I am reading my RSS feed of CNN Financial News. For some reason, there are things in that feed that have nothing to do with finance. But, today, an article caught my interest; 10 Dumbest Job Interview Moves.
Here’s the list:
The interviewee:
1. “…told me to hire him because he was allergic to unemployment.”
2. “… said that we should hire him because he would make a great addition to our softball team.”
3. “…said he should get the job because he had already applied three times and he felt that it was now his turn to be hired.”
4. “…said we had nice benefits, which was good because he was going to have to take a lot of leave in the coming year.”
5. “… drafted a press release announcing that we had hired him.”
6. “… explained that he had no relevant experience for the job he was interviewing for, but his friend did.”
7. “… delivered his entire cover letter in the form of a rap song.”
8. “…told me she wanted the position because she wanted to get away from working with people.”
9. “…brought his mother to the interview and let her do all the talking.”
10. “…when our company moved to Texas, gave us his resume in a ten-gallon hat.”
My mother recently told me that the new generation of workers (what are they? The millenium generation?) are now taking their parents to their interviews, asking flat-out about bennies, and basically asking “what’s in it for them. I have interviewed a number of people in my day. But if a young’un showed up with their parent, I would slam the parent and throw walk them out the door as soon as I walked into the lobby to greet them. If they started asking me about bennies up front, I would stop the interview there and tell them to take a flying leap thank them for their time.
I want to know what you are going to offer this company. I want to know what my ROI is going to be for hiring you. I want to know what you are going to provide to my team that I don’t already have. I know what I can give you. And I will tell you when I am ready. You need to tell me what you are going to do for me. And the company.
If you interview and hire people, what stupid shit have you heard in interviews?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Mr. Fabulous // Oct 12, 2007 at 8:18 am
Oh come on! As far as number 2 goes, it would be NICE if we could take home a trophy just once!
2 Wayne // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:52 pm
I’m gonna have my dad respond for me. Also, can you leave a comment on what’s in it for me?
3 chelle // Oct 15, 2007 at 5:52 am
Your dad would probably do a better job anyway.
What’s in it for you? The incredible opportunity to continue to be my friend, my consistent, sarcastic ribbing, and the ability to piss me off from time to time.
4 chelle // Oct 15, 2007 at 5:53 am
Mr.Fab:
God help me; I would SUCK at softball. I would be huffing and puffing by the time I got to second base, provided I could even hit the ball.
Okay; I can see incredible innuendo in that, and the alternative would probably be true too, if I could remember what sex is like.
5 Richard // Oct 22, 2007 at 9:26 am
On average I interview about ten people a week. I tend to try and put most of the people off and let my managers handle the interviews bust as they have to have days off it’s inevitable that I speak with some of them.
I have had parents accompany their children to interviews before, as well as spouses, children, friends, etc…ad nauseum.
Of course I run restaurants so I don’t exactly get the cream of the crop but my favorite is when they come in in their tight cut off shorts, halter tops and banadanas on their heads acting like ‘oh, I was in the neighborhood, by the way, are you hiring?’
DRESS like you want a freaking job, for god’s sake!
Come on man. You know you want to say something!