Doctors come to rescue
Katherine Kerrigan, a pleasant-looking woman, had applied for the position of an analyst. On her application form, under the ‘medical guidance required,’ she mentioned her past charge of felony conviction and agreed to explain further during interview. Katherine said she got over-possessive and furious at her boyfriend of six years and had hired someone to kill him. Fortunately, she called it off at the last minute and her now-ex-boyfriend is still alive. She mentioned that she is “all right” now and has been put on medication. She did great in her interview up until that point.
Job description reading is a must
Last summer some real interesting candidates had lined up at our place for the part-time positions of call center executives. A couple of them were high on cocaine when they came in. One lady said she hated talking to people and loved pin-drop silence. Another applicant said he hated using excel sheets and the Internet. One of them despised ecommerce. What was I interviewing them for? Calling up / receiving sales calls are bound to be part of the duties of a call center executive. (Why didn’t they apply for the post of a librarian?)
Survival of the fittest
I was once part of a campus placement team at a medical school; we were hiring nurses and paramedics at the moment. During the interviews, one of the students when asked if she was fine with doing blood tests, said that she faints at the mention of needles.
Girlfriend calling?
I was interviewing a law school graduate for a general counsel position. He was dressed very professionally and had about three years of experience. The interview was going smoothly for about 15 minutes when all of a sudden, his iPhone started ringing. Instead of putting it on silent mode, he answered it and began to sweet-talk to his girlfriend. I was shocked and said the interview was over. He could not figure out why I cut short the interview.
Love to backbite on your boss?
On asking a potential candidate why she was leaving her current company, she began grousing about her boss for the next 12 minutes. Then she told me the name of her boss! I have been going for my piano classes with this lady at the club near our office for the last 3 years. She and I had been paired up many times for performances and she seemed a soft-spoken, nice lady who treats everyone with dignity. When I told her that I knew her boss closely, the blood drained from her face. The world is really very, very small. She did not get a job at my place.
Honesty is truly the best policy
An applicant sent his resume with a very funny objective attached to his profile. He was trying to make a change in his career from the restaurant industry to corporate sales. Under the objective section, he wrote, "To stop receiving orders!"
Are you being snobbish?
I was interviewing a young lady for a front desk position. She had been working at a holistic spa, and in describing her experience there, she said, "I hated greeting the huge lot of ugly-looking old biddies." Needless to say, she was not hired by me.
Set your priorities
We were holding walk-in interviews for real estate accountants. There was this young man who was the last to be interviewed. Although he cleared all the tests and did well on the interview questions, he kept looking at his watch at regular intervals. We asked him to wait for some more to fill up the reference check form - the last step to him leading to the job. He appeared quite nervous and asked how much time it would take. Irritated at this point I asked him if he had some other priorities pending. I was indeed floored by his reply. “My wife is due this weekend and she is waiting outside the office building for me to take her for the final medical screenings. When asked why he didn't reschedule the interview after the baby was born, he said, "Because I really want this job." No guesses – he was hired.
