To ask for your cringeworthy interview experiences where you were the interviewer?

[AlternativePerspective]

A friend was just telling me about the interviews they were holding recently. One candidate was apparently awful. Kept interrupting, threw a pile of certificates down on the desk when asked about his qualification, referred to people with disabilities (it was in a disability focussed organisation) as “mentals” and he wanted to help them because he was sure they aren’t stupid.

Then when he had the rejection he has sent numerous emails insisting he should have been employed.

The story is so horrifying that I wonder whether he was deliberately that objectionable. From their end I do know it really happened, but could it be he was being like that deliberately? Or …?

So, as an interviewer, have you ever conducted any awful, cringeworthy interviews?

Why was that has ? Based on you asking the question ?

*bad ?

Considering the popularity of shows like csi, Dexter, ect why was that a bad perspectives ?

I googled deferred income, what was your line managers q about it please ?

That's really poor interview practice by your dad.

First of all asking any form of calculations verbally is pointless - in the actual role they'd be at the very least working them out on paper.

Secondly if they didn't know, it would be stressful & distracting to be pointing to a mug & tapping.

And if his summation of why the candidate didn't get the job is ridiculous - his version of trying to help out is completely distracting

Greeted candidate on arrival. We shook hands… he then said “sorry, my hands are wet, I’ve just been for a piss”

”

@lilo this is WHY I never ever touch those water bottles in interviews 🤣.

At a previous job, I was once sat in on an in interview my area manager was doing (for my shop). It turns out the girl was a singer on the weekend, round the pubs etc.
My manager asked her to sing! 🫣
She went all red and just laughed, but we realised my manager was being deadly serious "oh go on just a little bit" 🤭☺️
She laughed again and just cheekily said "ah maybe once I've got the job I'll do a sing song for ya" 😁

This was 15 years ago. She got the job. And we eventually became great friends both in different jobs now but still life long friends 😊

I once interviewed a young guy on zoom and when he came on the screen he was outside in what appeared to be a really sunny location. He apologised and said he was working abroad for the summer. About 5 minutes into the interview, a man came up behind him and started shouting. It seems this guy was working in a beach bar and had just skived off to do the interview...the man shouting at him was his boss wanting to know why he wasn't inside serving customers.

I've also had several people cry in interviews and one time in response to 'tell us a bit about yourself' a guy told me he'd taken a career break to be a carer for his elderly father but his father was a 'nasty selfish man' and he was very glad when he 'eventually died'.

@Hawkins001 Deferred income - where you receive income in one accounting period, but don't recognise it until the next (eg a multi year grant). It is fairly technical, but common in charity accounting - we were recriting for a senior finance manager.

In probably my most important ever interview, I was asked why I wanted to leave my job and I went blank and could only think of the honest answer. I asked the interviewer if he wanted my honest answer and he said honesty is the best policy. I told him that working in an industry which has a sole purpose of shifting very wealthy people's vast wealth around so they can avoid tax and social responsibility was killing my very soul and that I couldn't stand to even look at them anymore.
He smiled and suddenly someone else appeared next to him on the screen who had overheard, laughed and said that his feeling about investments and banking was roughly the same.
I got the job. Yay! I've since interviewed many people for the company and love it when I get brutal answers.

I went to an interview once where I'm sure the interview panel look back and cringe. I walked in, and they told me that they would start with an easy ice-breaker question, and said "how's your home life?".

I was a teenager whose parents had announced their divorce the previous week. I burst into tears. The interviewers looked soooo mortified. Asked if I wanted a time out but I said no, I'd be fine.

Amazingly I got the job. In feedback they told me that they were impressed that I'd managed to recollect myself.

I interviewed a candidate for an admin role. She was so nervous and practically vibrating off her chair. To make matters worse she proceeded to have some acid reflux type issue so at the end of every sentence let out a burp.

We had a guy shit himself.
He was so nervous when he arrived, shaking as he poured himself a glass of water.
As he was answering the first question, we all heard an audible wet fart.
He apologised and tried to carry on.
Then his face just turned bright red.
This was followed by a god awful stench.
The man quickly stood up and excused himself and hobbled from the room.
He didn't return.

Poor man, that's awful

Interviewing for an IT role we ask a series of technical competency questions, as would be the case in just about any interview for a similar role . We start with a couple of easier ones (if you know anything about the subject) to put them at ease. For example, if the role were for networking the question might be about using "ping" to test connectivity between two devices. The answer every time was along the lines of " oh, you've got an issue with network connectivity, have you. Well, I can fix that as soon as I start..." We'd try to explain again that it wasn't a problem we actually had, just a scenario to understand his troubleshooting skills and technical knowledge areas.

We were also told at least ten times he was a member of MENSA, so was very clever and could fix all our issues. This was a preliminary phone interview, but he was insistent that as he lived nearby he could come in for the afternoon and fix everything. The real concerns came when he wanted to know where my colleague and I lived, and a rough description wasn't enough and he seemed to want a street address!

I felt very sorry for the man. He appeared to have zero social skills, and no understanding of how interviews worked, despite our best efforts to help him. My colleague tried to drop big hints to the agent that some interview coaching would be a good idea, and I really hope he followed it up.

Many years ago I was interviewing with my boss for a role in our team - mixture of IT and support in the banking world. Our candidate arrived, not terribly smartly dressed (these were the days of suits for all) and promptly announced that he would not be turning his mobile off because he was expecting an important call.
Most of the interview was "ok" (although the whole team had reviewed his CV beforehand and we all agreed that it was unlikely he was a good fit) until we asked about his previous job (self-employed software developer) when he told us he was sacked as he didn't get on with the people!
Amazingly he got the job (it was a box-ticking get a permie employee into the team exercise) and then proceeded to take the proverbial for the next year or so after which he resigned. He was right about not getting on with people, though. Weirdest person.
Did a lot of interviews for roles on our team last year with my boss and his boss, too. One candidate proudly announced that he had brought the whole trading system at an international bank to a standstill by making a mistake - but immediately recognised his error, communicated it and remedied. He got the job and is a really lovely colleague.

I told an interviewer I loved him once and no one I have ever told the story to has let me forget it.

I shook his hand, interview went very well. He said, and I quote, 'Thanks for your time Bootothegoose, I'll be in touch to let you know the outcome.'
My response, 'Thanks so much, have a nice day, love you.'

There was a pause. I turned and left. Got the job, however, so don't know if I would recommend such an approach.

many years ago I was a branch manager of a small bank. We were recruiting counter staff and I well remember one candidate who when asked why they had applied for the job said "my mum thought it would be a good idea'. The advert had specified that the job required working 2 Saturday mornings a month but the same candidate made it very clear that they could not work Saturdays in the football season as they were a season ticket holder for our local club.

Her mum was waiting outside for her when she left and I'm sure was very disappointed that her daughter was not offered a position. I'm equally sure that her daughter was delighted!

Do you not? I hope you don't work in a school.

Sorry, that was meant to be a quote/reply to @Assistanttotheregionalmanager

I've been on a panel for one. The candidate smiled, shook hands and made eye contact with everyone except the only Black person in the room.
The Black person was the Principal Investigator.
I really, really wanted to put ' you need to hide your racism better' in the feedback.

Reminds me of being a candidate at an interview on a hot day. I had water with me that I had been drinking while I waited to be seen. I was called in and there was water and cups and one of the panel kept asking me if I was sure I didn't want water because I looked thirsty!! In the end I poured myself a drink just to shut him up, and he said "I knew you wanted one"!!!

"How's your home life?" is intrusive and not an ice breaker.

I've had interviews where the interviewer was more nervous than me, and I had to help them out quite a lot.

I was helping to do mock interviews for undergraduates at a local Business School.
I was using the “ tell me about a time” question (star method) and the example one candidate gave was stealing a car.
To be fair based on the marking system we were using he gave an excellent answer.