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Original poster

ds just ruined my telephone interview

253 replies

stuckinthewrongbody · 12/08/2019 11:40

Just had a telephone interview with a job i wanted so badly DS has just ruined it! i put dd in her cot to have her nap and i gave ds some snacks and his ipad.

I go sit in the back and close the door he follows me starts screaming hitting his toy gun up the door i tell her i would call her back which i did and she just didnt seem interested after.

Feeling very crap about myself dont think i will ever get back in to work at this rate.

OP posts:
Beesandcheese · 12/08/2019 13:14

It's likely that most employers would completely close down as there is a heavy expectation on employees to have absolutely nothing going on outside of work. You'd get a discipinary at my last job if anyone heard you interact with a child during a phone call. Someone did even though she had time sheets from her nanny to prove she had childcare.

Dungeondragon15 · 12/08/2019 13:17

Unfortunately it was unlikely to work if your DS was at home. Try again when he is back at nursery or your MIL is there.

RubbingHimSourly · 12/08/2019 13:18

My dp works seven days a week as well, bills to pay and food to put on the table sadly........God forbid someone be on such crap money that 7 day weeks are a necessity eh ? Hmm

Op, you know for next time and can be better prepared. Kids like to keep us on our toes sadly

LightsInOtherPeoplesHouses · 12/08/2019 13:20

Your DH could have taken 1 hour out of his 7-day work week to come back and look after his son. Even if it was his lunch hour, he could have sat with DS in the kitchen while you did your interview.

Could he? Are most people just able to walk out of their job for an hour (or more - I assume he isn't working next door and would have travel time). I probably could - with prior arrangement and if it didn't clash with a time I needed to be in the office, and it would actually be more like 2 hours with travel each way. DH, very unlikely he'd be allowed to, and his lunch break wouldn't cover it as it's a minimum of 45mins each way.

PixieLumos · 12/08/2019 13:25

Just learn from it OP and make sure you organise some childcare next time, as you would for a face to face interview. My employer called to offer me a job when 1 year old DS was in the middle of his lunch - I had to keep shovelling peas into his mouth to stop him shouting - that was only a two minute phone call and hard enough!

ParkheadParadise · 12/08/2019 13:26

Believe me stuckinthewrongbody
It could have been a lot worse.
It still brings me out in a cold sweat thinking about this.
I was on the fone to the head office of my mum's care home regarding an incident that had took place. The conversation was very tense, I was furious. My niece had left her 2dcs with me 5&4. I'm upstairs they were downstairs, when the little sods picked the fone up and started shouting YOUR A FANNY repeatedly.
I have never ended a conversation so quick. The next week I had to face her at a meeting and apologise I was mortified.

Hope you find a job soon.

Nearlyalmost50 · 12/08/2019 13:32

I also made this mistake early on thinking my 2 year old would be able to be quiet during a quick phone call to an important Professor to arrange potentially working together. My dd went in the ensuite attached to the bedroom where I was working and stuffed her clothes down the toilet, shouting 'look at meeeee, look at meeee'.

Lesson learned, it is annoying when they are as good as gold normally, but there's something about a parent being on the phone that brings out the attention-seeking side of most children.

Mrsfrumble · 12/08/2019 13:37

Sympathies OP. My children used to be absolute little buggers for interrupting important phone calls. I remember trying to discuss extending our contract with a letting agent while DS chased me round the garden (where I’d gone in an attempt to hide) screeching “who is it? Let meeeeee talk to them!!!!”

Also before my last job interview, DD had kindly shared a raging case of head lice with me. I couldn’t shift them so had to go to the interview and sit in my hands to stop myself from scratching my torturously itchy head, and desperately hope that the interview panel couldn’t see the bastards crawling around in my hair. I didn’t get the job...

I second the suggestion of an email, thanking the interviewer for their time, apologising for the interruption and explaining that your childcare had fallen through. You don’t have anything to lose.
Flowers

WhoKnewBeefStew · 12/08/2019 13:39

After an experience very much like yours, i ended up asking a neighbour to come round for half an hour whilst I sat in the car

GoodbyeRosie · 12/08/2019 13:39

Well, it happened and I guess you now know that it isn't possible to do a telephone interview when you are in charge of the kids.

Well done for giving it a go, the alternative would have been not having the interview at all it seems.

I think I would leave the job hunting until you know you can definitely go for interviews, either in person or on the telephone.

AzraiL · 12/08/2019 13:44

That really sucks OP!!! Perhaps follow up with an email. Let the recruiter know that you enjoyed speaking to her today, thank her for her time tell her you appreciate her understanding. That's all you can really do at this point.

BrokenWing · 12/08/2019 13:46

Ds did not ruin your interview, you not organising childcare ruined your interview

^ Blunt but true. You took a risk and it didn't pay off. Live and learn, next time you will know to organise childcare.

MangoFeverDream · 12/08/2019 13:47

You could give it one last attempt and email the interviewer explaining that you are aware that the interruptions from your son didn't give a favourable impression and that you would welcome an opportunity to speak again at a time that was convenient for her

I agree with this. You shouldn’t give up just yet

justasking111 · 12/08/2019 13:47

As a prospective employer in my mind hearing that noise I would have wondered what the heck you were going to do with the rugrats if I gave you the job, which to be honest I would have to think about.

MagpieSong · 12/08/2019 13:51

I agree with the person who said phone/email/write an apology explaining your son would normally be in nursery but it recently closed without warning and you weren't able to arrange alternative childcare.

It sounds frustrating and stressful, though your ds was just being his age. I don't see how you could necessarily have organised child care, seeing as the nursery suddenly shut so it was time you thought you had child free. I'd be someone who wouldn't be able to easily right now. We just moved to a rural village, I don't know people well enough to ask for childcare yet, my dh works roughly 3 hours away by train and my family live in a different direction around 4 hours away and have full time work. Lots of people don't have the money to pay a professional sitter etc or might not feel comfortable using them. I could potentially see if my dh would work from home, but that isn't an available option for many. I don't understand people saying your dh could have come home when they don't know your situation? Mine would have to take the day off as we're no longer in England and the 3 hours each way would mean an hour off wouldn't work. If I had several interviews that couldn't be done on the same day, then those days off would add up for dh.

However, best of luck with finding a job! I am sure something really good will come up and, hopefully, you'll be able to find a new nursery for ds, so you'll have the time and space you need. Don't let this frustrating moment hold you back, send that apology email/letter or call and if you hear nothing, put it aside as a job that might not have been right for you anyway.

DarlingNikita · 12/08/2019 13:51

justasking111, it would seem a bizarre kind of thinking to assume that children present at interview would equal no childcare ever while the person was doing the job.

SayOohLaLa · 12/08/2019 14:01

OP, it could have been worse. He could have opened the door and announced he'd done a big poo or something similar.

We also have no family childcare around, so I get how hard this is. You close any door and they want to know what they're missing out on. Hope you get the chance for another interview soon but maybe suggest a face to face interview so you don't have to consider children's helpful contributions. If it makes you feel any better, I had D&V during my only ever telephone interview, sat in my PJs on the floor by the bathroom with the phone in my hand, trying to speak french and not throw up or have to run for the bathroom. Dream job, didn't get it.

Yeahnahmum · 12/08/2019 14:05

You've sabotaged yourself here op
Your kid is 2.
2 year olds are very unreliable haha

So... yeah it is shit
But you've got yourself to blame unfortunately

NovemberWitch · 12/08/2019 14:05

The other problem is that for many jobs, it’s an employers’ market now. So the smallest thing that makes you less than great, and you can be crossed off the list unless you have a lot extra to offer.

Oakmaiden · 12/08/2019 14:10

Thing is, most interviews are around half an hour. There was no way you could rely on a 2 year old to sit quietly, not interrupt and not get themselves into trouble (whilst unsupervised in another room) for up to half an hour. Or more.

It was always going to happen. Ideally you should have rescheduled the interview for a time you had childcare OR explained pre-interview that you had a childcare issue.

Zaphodsotherhead · 12/08/2019 14:13

I think young children hate it when we are on the phone - our attention is not on them and they know it.

I was working with some script writers over the phone, trying to sort out a sketch for a new show. I had to sit with my back to the door to stop my kids from getting in to the room, and all the people on the other end could hear was the kids howling to try to get to me.

Their dad was in the house, but useless, and the kids wanted me because they could sense my attention was diverted. It apparently sounded as though a pack of wolves was pursuing me.

Yabbers · 12/08/2019 14:17

2???

How on earth did you think that would work.

DD is 10, it’s only in the last year or two I could work from home on conference calls and know it was unlikely she’d interrupt.

Awful of you to blame him.

cookiechomper · 12/08/2019 14:29

Give her a break for God's sake. You're all normally spiteful on here to unemployed parents. OP is doing her best. Looking after young children is testing at times and not everyone has it as easy as others with childcare and people to help out. Shame on the ones who made nasty comments.

justasking111 · 12/08/2019 14:29

Zaphod, pack of wolves {grin}

Bluntness100 · 12/08/2019 14:32

he couldnt he works all over the place he isnt going to drive home in his work truck watch DS for 10 minutes then drive an hour back its not realistic

Why? My husband would do this for me. It's hardly a common occurance. There was a period you were not available for childcare. He should have stepped up. Did you ask him?

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