I am moving my blog to some kind of otherworldly portal, this weekend. Punk Rock HR is joining the 21st century and will be self-hosted & fancy & stuff.
I have no idea if I will be able to post over the next few days, so I’ll run a contest.
*
Ellen Gordon Reeves sent me two copies of Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?
I haven’t read it — but you can win a copy if you tell me about your most surreal interview experience as either a candidate or Human Resources professional.
I once had a contract recruiter interview me for the role of a Corporate Recruiter. She ask me to role play, which rubs me the wrong way. She handed me a sheet of paper and said, “Pretend that you are a recruiter and I’m the Vice President of IT. I am hiring a data center operator. What questions would you ask if you read this job description?”
I looked down at the sheet of paper and said, “I’m not playing this game.”
She protested. “How am I supposed to know if you know how to recruit?”
I said, “Check my references.”
That was pretty much the end of our discussion, and I came home and laughed about the interview. Who role plays? What kind of Vice President of IT cares about hiring a data center operator?
Well I got an offer, and I accepted the job. I’ll tell you this much: the VP of IT was all over me like a rash about those stupid data center operators. I should have known better, but I was so young. Lesson learned.
What’s your story?
Laurie Ruettimann: Team Building is for Suckers and Punk Rock HR is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
I was once on an interview panel at the company I worked for in Durham. We were interviewing for a new receptionist. My boss told me and the other lady that was on our panel that there was something weird about this candidate’s appearance and that we should try not to focus on it. So, we assumed it was a birthmark or some other disfigurement…no…it was the quarter-inch layer of makeup that she had on coupled with the half-inch BLACK eyebrows the candidate had drawn on that morning (it looked like she’d shaved her real eyebrows to draw those on). I think a mole or a scar would have been much easier to ignore!
Hi Laurie,
My most surreal experience landed me my current gig. My first two interviews were standard fare and while I was nervous, I was in familiar territory. I should’ve known something was up when I was told to “dress casually” for the third (group) interview.
Anyway, I show up and after a brief introduction they set us up for the day. First, they had us play with Legos and a tennis ball (!). The objective was to build a castle while passing the ball around the table to your teammates. When that was done they had us role play. As a group we had to revitalize a failing supermarket chain and present our results to the board of directors (the group interviewers). What we didn’t know was that it was a stress test. After 10 minutes our appointed CEO was terminated by the board and we were asked point blank if it was fair.
Afterwards we all had lunch together.
Yikes, the list is endless…
Personally perhaps the time I stood up following an interview with a huge multi-national only to realise that my leg had gone to sleep during the interview and I was keeling over eventually landing flat on my face on the interview room floor and eventually being helped out into a lift. Or perhaps the time when interviewed by a major manufacturer of cigarettes when answering the question about the most difficult time in my life and how I overcame it, telling them all about my mothers cancer and the impact that it had on my life…..doh!
Professionally, there was one who had a gap on his CV, when I asked him about it he said “I was unwell, a little depressed, I had to go away for a while to get some help. You see I’ve always had dark thoughts and I used to talk to my mum. But then she killed herself. Then I had a girlfriend and I used to talk to her….but she killed herself. So then I didn’t have anyone to talk to and that when things got bad and why I really need to get back into work.” NEXT!
Me and a co-worker were doing interviews for sales reps and that round of interviews had to be some of the weirdest I’ve ever done:
1. A woman walks in wearing jeans, and a t-shirt saying “single and sexy” on it- needless to say we didn’t hire her.
2. Another woman comes in and she’s taking time from her current job to do our interview- and all through the interview she’s taking calls on her cell phone from one her her co-workers!
3. We called a man in for an interview and he brings his wife along to be interviewed as well.
4. This young girl (obviously this had to be her first interview because it was horrible), every time you asked her a question- she froze- I swear- you could hear crickets chirping!
That’s just the three weirdest ones that really stick out. Me and my colleague were like “These people can’t be serious!”
Dude, I’ll work an getting you a fabulous t-shirt. My worst story was years ago, I was interviewing with a hiring manager and he asked me what I learned in the Army. I gave the standard answer: Team work, leadership, yadda yadda yadda. He said “no really, what did you learn in the Army”, so I broke it down for him, telling him I learned how to perform the various crew roles in a Main Battle Tank, conduct PMCS, yadda yadda yadda. He then leaned over to me and asked in a near angry tone, “Tell me what you really learned in the Army.” I was a tad pissed at this point, because clearly he had as issue with the Military. I swallowed my anger, and asked in my sweetest voice, are you asking if I was trained to kill? He said yes that was all the Army was good for. I stood said fuck you, turned and walked out with out another word.
I went to an interview at a non-profit medical center for an HR admin job when I was in college. I was asked by the CEO, with a serioius face, if I was pregnant or if I planned on getting pregnant within the year because “the last girl we hired kept having too many babies.” I was so shocked that I couldn’t say anything. I just left.
To this day I regret not going old school on his ass.
I had a candidate go into disturbingly disgusting detail about how she had spilled hot coffee on her private parts the day before our interview. She spewed the nasty description of what the burn did, her visit to the hospital….she continued on even through my gagging, heaving, wretching response.
ugh…….
Had a candidate come in for an interview…wait for it….in drag. Complete top to bottom with heels, hose, earrings and make-up, drag.
It seems s/he was in the midst of working through some questions of biology, gender and gender reassignment.
We went with another candidate.
I’ll leave you to fill in the blanks on the actual interview and decision making process after the interview.
I am not the receptionist, but I was up at the reception desk dropping something off. A candidate came in for his interview, so I walked him back to the interview room. He was a candidate to be my bosses replacement, but I though I would not tell him that and see how he treated me. When I turned to glance at him (he was walking slightly behind me) I saw him looking at my ass. He looked up and locked eyes with me and said “nice”. When we got to the interview room it was occupied, so we stood outside and chatted for a moment. He kept making passes at me, so I told him that I was married and in fact my husband works at the company. He still made passes, and to my luck my husband walked by so I yelled “hi hun!” (which I would never do normally). The candidate made a face and said “THAT is your husband? You have got to be kidding me”. I tried to keep my cool, and the candidate finally asked me what my position was. I told him, and he soon figured out that he would be my boss. He made some sleezy comment about how he would love to have me beneath him, and the interview team finally came to the room. I wasn’t in the interview, but afterward I told our recruiter the whole story.
They were going to hire the bastard—they had extended an offer. Needless to say, our recruiter called the candidate back and recinded the offer. WHEW!
At the end of last year, we started hiring for two new Case Managers in our organization. There were three of us sitting on the panel to conduct interviews. There are two stories that stand out from this process:
1. The woman who was supposed to have her interview at 9:00 and called at 9:30 and said “I’m late.” Really?
2. The woman who had obviously been biting her fingernails before the interview (they were pretty short and a few were a little bloody). From the first question to the last, she constantly referred to handwritten notes she had made on crinkled notebook paper that still had the little fringes on the edge. Even with her notes she was at a loss for most answers which I found amazing since she had been an employment counselor for the last 10 years.
I need this book. I am a Case Manager working with young people ages 14-21 trying to help them find jobs, graduate high school, and go on to college or long-term employment. It sounds like a great resource. There are better stories on here but you should pick me.
I was interviewing for a tenure track teaching position after finishing my Ph.D. back in 1988. One of the schools I applied to had no women in their business college so apparently were motivated to hire me. They put me up in a 5 star hotel, had flowers, wine, and fruit basket in the room, took me to a really nice restaurant…I wasn’t sure if they wanted to hire me or date me!
I went for an interview one time for a glass manufacturer. It was for a brand merchandising position, dealing with the stores the company sells to in a “male dominated” industry. After telling me that women tend to have more success in these roles because of that fact he proceeded to ask me what my interests were. When I told him that I had recently taken up running as a hobby his response was as follows:
“Really? Well you don’t need to you’re already slim.”
Wow. Or maybe I did it cause I wanted to, not because I was trying to lose weight?! My background in HR had alarm bells going off and told me to run, not walk, in the opposite direction.
I dont know if I can top some of the great posts but I have a funny story from earlier this week.
We interviewed a candidate this week for a biling position. When asked about her assessment of success she said she deemed success as her daughter (who we later learned was 1yr old) having a high gpa.
When asked about her error rate on billing, she said she had never, never had an error – hardly…
When we asked her what she was looking for in her ideal job, she said “good day care”.
When the manager asked her, “What can you bring to this company that the other candidates cannot?” she says…..wait for it…
I’m fashionable.
I’ll give her credit, she was fashionably dressed and we have some that are without a doubt fashion challened.
I showed up for an interview with this company that sold corporate artwork that you see in big corporate buildings (duh). When I showed up, they had some crazy techno music blaring so loud I couldn’t even hear the receptionist tell me to have a seat.
As I am sitting there, the employee’s are running around and screaming , high fiving and chest bumping each other like it was NBA basketball game. When I finally got called into the interview, I went through all the standard interview questions with the CEO of the company.
At the end of the interview he tells me there is one more step I need to go through if I wanted the job. He told me that I would first have to take a brochure of their art products and go sell them for the day. He was like I will see you back her at 6 p.m. and we’ll talk some more. It was only around 8 a.m. at the time.
As I asked more questions, turns out the guy wanted me to just go walk around the city and sell their products cold. I asked him would I be paid for this time and he told me only if I got the job. I walked out of his office, threw the brochure in the trashcan of the lobby and went home.
I could only guess that they advertised for fake jobs to get free labor out of a bunch “interviewees” that they would never hire because there were a whole line of people waiting to be “interviewed” after me.
I used to work in HR for a manufacturing company and we hired a lot of convicts/homeless people/people with very strange backgrounds. That’s all good and well, but one day, an older man walked in and asked for an application. We let him fill one out and as he was doing so, he began making conversation.
Among the things he said:
-That Robert Mitchum was his handler in the CIA
-That Robert Mitchum’s wife “brought [him] into this world,” was his “matron,” and that that meant she was the one who “pulled [him] out,” not his mother.
-That he was an attorney/Harvard Law grad. He said he had a PhD and an MD in law and had attended Harvard for 17 years, while working as a janitor.
-After a lull in the conversation, he casually asked my coworker, “Ever heard of Ted Kennedy?” and my coworker said yes, and the guy said, “That’s me.” I said, “I thought your name was ____,” and he said, “No, that’s my other name. I was trapped on the Island of Papillion because the Queen sent me there.”
-Then he listed the whole Kennedy family, including “My son Jean Claude Van Damme from Belgium. Bruce Lee’s wife’s sister was my wife, and my other son is Brandon Lee.”
-There was a big story about how he was accused of stealing from the US Government so he was adopted by the French Legionnaire and became a legionnaire at age eleven, and the Queen exiled him to this Island of Papillion for safekeeping.
-And, of course, that he can type 400 wpm.
In subsequent conversations, of which there were many because he called and came back at least two more times, he told us he is Frank Sinatra Jr., that his fiancé is Jimmy Hoffa’s daughter, and that he used to work with Jimmy Hoffa. He also had lots of stories about the good old days when he worked at our company (he did actually work there in the 70s for about a year or two, but none of these stories were factual at all).
Clearly, he was mentally ill, so it’s really rather sad, but we were so overcome with “WTF.” It was the most bizarre thing ever, because he said all of this like he was talking about the weather.
Also, one time we hired a murderer. But that’s a whole other story.
Wow. These are all totally better than me being asked during a 7person panel interview: “Suppose it’s 4 pm on a Friday and you’ve been told to make M&Ms from scratch. What would you do?”
(Because we all know how important it is for corporate communicators to make M&Ms on Fridays at 4.)
And, the question came from my soon-to-be director, who was about as clueless as anyone I’ve had except for the former shoe salesman who tried to tell me how to write. (Me, the former newspaper reporter/Journalism graduate/award-winning writer in two states….yeah, that one wasn’t good.)
But the M&Ms was the tops.
My father told me once about a guy that he was interviewing for a position that just reeked of booze — breath, clothes, everywhere. Which is bad in its own right, but its especially so when the position in question was for a long-haul truck driver. Needless to say, my dad went with someone else.
I’m a retail recruiter and regularly conduct group interviews. I interview approximately 40-60 candidates per month. I hear some pretty outrageous responses – seems that some people have no “filters.”
Among the craziest interview responses were:
1. Asked for an example of your best customer service, and this guy spoke of his management of local strip club, where he had an angry Russian customer who was not satisfied with his lap dance. He then went on to explain how he appeased his customer by giving him a refund. My jaw nearly dropped. Everyone in the room was smirking.
2. Greatest accomplishment? Giving birth to a baby as a teenager. TMI!
3. Asked what they want to do as a profession in the future: A girl responded, I want to be a parole officer because I had a really great parole officer a few years ago….
Those are the three that stick in my mind. I have heard countless stories from young candidates about why they barely finished high school, having kids in high school and how their family did not support them. I have realized the “gems” out there truly are a rarity.
I really want to win this book!
During one of my first job interviews ever – out of the blue – I was asked to draw a tree. I must have had a WTF? look on my face, because the interviewer said that it was to test my creativity. The story sounded fishy to me, because I was applying for a job as a trainee legal P.A. – a job not necessarily known for its creativity. I scribbled down a sorry excuse for a tree and laughing said I was channeling Picasso.
I later found out that the tree drawing thing was a psychological test and apparently a lot could be told about your personality depending on how you drew this tree (with or without roots, dents in the bark, lots of leaves, etc.). Needless to say, I didn’t get the job – I guess they found someone else who really put some effort into their drawing, i. e. had a more balanced personality.
Long before a career in HR was even a twinkle in my eye I interviwed for a position as a web designer- back when people hired them and everyone didn’t know how to make their own-and the woman interviewing me said “Well I think we can make this work with you, and long as you don’t pull the SINGLE MOM CARD”.
Ha! Mine is off topic and not as funny as others, but just to add to the fun reading list:
We interviewed an admin assistant candidate who we really liked. Everything looked ok at first blush but when I interviewed her first reference I noticed that she had a very strange sounding British Accent. After about 5 minutes of talking it was pretty clear that it was the candidate pretending to be her own reference. I had a lot of fun messing with her – kept her on the phone for at least 30 minutes, grilled her second reference as well, asked her to produce copies of university degrees, etc.
In the end absolutely everything she’d presented had been a fabrication (all jobs, all education, etc). I can’t believe I came across someone with the nerve to be their own reference on the phone. How George Costanza.
After the heaps and heaps of reference checks that turn up exactly what you expected it’s nice to have the occasional reminder that we actually do these things for a reason.
I work in the beer industry. I had a candidate who wanted to be a “beer girl.” You know, hot pants, tank top, etc. Yeah, we don’t do that here. On her resume she listed the following jobs:
~ Front desk attendant at a gym
~ Juggies Girl on the Man Show
~ Teacher at Prestigious Pre-school, Inc.
~ Walmart underwear model
As it turns out the jobs at the gym and at Prestigious Preschool, both jobs she claimed to have worked at for 2 or more years, were jobs she would not have been hired back at and had only worked at around 2 months at most. She also had 2 DUIs and was applying for a job in which she would drive to and from events held in pubs and bars.
I have to add that I was not in the interview with this person and gave caution and objections at every turn – she lived out of state and I am a lowly HR Assistant – not to mention I am a female who does not buy into the “beer girl” persona as one that represents our company well.
When she didn’t get the job, her mother, yes her MOTHER, called and yelled at me, my boss, our background check agency, and the hiring manager. She threatened lawsuits and bodily harm. On behalf of her 30 year old daughter.
Jackbuilt
Mine is short and simple:
I had a candidate tell me that the Prophet of God, who lived in his closet, told him he needed this job.
He wasn’t joking.
OMG, I have read through all of these stories. Contest is still open until I move my blog. These are all great. These are all great starting points for blog posts, and I wonder why more of you don’t write!!
I once had an interview where each of the interviewers were supposed to ask me a different part of a personality test. Each interviewer introduced themselves to me as my “integrity” interviewer, or my “teamwork” interviewer. I never knew what any of these people did, or what my relationship would be to any of them if I got the job. There was not a single question about my competence or ability to do the job. I peaked, and saw that they were filling in little circles that represented my answers to their questions, like a standardized test. I played along, but I didn’t get the job. I later learned that I failed the arrogance test. I had to move away from Colorado and my life was changed forever.
Now, I understand the bullshit you HR people put each other through, after all, you have bullshit jobs and you have to use some level of role playing or bogus questioning to weed each other out. But I’m a technical professional, I make my living by making sense. So being screened on some standardized personality test was incredibly confusing and offensive.
How’d I do on your arrogance meters?
I don’t need this book, so someone else can win the prize.The stories are great. I worked in a gym where one of the members was just like the person who was Ted Kennedy.
I never remember the weird interviews, I think on purpose, but something happened this week. A very high level candidate called at 11am to say he needed to reschedule a phone interview that was happening at 2 that afternoon. He had unexpected jury duty. I said jury duty is never unexpected, so he said he had forgotten about it. So, why didn’t he call at 9 in the morning?
Because all his friends told him, don’t worry, you will be out by 3 pm. But his phone interview was at 2.
Then he called and asked if he should take a case and get jury duty over with. I said if you are job hunting, the case could last for weeks and you could lose out, but he really wanted to take a case and did. We rescheduled the phone interview and he told the court he had to have an appt. for later that week. They pulled him off the case and said he will have to be called again.
So, then he asked was I sure about the position, since he had wasted a day at court.
Then less than an hour before the rescheduled phone interview, the company called and had to reschedule. They gave a time, he couldn’t make it, so he gave me alternate times. They picked a time from that list and he forgot, he couldn’t make that time.
This is still going on. The interview is next Thursday.
Ages ago I was interviewing for bank tellers. Interviewed this dude who had like 10 years experience; had owned his own bookstore, lots of sales and service and up-selling in a neighborhood location with regular repeat customers. He developed relationships with them over time and knew what they wanted when they came into the store. He told me all about how he could suggest exactly what they desired because he knew them and always managed to sell additional items. Exactly like when our tellers convinced a checking account customer that a CD would be in their best interest.
Oh. Wait. It was an ADULT bookstore. And the best story he told me (I still recall it..) was when he convinced “Customer Joe” that if he purchased the correct type of lube to go along with his inflatable sheep, then he wouldn’t wear out the latex as quickly…