our interview.
During our interview she asked again when the position would be available. I again stated to her when. She then looked at me, and very rudely said, “Well then….What am I doing here then? I don’t want to waste my time”
I must have had the look of shock at this point. I put down my clipboard, and looked her in the eye and stated, “Well, as I stated to you on the phone, this position is not yet available until….. So…. I neither want to waste either of our time, if you are not comfortable with the starting date of this position, please, feel free to leave”, as I pointed towards the door.
At this point, her tone of voice, and body language eased up a little, and
she decided to stay for the entire interview. During which time she proceeded to tell me “how capable” she was, and “overqualified” she was, and “how lucky we would be to have someone like her in our employ”, but that she “doesn’t always play well with other’s, but she should be O.K., as long as no one gets on her bad side”!!!!!!!
When I asked her if she would be willing to stay late, be flexible, on the rare occasion, etc, she said, “oh sure”, and then proceeded to list all of the things/times she would not be able to be flexible. This left her with the only time of availability, as what would be her normal schedule…..all the time!
Needless to say, We did not hire her. LOL!
This is a story I now like to tell in training classes on how to NOT act during an interview. I was the applicant for a training position within the state legal system. I was being interviewed by my potential manager and associate. Both women I would be working with closely. Shortly into the interview it was obvious these two women did not get along. They talked over each other, contradicted each other and gave each other nasty looks throughout the interview. There was obvious tension in the air and when it was clear the manager had lost control of the situation, I graciously explained that I did not think the position was a good fit for me. The thought of working with two women who couldn’t even get along through an interview was enough for me. No Thank You!
As an HR manager I have conducted a number of interviews in my day. But the worse interview situation I have been in was when I interviewed for a job. The interviewer, who happened to be the president of the company, probably used every four letter word there is, multiple times. He belittled his employees and generally conveyed to me in so many words that he was not ethical. I listened for about 5 minutes, told him I didn’t think company would be a good fit for me, got up and left.
The company is still in business, but I’ll never understand how or why. I guess some things just can’t be explained.
Our HR department sets up our interviews for positions available in our department. I greeted one candidate at reception one day and asked how her day was going so far. She replied “Terrible, I’m supposed to be in court right now”. I was surprised, and offered to reschedule the interview and that it would be no problem for us if she came back on another day. She declined and wanted to proceed with the interview.
Part way through the interview her cell phone rang and of course, she answered it. It was her boyfriend, who, she explained afterwards, was being sentanced for beating her up, even though she didn’t press the charges, the police did, even though he’s a really nice guy, he just fell in with the wrong crowd. But she’s still angry at him for growing drugs in their house and for drinking so much that their two tenants who rented rooms off of them moved out. She went on and on while I was too flabbergasted to speak.
I continued on in the interivew (not sure why, maybe to cover my own butt in case she thought we weren’t treating her fairly and decided to sue us…) and her phone rang again. She said she had to answer it because she was trying to rent out the rooms as the aforementioned tenants had moved out.
Needless to say, it went downhill from there and I gave my HR person a noogie for even sending this person to me, but it does make for good stories.
I was looking for a job. My nightmare started after I had filled out all the forms. The owner of the business came in, and didn’t invite me in to her office to talk. The first thing that came out of the woman’s mouth was How much money do you want? I’m standing in front of her employee, in the store itself and she wants to know how much money per hour I want
What kind of interview was that! I was so aghast that she would ask me something like that without trying to find out anything about me. And in front of other employees, that I couldn’t even think what to say. So I said that I would be willing to negotiate. She said she wanted to know how much I wanted! So I left. I decided if she didn’t mind embarasing me in public that God knows what she is capable of in private. I didn’t get the job. I just shook my head and wondered and left.I would have been a great employee for her but she acted like a donkey’s behind.
Was shortlisted for a managerial job with a fast growing company. Somewhat prepared and confident i arrived the venue 40 minutes early and met 4 internal candidates that felt irritated at my sight as an external candidate. They freely talked about how external candidates affect their career progression within the company Wao they really throw me off balance. I finally got interviewed after 3 hours delay and was very nervous during the inteview. I knew immeditely that i did not perform to expectations even though i was well qualified. Never tot i could have been discouraged by other candidates. Off course non of them got the job.
Hi Susan,
Some short comments…
One candidate scooped up salsa that had spilled onto the table up with a tortilla chip and ate it! At any restaurant, that is gross… but this was an especially icky restaurant in terms of cleanliness. (Two words: Tuba Museum)
Then, he took home his leftovers.