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.

Funny you say this, I interviewed someone once who in answer to the question "why have you applied for this job" he replied "because my benefits would have got sanctioned if I didn't" 🤣🤣🤣

I was a bit tempted to appoint him on the strength of his honesty.

Interviewing prospective Teaching Assistants, for a KS2 post, one young applicant sent in a very strong form and supporting letter.

On interview day, as I greeted her in the reception area she said …

“Eee, I didn't think I would get an interview, my spelling is so bad…mum says my spelling is worse than a primary school kid”.

I think I know who completed the application form.…

I was asked to do mock interviews at a Uni Business school once.
One young man gave an example of teamwork by telling a story about stealing a car.
Another one got up and walked out and refused to come back in until I apologised after I very politely suggested it was better NOT to chew gum in an interview (he didn't get an apology)
Another one took a phone call. He held one finger up to me, took out his phone and had a brief chat before explaining he had to go as "some woman" was interviewing him.
One young lady looked awful, I won't describe her outfit but it was in no way business suitable BUT she was one of the smartest, most switched on and motivated people I have ever met. I couldn't fault the interview at all.
When I went to give feedback to the course tutor she said "I know exactly what you are going to say, we have tried but she won't listen"

I once interviewed someone at a company I worked at for a customer service role. We had two sites - the office and the warehouse. She turned up at the warehouse (I was in the office) and someone called me to let me know and said I think she's in a bit of a state. I said I'd come over and give her the courtesy of an interview. This was about 10am in the morning and she was pissed as a fart. She was a bit older than me (probably 40s), and had fallen over that morning at home. She kept touching my knee and said we will get on so well 😂 Yeah, like she was going to get the job!

I quite liked her but my boss was horrified!

Some of these are crazy. The worst I have experienced is someone not bothering to have prepared to ask any questions to the panel at the end of their interview, that really irritated me but not in the same league as most of these. Lots of people don't bother to prep at all and do not relate any of their answers to the JD etc but I do think this is because is it no longer something schools spend much time on.

When my 16 yo had an interview for an apprenticeship I sat with him and went through the JD and he thought of examples he could use to relate to each bit (was part time job/DofE,sport sort of examples as no experience in the specific area). His business and english teachers at school also did a couple of mock interviews with him as he asked them to. He went to the interview with no notes and apparently did really well. I think its a shame schools don't prepare kids more. Even just pointing them in the right direction of resourses.

A few awful applications, one person emailed and attached their CV for a childcare role (no real experience at all and had left school and not carried on with college) they attached a CV and in the email they wrote something along the lines of 'I wld like to work in childcare and have attached my CV 4 u'.

I hate bad applications, even if you have trouble spelling etc there is loads of help available and it shows you at least give a shit if you make an effort.

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

So true. It can pay dividends if you treat everyone with equal respect.

I used to be a sales rep and would call in at local businesses. Often the receptionist would leave then turn up as a buyer at another company. On more than one occasion they would then contact our company as they remembered how polite I was to them when they were on reception.

Re phone calls, I agree that many young people (and a lot of mumsnetters it seems) just don't have the confidence or skills to make and receive phone calls.

DD used to have to ring patients and doctor's surgeries and is fine with making calls now, but she was nervous at first.

I had to teach myself how to use a landline when I started work. I remember finding it really unnerving how this blank phone would ring and I'd pick it up with no idea who was calling. Not to mention that awkward moment when I said to a colleague, "I think this phone's broken, it's making a funny noise" turns out I didn't know what a busy tone sounded like.

Never interviewed anyone but seen people turning up for interviews/assessment mornings wearing jeans and trainers when on the e-mail of the interview invitation stated smart clothing to be worn.

Then had to submit ID for our rights to work - passport, proof of address. Some didn't bother to have these.

If you cannot read the email sent to you about things such as what to wear. what to bring and don't follow these - don't bother turning up.

Me too!

I'm not often shocked on MN any more, but this has me open-mouthed! I feel SO OLD reading this!

I suppose in this day and age people don't really use landlines any more. We certainly don't have one at home. May I ask how old you are? Was this in an office setting? My cellphone has the same "busy" tone as a landline, does yours not have one at all? My DH's just says "Call Failed" if the line is busy.

I'm just having a moment where history is catching up to reality!

Why would you want someone who is that much of a slacker in any job?

We ask our reception staff for input about candidates for this reason.

I grew up with a rotary phone.

I feel really old now.

Here's my experience from being on the other side (I was being interviewed). 3 bizarre things happened;
1: it was a dark December day and the room lights were on a sensor, because we were all sitting down they kept going out. So every 5 minutes one of the panel would get up and do a star jump to make the light come back on!
2: The male member of the panel got his sandwiches out and started munching them - noisily!
3: A lovely lady on the panel offered me a glass of water but she stumbled and ended up throwing it over me!

I actually found it all hilarious, managed to keep calm and got the job 😂

Late 30s so this was over a decade ago. It wasn't much later on in my working life that they started replacing phones with ones that had a little display so you at least knew if it was an internal call and which department. It wasn't too big a deal for me, I made myself learn and get used to it but maybe it's more off-putting for others.

My current phone I think just beeps and it says on screen that the caller is busy.

I do know how to use a rotary phone because my DGP had an old one us kids used to play with at their house. 😁

Oh dear, it might have been me...except I got the job.

It was back in the early 80's, I was newly married and we'd relocated. I'd got school and college experience but no 'proper jobs', and this was very rural Somerset. The 'job centre' was a board with cards on outside the local library, and I'd walked down with my dogs and saw a job which sounded suitable. I went into a phone box and called, they said 'come straight over and we'll interview you.' I tried to ask for another date, but they were adamant they wanted to see me. So I turned up for an office job (it was admin in Sales) wearing wellingtons, filthy jeans and a jumper and with two dogs who I had to tie up outside the office.

I got the job, stayed there for ten years and worked my way up to the PA to the overall Managing Director! I was often reminded by the people who interviewed me about how I looked when I turned up on that first day - but it was their own fault!

Oh my. And now I'm wondering what technology will exist that will make you think one day "holy smokes, I'm feeling OLLLLLD!" 😂

Interestingly, I think phones are quite intuitive, from rotary to smartphones. Toddlers instinctively know how to use those Fisher Price drag-along rotary phones, and scrolling takes 2 seconds to figure out. But there must be, and presumably will be more out there that takes longer to get comfortable with. Probably going to be in the field of AI and so forth 😥

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

Totally agree. I always ask our receptionist what she thought of someone when they come in for an interview. She normally just reaffirms my own opinion, but on the off-chance someone changes their behaviour depending on who's speaking to them, I'll always ask.

How was he allowed to carry on, when you could immediately tell he was high/drunk?

We had a new trainee a number of years ago. In his first week, I was showing him the ropes and asked him to go and photocopy something.

When he came back (ages later) he looked really embarrassed. I asked if he was OK and he said "it's just, erm, I've never used a photocopier before"!

Bless him! I've been so conscious since then of any school leavers that we take on and make sure to ask them "have you ever used..." before I give them a task, whether it's Excel, Word, a desktop phone or a photocopier!

In the days when everything was on paper I foolishly agreed to weed out some CVs for a senior scientific role where a postgraduate qualification is required.
Out of about 50 inch thick applications at least 5 didn't have the qualifications.
There was also one massively overqualified candidate who basically used to run their own company but shut it down before being arrested for fraud. We all knew this in our small field (and one of my colleagues had worked with them, and couldn't stand them, which was also my impression from a brief meeting) but nothing had gone to court, so I was nervous about rejecting them. Luckily my boss had also heard the rumours and pointed out one missing piece in their experience so we were relieved to have a good reason to reject them.

We also take on interns and one sent me a cover letter with some totally irrelevant personal information (think: as a person with red hair) and the CV was written in 8 point font!
This was not a graduate though and having chatted to the university careers service they do get instruction on writing CVs but not until about 2nd year undergraduate.

I remember making a recruiter at a firm laugh when I was about 18. The ad asked for a mature person so I phoned up to ask, did they mean mature responsible or mature old. They laughed a bit, said it was a good question but ideally an older person would be better. We both had a giggle and that was that

I took all my 8 weeks last year. Will do the same this year. Sorry not sorry. 😂