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?

Interviewed pre covid for a management role. The role meant I would be working directly under the two interviewers. We had just done the handshaking introduction bit and were about to sit down when interviewer 2 asks interviewer 1 (the more senior) why interviewer 3 wasn't joining them. Senior asshole says "Oh no she flaked, some shit about a sick kid". I decided then and there that I did not want to work with or for them. The level of arrogance to say that about a colleague but then also to say it in front of a potential new hire was just disgusting.

Interviewer 3 followed up to let me know that she'd heard the interview had gone well and would let me know. I politely said please don't consider me, I have no interest in this role but many thanks for the opportunity.

That place regularly advertises every few months for that same role as there is such a high turnover of staff. I wonder why.

DH received a phone call from a university, saying his name had been given as a referee for Mr X who had applied for the following research post, details.
DH replies " I do know Mr X, he's an ex- colleague and he has not asked me to give a reference. He does not have the skills and experience you're looking for."

Caller says " But his CV sounds ideal; he says (reads it out).

DH replies " I have to tell you that Mr X was recently sacked by our employer for intellectual theft . And, the CV you're reading to me is not his. It's mine."

I had an interview once were I was asked about my hobbies (a long, long time ago!) ... I told them that I had an agility dog and that I like hiking.

The interviewer sad: " so you have a dog? That's bad." The interview was pretty much over!
Not sure what is bad about having a dog. I still remember this like yesterday and haven't ever mentioned my pets to anyone at work in the first 6 months. (Unless there are like-minded people. )

Once interviewed a guy who justified why he was the right fit for the role on the fact he was a man, and then went on to detail what made men better than women in that role (and seemingly in general). He was being interviewed by myself and another woman, both senior in that area. It was not a role that required a penis in any way. Needless to say we wrapped it up at that point.

That example wasn't me, but I know exactly what you mean.

We've recently employed a school leaver who's Dad contacted us initially on his behalf. If it was down to me I'd have discounted him immediately because of this, but it's not my department. He's OK at the job, but I definitely think it was his Dad's choice of career rather than his own.

Many years ago,I was interviewing for a graduate trainee, to work directly for me. One bloke kept eyeing me up and down, obviously not paying much attention to what I was asking him. When I asked him whether he had any questions for me, he said ‘ yeah, what are you doing tonight?’

Didn’t employ him ( didn’t fancy him at all….)

I quite often interviewed people who falsified their cvs. It was a small industry, and it would be common knowledge who was responsible for a particular piece of work. It wasn’t so much the lying as the insult of them thinking I wouldn’t know they were lying.

Ah so many.
There was a guy who took his shoes off, and then said he couldn't stay because his foot hurt - seemed a bit like he was on drugs really.
There was a lady who I was interviewing quite early in the morning, and who had shown up very slightly late, so I just politely said "I hope it wasn't too hard to get here", just to give her the opening to make some excuse, and she said "just because I'm from New Zealand doesn't mean I flew in this morning you know. I live here". Ok then...
Then of course there was the time I was interviewing a guy from the French Carribbean, for a role that required French skills, on top of the professional expertise. He had the perfect skill set, spoke good English, was charming and perfect for the job, but the two men I was interviewing with kept mumbling that he wasn't a good "cultural fit" and wouldn't fit in their team. Then tried to claim his English wasn't good enough. All just racist BS.

God, I'm thinking of more and more as I go through the thread!

This one was a cringe employer, not interviewee though. My boss and I interviewed a potential trainee that we'd been informed beforehand had a severe hearing impairment and relied predominantly on lip reading.

In terms of the work, this wasn't an issue as so much is now done by email, etc, the requirement to talk on the phone wasn't significant and could be accommodated easily.

My boss, however, spent half of the interview, leaning on the table resting his chin in his hand while he talked, making lip reading really difficult. My DM lip reads quite a lot so I'm used to exaggerating slightly, so the poor guy kept looking at me for help.

I'd not been working there long myself, and I think it was one of the first interviews I did, so I wasn't comfortable with bringing it up in the interview. I did mention it afterwards though and my boss was mortified and sent an apology.

Oh this reminds me of another one. Was doing mass recruitment for the sort of job children say they want to do when they grow up.

First question was about team working. He opening sentence was about about a team task he'd had at Uni saying,' Well I was the only male in the group so obviously I took the lead'!!!!

To be fair the fact he was a bit of a knob was pretty apparent before he even arrived. He was scheduled for 1pm but we'd had some cancellations so at 9:30am admin rang to see if he could come in a bit earlier. He was clearly still in bed, fine, but when asked he then said he wasn't sure where we were and not sure how to get there!! Admin lady was on the phone to him googling train and bus timetables for him but eventually he got an Uber costing over £40 as he lived on the other side of the city and thought using public transport was too difficult. Surely you sort out how and where an interview is before the actual day of the interview!!!

Yes!!! Hilarious!

@2bazookas

That reminds me of the time a student submitted me an essay that was 75% directly plagiarized from a journal article.

I wrote the article.

Oh wow!!

Not me but a guy interviewed for a place I used to work and pissed himself during the interview!!!

Chap who didn't show up. Hr rang him no answer thought he was driving and stuck in traffic or something. Eventually got through to his DM and turns out he was still in bed. Poor mum was mortified and totally despairing about him

Interviewing for a senior position in the civil service. Candidate was asked to speak about building and leading a team. He replied 'well my current office is called Roger's harem by everyone else as we all get on so well'. Name changed obviously but no he didn't get the job.

Great thread!

Just on the note of parents ringing up - when I was administrator for a Master's programme I took a call one day from a lovely man who said he was enquiring on behalf of his son. He outlined his son's academic and work record, which was indeed exactly what we were looking for, and I told him a bit about the course, and stressed (gently) that his son should have a good look at our website for himself, and his Dad said of course, of course, and he knew he must seem like a pushy parent, but 'You really would be lucky to get our Nick, he's a great lad'.

A few days later I had a call from 'Nick', who was absolutely mortified. He did apply, though, and got a place on his own merits - did very well. I was sorry I never got to meet his Dad!

Also, not interview related, but a note to anyone preparing their CV. If you have declared that you have "excellent attention to detail", please, please proof read your CV. It's at this point that I end up looking purposefully for a mistake and 9 times out of 10 find one... conversely though the number of job adverts I see which are full of spelling and grammatical errors is astounding.

The other day I saw one for a customer adviser, home based, I can’t remember the full details but the job/person spec should have taken up about 5 paragraphs. It was all written in one line, and not a single punctuation mark.

I needed a new assistant, we interviewed everyone who applied for the job as we were paranoid about being accused of discrimination. The one male applicant arrived drunk, and having tried to mask this with strong aftershave. He told me he could not do the "typing test" as it was badly thought out and he could devise a better one. When he didn't get the job he complained that as he had been to school with our Chair he should have been sucessfull.

Oh I agree. When we advertise I re-read it so many times before it gets published. I appreciate if I'm expecting excellence from a candidate they should also be expecting it from us too.

It would colour my opinion of an employer if their advert was poor.

Many years ago, the HR department at the university where I worked put a job description and person specification prepared in Word on the website for all to see without noticing that Track Changes was still switched on. You could see comments all the way through. I hope they were all as innocuous as 'Jane to insert salary' or similar, but how could they be sure? I wouldn't have been impressed as a potential candidate (as an existing employee I wasn't surprised in the slightest).

I used to work in recruitment. You'd be amazed how many younger adults' mummy's and daddy give you a call/drop you an email

So did I, so I wouldn't be amazed at all - and these weren't school leavers but graduates

My favourite was the mum who answered her son's mobile, and didn't appreciate being asked to tell him that Arthur Brown's "Fire" wasn't a very professional choice for an intro to leaving a message - immediately after 9/11
I never did manage to contact the lad, and when his application failed mum must have called 8 or 9 times demanding he be given a chance although "a very silly boy, but he's always been the same"

Sometimes they're just "touching base" so you know they are there if you have any concerns, sometimes they are very angry that their child did not get the job and are there to tell you that you must give it to them.

Oh my God, I always wondered what happens to those university students whose parents phone up to argue about their grades! I always thought 'what is this person going to do when their 'child' enters work'? It turns out they just....carry on...

🤣🤣 love this.

But that's the point of an interview - people are seeing whether they want to work for you just as much as you're assessing whether they are suitable. They are essentially interviewing you too and it's a poor company which doesn't recognise this.

Could you use Hyperthetical examples, e.g. The three or five people and time was limited but needed to choose one group or another to save, as both was not possible and explain your reasoning and perspectives ?