How to fail an interview (I was one of the interviewers)

[Hairisbad]

We advertised for bar staff at our local social club. This was for weekends when we have parties on. This person failed as soon as he came in the room.
Drunk or drugged up.
Told me I'm over the hill for bar work. And I'm not busty enough. I am on the committee and wouldn't know how to pull a pint properly.
The club is not first choice for people booking events. We are booked every weekend until September.
He could put us on the map as if he worked there they would come just to see him.

There were 2 of us interviewing and didn't dare look at each other.

@Hairisbad he would be handing out free drinks all night to his fans! dont do it!

Interviewing for an admin assistant type role, we had quite a few fairly young inexperienced candidates, but we were looking at it as a training role so experience wasn't neccessarily an issue, we just wanted someone bright, with a bit of initiative, who could learn the role.

But one young guy really stood out for the wrong reasons. We asked him a few basic questions, based on his CV. According to his CV he'd got good A level grades, and done a bit of retail work since leaving school. That gave us some hope that he'd be bright, and capable of the customer service type bits of the job, answering the phone, booking basic orders etc.

We asked him how he would deal with an angry customer on the phone. 'Um, I don't know...' then nothing more. We asked him what he would do if he didn't know the answer to a customer question. 'Um, I don't know...', then nothing more. Every answer was the same. I gave him simpler and simpler questions, hoping to get somehing, anything out of him, but he apparently knew nothing. I don't know if it was nerves, or just that he had no clue.

He didn't get the job. Which I was gutted about because my boss had told me not to hire a man for the role, because he only wanted women in the role, so I really wanted to hire a man, and he was the only one who applied. (And no, I didn't work for that boss for much longer.)

Exactly - If you don't take it you loose it on our company - I atke all my hols and would gladly take more if i could

We were interviewing for a call centre advisor position where the person would be speaking to one person after another.
The candidate that the recruitment agency had put forward was virtually monosyllabic.

I went to loads of job interviews for bar work when I had no experience whatsoever. It became very obvious as this was NY where service jobs are lucrative and they want very slick, very experienced staff.
I once went to job interview for some sort of junior admin clerk at a posh old school barristers chambers. The whole place was like the bloody British museum or Library or something.
I had a bright red mohican haircut. Surprisingly didn't get that one either.

I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat a receptionist, or person manning that post.

This is so true. I used to be on a panel at work which ran the assessment centre for prospective trainee solicitors. There were set tasks and a scoring matrix but we all had the power of veto if we thought someone would be a pain/bad fit but especially if any of us witnessed them being rude or dismissive to our reception or admin staff.

Once interviewed someone for an admin job. She actually seemed very nice and over qualified but she absolutely stank, her clothes were filthy and barely fitted her and her hair was so matted I don't think it had seen a brush in years. I just couldn't work out why someone would present themselves for interview like that (I'm not suggesting she should have worn make up and a suit, but just clean and tidy). We just couldn't offer her the job as it would have been so unpleasant for colleagues to work next to her and we were also concerned that someone who cared so little about their hygiene and appearance might have a similarly lax attitude to presentation of their work. I did feel sorry for her but also very confused as she clearly wanted the job!

We recruited for a position via a government scheme whereby we didn't have to pay them but they got benefits and also gained valuable skills. I hadn't been involved but was asked to train her
I suggested we do some role play as she needed to call clients, she had never made a phone call ever and wasn't sure how to. I don't mean what to say but how to actually make the call! I really really tried but she was terrified of any actual conversations and could not see why she couldn't just message them instead. She couldn't quit though or she would lose benefits and as she wasn't costing us anything we just had to find pointless tasks for her totally unrelated to what she was hired for for 6 months.
Aparently she had been forced to go on the scheme or lose her benefits and didn't want to be there any more than we wanted her

Deliberately bad.

@MrsMoastyToasty I used to do recruitment for a call centre sometimes. Some of the candidates literally couldn't read. They were born in the UK. Claimed to have some form of education. But could not read. Not one sentence.

Probably. They aren't hard to spot.

A PP has reminded me of a woman that we interviewed years ago who slagged off a previous employer, naming individuals, one of the other interviewers informed her that he knew the person they’d slagged off and he disagreed with her assessment of him. She burst into tears

Apparently it isn't unusual for young people to be uncomfortable with phone calls as they just don't use phones that way. I remember my granny being the same as phones weren't common when she was growing up and now I see a new generation having the same nervousness.

Yep
DD is 20 and she will make phone calls now but up until a few years ago it was her worst nightmare.
I think in some ways my generation has the best of both worlds, we can write a letter and make a phone call but we can also write emails, use Word/Excel etc.
We also aren't over reliant on Chat GPT

I used to work for an engineering departmentat a university. We also ran very specialised and technical short courses for the aviation industry that attracted candidates from around the world. We were looking for a short course manager and sent the interviewees a pack of information about the courses, the type of candidates etc and asked them to give a 10 minute presentation on how they would approach marketing the courses. One candidates main idea was to hand out flyers in the local town that didn't have an airport or aviation manufacturer.

My memorable interview was for a job where communication with clients was very important and this very nice lady spoke almost no English. At the end of the interview she curtsied to me. No one else has ever curtsied to me and I do wish I'd been able to offer her a job.

I once interviewed someone who, after half an hour, said in an exasperated tone "what's with all the questions?!" Er, it's an interview love.

Years ago I sat in on an interview for an audio typist. The first person who arrived couldnt even type, let alone audio type. She was told at the interview that she wouldn't be suitable for the job due lack of skills, her reply was that we obviously didn't want her there as she was black !

I was surprised as having their mobiles glued to them made me think they actually made phone calls. I've started calling GS who lives with me instead of sending a text like will you be here for dinner so that speaking on the phone will seem no big deal to him.

Why don't you... let him get sued? Clearly he won't learn any other way.

I love that one.

The candidate must have intended to fail for some reason, probably benefits related.

I was very nervous about making, and answering, professional phone calls when I was young too, and I'm in my 40s. I got over it, because it was my job to.

I can understand and support, in the short term, unfamiliarity and nerves. Treating it like an insuperable barrier, not so much.

We were offering a job and someone wrote me a side of A4 about how much of a cow his ex-wife was, so he needed the job to pay the outlandish maintenance he'd been ordered to pay. Went straight in the bin - whoever she was, well done to her for leaving him.

No, they don't use them for calls.
DS16 WILL sometimes call me but he uses WA first and then calls if he doesn't get an immediate response. If I call him I usually get a ? on WA
A lot of DC 18 and younger don't make phone calls at all and it may well be an issue for work in the future.

My boss got me to interview a candidate as Bar Manager at my last pub.

Girl comes in. Looks like she's auditioning for Only Fans. Voiced disappointment that I was interviewing and not my male boss.

Told her what her duties would be if employed. Says "oh I don't take plates to and from the kitchen". Told her that we all do, including me as Bar Manager. She shrugs.
Then told me she wouldn't do any light cleaning (again, I did this all the time as Bar Manager, and even now, I run my own pub, I am the cleaner!).

Then she would need to bring her children and could they sit in the flat above. Where we lived. So no.

He still employed her. She was lazy. And a thief. Walked round with shorts up her arse and boobs on show cadging drinks. She lasted three weeks, 4 shifts.