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?

Remembered another one. Man turned up for interview. Not obviously drunk but smelling strongly of alcohol. Unfortunately for him he was applying for a job at a Police establishment and as he had driven there was given a breathalyser test, blew over (significantly) got arrested for drink driving then spent several hours in the cells before being charged and released.

Also to add this interview was about 3/4 in the afternoon so no excuse of having had a heavy night and not realising he was still over. His excuse was that he'd had a drink to calm his nerves!

Omg, so many. Interviewing is joyous and frustratingly awful in equal measure.

Totally agree about excellent attention to detail and have seen more then one CV where they've spelt detail detial, which makes the whole thing worse. It's rare to see an error-free CV.

We've had the guy who brought his dad to interview, a few criers, one person who announced she couldn't possibly work in our open plan office but then wanted to continue the office (pre hybrid being a real option).

The worst recent one was where we accidentally let in a criminal for first stage interview, toured him round the office and someone recognised him from the news.

God, I meant continue the interview, not office. I'm tired and would fail my own test today.

Years ago, I was interviewed once for a job. I was a good match for the job spec and had prepared carefully. One of the interviewers had a dreadful cough, to the point that most of my answers were completely obliterated by her coughing. They turned me down but there was no way they could have heard more than 10% of what I said!

I work in a nursery and a few years back (when we could actually recruit staff), a woman was so nervous, she cried. Manager still gave her the job though.

How are you supposed to answer that question without sounding a bit self-satisfied?

What a colossally stupid ice-breaker question!

That reminds me of when, years ago I was asked to sit in on an interview where I worked, took a look at the CV of the incoming candidate and saw that it was a woman I had worked with before who had added my role to her CV, instead of the massively more junior job she'd done. She looked pretty shocked when she came in and saw me with the CV in my hands. She didn't get invited back.

I work for a well known charity with dogs, we regularly have dogs in the room during interviews, or in the waiting room to see how people respond. I was interviewing a woman once who asked us to remove the dog because the noise of the dog was distracting her. She was applying to work directly with the dogs 🤦🏼‍♀️

Depends on what the dog is doing surely? If it’s jumping up or barking that would be pretty off-putting during an interview, no matter how much you love dogs.

I love DS5 but I would 100% kick him out of the room if I was interviewing!

I think applying to work directly with dogs would require the interviewer to observe how the candidate would interact with a dog, particularly a ‘spirited’ rescue dog. I homecheck for a charity and often bring my own dog to meet would-be owners when I interview them (especially first timers) to see how they interact with him. It’s made the world of difference in some cases, meaning our dogs haven’t been placed in unsuitable homes.

Hahahahah that made me roar

Really? You are recruiting a head teacher for a school in an area they would consider bad and openly despise some parents just because they're from the area? How can they manage a school like that, deal with all possible issues?

I had an interview a bit like this.

I'd been approached by the employer and asked to interview. I asked a couple of questions about the details of the role and the male interview (of course) rather sharply told me that he was the one conducting interview, not me.

There were a couple of other red flags in the interview and I took enormous pleasure in withdrawing my interest the moment I returned to my desk post interview.

I was asked at an interview. "If I could choose, what animal would I be and why" I was able to answer every question up until that point.

I hate stupid questions like that. What is the point of them? I once got asked what my favourite possession was. I can't even remember what I said.

I wasn't interviewing but a man turned up at our practice with his mother who he wanted to sit with him in the interview. He then asked where she'd sit if he got the job. He truly thought he could bring his mum to work every day 😳

I have interviewed a cryer or two, a fainter, someone trembling so much with nerves that we had to help her to her seat and someone who got a really impressive fit of nervous giggles so we had to stop the interview for a while. That was actually quite funny and gave us all a laugh. I interviewed someone who was nervously drinking constantly from a water bottle with a straw and gurgling the water. But my all-time favourite weird interviewee was someone who answered throughout in a 'little-girl' voice and did cat impressions.

Brilliant 😀

WTF?! 😯

Training position, asked the candidate why she wanted the role and she stated ‘ I’ve heard about your shit training programmes, and frankly I can do better than that. Everyone knows your customer services are a joke and need major work.’
she got the job.

Another one - me and another female colleague interviewing.
asked the guy - around 30 or so- why he’d be good for the job and he said, You don’t need to worry about me getting pregnant in a couple of years and disappearing off on maternity leave…
we’re a global company, 65% female industry and we don’t ‘worry’ about maternity, we support our staff and they come back.
he didn’t get the job!

I had a candidate once who was not only very cocky (talking like he already had the job), but gave off a really flirtatious vibe and at one point even winked at me. I wondered if I was imagining it, but two other interviewers on the same loop - including a man - said he’d done the same!

I was conducted an interview in a room with a TV mounted to a wall, as we used to for video link-ups. The candidate’s eyes were focused on this (blank) screen throughout. He barely made eye contact with me.

Another one was where the candidate just wouldn’t listen to what I was trying to tell her. I worked for a big retailer at the time and she was waxing lyrical about how much she would enjoy working in industry X (the product for which the company was originally best known). I said, ‘Just so you know, X is quite a mature area of our business now. It’s more likely you’d be assigned to Y or Z, as those are the growth areas. Would that be an issue for you?’ She said ‘Oh yes, I understand that, that’s great… so, how often would I be involved in X?’ Me: ‘It’s unlikely you will’. Her: ‘And would I need to go to X trade shows, X corporate events, get to meet people from the world of X?’

The interview slot was 45 minutes and I knew within less than ten that there was zero chance I’d hire her.

Honestly, I wouldn't know what to answer. Whatever you say, it's gonna look bad, i.e. "I would want to be a cat. Everybody would try to catch my attention and serve me", what would they think? Not a team player? If I said dog, they'd think I will be doing what others tell me? Seriously, no idea. This question is beyond stupid.

I had the animal question once in an interview. And which car I would be. And what my greatest weakness was. I turned down the 2nd interview on the grounds that they seemed like unimaginative fuckwits if they thought those were good questions that would reveal anything about someone!!!