The desire to consume more than you need

I finally landed the interview I had sought for many years with a prestigious government agency. As part of the interview process, I was to prepare responses to various questions regarding my upbringing, education, experience, etc. These were intended to be short answer responses, but the next thing I knew I had a 15-page dissertation. Confident that more was better, I submitted my novel to the interviewer for review. I was surprised to learn that she had to wake up an hour early to read my responses prior to the 8:00 AM interview. Additionally, she then proceeded to ask me a slew of questions based on my lengthy responses, which may have otherwise gone unmentioned. Needless to say, I did not get the job.

As if the Starbucks coffee cup wasn’t enough…When asked what she does for fun, the response I got was this: “Drink. I like to go to the bar. My husband tells me I would live there if I could.” She then went on to say that she likes chatting with her girlfriends about other men. Did you not just tell me you were married?

This is an actual anecdote about job applicant gluttony. We keep a candy dish in our conference room. One applicant almost totally emptied it during his interview (the candies were Hershey kisses.) It was so distracting to watch him reach, unwrap and chew! The moral of this story: use your interview time wisely because the impression you leave on the hiring manager shouldn't include melted chocolate (or coffee, soda, etc.).

While conducting a team interview of a candidate for a position as a graphics designer, time was allotted for presentation of a portfolio. After five minutes of seeing the candidates work, I thanked him for showing his work and suggested that we continue with the questions. The candidate put away the portfolio but withdrew his laptop and proceeded to show his website designs ignoring my comment and addressing the only male in the group. At the end of the presentation, I thanked him for his time and told him that I was the hiring manager. After receiving his rejection letter, he called me to question why he did not receive the offer. My response to him was that I did not feel he was a good "fit" for my team.

I was interviewing a young man for a sales position. As he walked into my office, I held out my hand to shake and as he put his hand forward and started to speak, a Lifesaver fell out of his mouth and hit the back of my hand.

He was so flustered from that point on that the interview was a disaster and ended after 15 minutes.

I was interviewing developers during the dotcom boom, and it was very hard to find qualified candidates. This one guy came to us thru a headhunter, but he was a total disaster. I rejected him after about 10 minutes. Two weeks later, the headhunter sends me a list of new candidates, and this guy is listed again! I tell him, sorry, I already interviewed him, but no dice. Wouldnt you know it, another week later, for a DIFFERENT position, this guy comes in AGAIN for an interview. He had a rather common name, so I didnt make the connection this time, and his resume had changed. I walk into the room to interview him, and I recognize him and ask him what he thinks he's doing. He then claimed to be applying for a different position, he had newer experience. I ha seen him 3 weeks earlier!
He was a glutton for punishment.

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