Taking cakes to job interview

[onesupplied]

My lovely friend had a job interview last week. Very large organisation, likely to be a strongly structured interview. I asked her how it went and she said well, and that she had baked a cake and taken it along to the interview.

AIBU to think that this has more likely hindered rather than helped her application?

Is this ever a done thing?

I interviewed a candidate that did that - although it was an internal interview so less formal. We still thought it was a bit weird but well-meaning. She didn't get the job because she wasn't the strongest candidate so I guess it didn't work!

No! I'm cringing at the thought of it.

Wow. Well if she doesn't get the job I'll interview her. I'm not hiring or anything but I do like cake

I don't think she'd had much experience of professional interviews and I wish she'd had told me beforehand so I could tell her not to!

It's for a secretarial type role so office admin based. No requirement for cookery or to show creativity really!

Depends - in some roles putting cake in the staff room would be appreciated!

I'm thinking along the lines of nurses and teachers who barely have time to boil the kettle let alone make and drink a coffee quite liking some cake to scoff at the same time. It also could show that the person understands how precious the break is---- and how much cake makes it even more so!

Ok in that case I would be surprised if she didn't get the job. I work in investment banking and with all skills being more or less equal would definitely hire the PA who went to the trouble of baking me a cake. PAs are required to think of things like that- My boss used to ask his to grab his lunches and she eventually started making his at home (when she found out he was on blood thinners and needed to watch his salt intake!).

But no one - bar a pastry chef or baker - has ever been hired on the provision of cake alone. Even if there were 2 candidates with identical skills and experience, I'm not sure the cake would help- as others have said, it's not really understanding professional boundaries in different situations. So you might worry the cake candidate would make some other mess up the other identical candidate wouldn't.

Still - hope we're all wrong, for your friend's sake, OP. Did you tell her it was a bit of an unusual thing to do?

Actually i would have though what a pleasant person she would be to have done that, it certainly makes her stick in the memory.

I hope she gets the job. a female friend of mine is in a sales job its very competitive she has biscuit's and cakes in her expenses and swears blind she gets a lot more sales because of these she hands around in meetings:)

A very strange thing to do. If I was interviewing somebody and they did that I would feel really uncomfortable. What would you do with the sodding thing make a cup of tea and have a cosy chat over cake crumbs

I dunno actually, small type firm, secretarial admin type role, if all else was equal it might tip it in her favour. Large firm, no not advisable.

X-post with Uppity who thinks the opposite - would love to know if she gets the job, anyway.

I bet she saw the apprentice when the candidate took brownies - although that was because she wanted to establish a baking business.

It's a bit of a 'remember all the stereotypes about women when you're interviewing me' red flag

It might work. Depends on the team. When I was at drama college, we all wanted agents at the end of the 3 year course. So we'd send invitations to them all to our end of year show...with our headshots attached.

One guy stuck sweets all over the letter he sent and it was basically BEGGING them to take him on.

We all sniggered.

Guess who got more than one agent offer? Him.

In the creative industries this would be fine, especially for an admin role.

"My boss used to ask his to grab his lunches and she eventually started making his at home (when she found out he was on blood thinners and needed to watch his salt intake!)."

Did she get paid for those extra hours? I think it's completely unreasonable.

As interviewer, I'd be thinking instantly it was unprofessional, and wondering if she thought that was OK how unprofessional would she be with other clients, customers etc. Possibly depends on company culture but would find it hard to regard it as anything but revealing a complete lack of common sense

What type of cake?

Was it an interview in a prison?

I have interviewed hundreds of people , some rather interested but that is by far the strangest thing.
I would smile but no way eat a cake made by a candidate whilst interviewing! I would question how she gauges social v professional circumstances as well

@NoSquirrels- I'm in the process of hiring a PA and tbh if someone baked a cake for me, I'd take them even if they weren't as great with excel as another candidate. Some things that I need (like excel, tools, analysis) can be taught or I can just assign to someone else, other things (like thoughtfulness, time management, organisation, thinking beyond the box) can't. This would seriously impress me.

saoirse3 unprofessional?, humm - human maybe:)

Oh my god I so wish I'd been on that panel

I agree with saoirse. I conduct a lot of interviews and if someone rocked up to the interview with a cake for the panel I too would think they were unprofessional and a bit of a dick

Was it you OP?