An excessive love of self

I was interviewing prospective candidates for a legal assistant/secretarial position. One woman who was well credentialed and experienced was given an interview. During our interview she kept refering to herself in the third person, e.g., "Jane is a hardworker," or "Jane knows how to get the work out," etc. At first I wasn't sure what she was doing, so I asked her "who is Jane? I might want to hire her! Are you referring to yourself in the third person?" She completely ignored both my attempt to lighten the moment with humor and my obvious confusion with her self-reference. She was not offered a second interview as we don't hire royalty. More to the point: do relax enough, just enough, during an interview to engage appropriately with the interviewer. It demonstrates that you are a real person who is probably personable enough to fit in. At the very least, try not to refer to yourself by your first name! Thou shall not confuse the interviewer and still expect the job.

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.

I once was interviewing for part-time office help. One candidate poceeded to tell me how in his previous job he hated his boss, and was more capable of 'running the place' than he was. I asked him to elaborate, and he proceeded to tell me that when there was nothing to do, his boss would tell him to keep busy, doing 'meaningless tasks.' He then told me that if I ever asked him to do a 'meaningless task' he would walk out the door. Needless to say, I ended the interview very quickly. He even had the nerve to call me a few weeks later and ask why he didn't get the job.

A lady came in to interview for an office manager/receptionist position that we had available. It was St. Patrick's Day (this is important). She came up the stairs smoking a cigarette which she put out on the wall outside, then entered, smelling like the cigarette, of course. She had on a green tweed suit with a large troll, yes troll, with green hair pinned to her blazer.

She told me that she typed 90 WPM, we only required 50 WPM. I gave her the typing test and she typed a measly 22 WPM with several errors. She got very upset and I told her I would let her take it again, perhaps she was nervous? She took it again and did worse. Then she got very abrasive and said that it was our fault for not have an ergonomically correct keyboard, and that is what she is used to typing on. I told her that we would get back to her. She said "I'm upset, I don't think this interview went very well." Then she lit up a cigarette as she was going out the door and waited a few minutes for her ride to pick her up outside. Needless to say, she got a no thank you letter.

A developer that had worked briefly with our group 5 years before had applied for a job with our group again. When reviewing the Resume he talked about how he lead the development for a application. THe only problem was that I was on that project and he was not. Needless to say he did not get an interview.

Years before I completed two degrees, I had worked my way up the ranks within a large, successful technical firm. As we conducted our annual college hire recruiting activities, one candidate from a modest background with less than stellar grades, but a newly acquired degree raved on about how no one without a degree should ever be in a management role, that anyone without a degree just wasn't qualified to be a leader. Needless to say, the candidate did not make it to the "short list" of hires.

I once interviewed a candidate for a VP position. After he made himself comfortable I started to ask him some tough questions about his background and why my company should hire him. He informed me he was a friend of my Regional VP and had been assured he would be hired. I continued to ask questions only to receive the same type of responses from this candidate. Sadly, he didn't get the position. What he didn't know was the Regional VP had only been hired months earlier and my years with the company and as a VP provided me with the clout to ensure this person didn't become a member of the senior management team. When this candidate heard he wasn't declined and why he contacted me directly and asked if he could reapply for the position. Needless to say I said "no".

I was interviewing for a programmer's position. A candidate whom I had agreed to interview as a favor for a friend, arrived. He was 15 minutes late, dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, had a shaved head and his name tattooed on the back of his neck in bar code. When he sat down in my office, he slumped. He began talking to me about how lucky we would be to get him because of his brillance and star abilities. I was flabbergasted. I don't know why I actually sat through 45 minutes with this guy, but when he left, I immediately sent him a thank you but no thanks letter. He called me to tell me I better get used to dealing with programmers.

I had retooled my resume to reflect more skills and achievements for a particular interview with a president of a Wisconsin corporation. This president, after several minutes of reviewing my resume said, " Hmmmm.. you have a lot of accomplishments... you might even be a genius... too bad...
we don't hire those. And with that hair... you kind of look like Einstein too."
Gee... I used to have "pride" in my accomplishments... but that interview turned "pride" to "wrath".

Embellishing the resume

OK, it’s expected that a person will paint themselves in the best light on their resume, and it’s not too surprising to find some small embellishments, but flagrant lying goes a bit too far!

I was interviewing programmers and received a resume indicating that the candidate had single-handedly designed and built a critical piece of software, saving a project in the process. Very impressive, but what the candidate could not know is that I had MANAGED that project and had FIRED this person for gross incompetence! Needless to say he was not called in for an interview.

We were interviewing for a new vice presidential position. A strongly-favored candidate arrived and was convinced that he would have the job based on what he had learned from the headhunter. Rather than answering any of the questions given, he asked about schools, commute, restaurants--any number of things EXCEPT the job. Needless to say, he did not join us.

On my way into the office one morning, some guy rudely shoves past me on the sidewalk . He gives me a dirty look and mutters something rude under his breath. I shoot a look back and continue on my way. I notice he enters my office building.

Fast forward half an hour later, and as I step into the conference room to interview someone for an open req I've got, who should be there, but the shover.

In case you're wondering, he didn't get the job.

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