re: Unusual Things You Heard People Say During A Job Interview?

Had one guy tell me "mental illness runs in my family"

Another didn't have a Email address on his resume when I asked if he had one he replied
"sniff doggy poo@ ----.com "

Most unusual thing I heard was someone saying they were not going to work 40 hours per week. Easy response was that we are both on the same page because you have to be willing to work way more than that here to succeed. “Let our receptionist validate your parking and thank you for your time this morning”.

I recently received a resume with cover letter which began "Once upon a time."

I was the technical interviewer.
Guy applicant has the degree, the training, well spoken, properly dressed for downtown Chicago. Pleasant even.
However, he is handsome as Redford at 25.


I then have to confer with the the mgr of dept. I say how I like dude. The mgr says, " not hiring him because I would feel ugly every time I saw him."

*sorry - wall of text. Decent story, though.

I was flown out from Dallas to Burbank to interview for a position as national sales manager with Sanyo Electronics. I suggested staying overnight to avoid problems with weather delays, traffic, etc. and to make sure we had plenty of time for the interview. They refused, and purchased a round-trip ticket for fly in/fly out the same day. Whatever.

Of course, the flight was delayed an hour and a half due to bad weather in Dallas, so this cost time, and I couldn't stop for lunch either. When I arrived at their office, I waited at the front reception area for 30 minutes before someone finally came out, handed me a six page application to fill out and said to include my complete and full employment history, including dates, addresses, phone numbers, direct reports, references, salary history, etc... I said, no, I'm here to interview with the company president and that HR and the president already have my resume. The wonan told me very coldly that either I fill out the application completely or I don't get to interview. I knew then that I should have just left, but instead, pissed off, I filled the damn thing out, and it took a long time. Except the salary history.

By the time I was done, and notified the receptionist that I was done, I had only about two hours left in my day before I'd need to leave to return to the airport. 30 minutes go by, and I'm getting more and more pissed off. Finally, a woman comes out and has me follow her to an office to wait for the company president. She grills me about my salary history and I refuse to discuss it, saying that I assume the company already has a salary and performance number to discuss when they make a decision to offer the position. She finally gives up and leaves the room. Another 30 minutes go by with nobody in the room but me, and now I'm getting steamed.

Finally, the president, vice-president and CIO come in. I have about an hour left before I need to leave. We all shake hands and make introductions.

For 20 minutes, the CIO talked non-stop about the company, its technologies and business goals. He never asked me a single question. When he was done, the president stood up, picked up a remote control and turned on a projector on the ceiling and started into describing the company and its culture using a PowerPoint presentation. This went on for another 20 minutes. No questions were asked of me. When he was finished, I had only about 20 minutes left before I would need to leave. I notified them of this, and suggested the airline ticket be changed to the next day and I would stay overnight in a hotel, and had packed a bag as a contingency. The president said to nevermind, that 20 minutes would be enough time.

Now, I was genuinely mad. This is still so vivid in my memory. He was still standing at the head of the table. He looked at me, placed both hands on the table, leaning into it, looked me in the eyes and asked me, "So... tell me. Who are you? What is it about you that is so compelling and makes you tick that we should consider hiring you for this position?" What a bullshite, loaded garbage question to ask. Not, "Your resume looks great, and you've shown incredible success. Tell us about your work at Company A and how this led to you moving on to Company B." No. They wasted all that time and energy to ask me a crappy, trip-up question like that.

I snapped. My blood was boiling. They had completely wasted my time. I knew there was no way I wanted to work for this group of assholes, so I looked at the president and very calmly stated, "This is the first time in my life I've had an unpleasant experience while being jerked off."

They were all sorta' shocked. The president looked at me and said, "What did you say?" I pointed at him said, "This whole experience has been nothing but a huge jerk off. I hope you at least use lube for the next dumbass who comes in here for an interview." I closed up my binder, walked out of the room, down the hall and out the front door. Sent those frickers a bill, too, for the rental car, which, they actually paid.

I got calls from people I know from all over the country (some inside at Sanyo) laughing about it. People inside Sanyo still talk about how some guy from Texas totally took a dump on their a-hole president. frick them. They were jerks for how they treated me.

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I snapped. My blood was boiling. They had completely wasted my time. I knew there was no way I wanted to work for this group of assholes, so I looked at the president and very calmly stated, "This is the first time in my life I've had an unpleasant experience while being jerked off."

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Ever consider it was all just a test? Lots of people like to sweat their candidates with crazy stuff.

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"if you were an item in a grocery store, what would you be?"

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The cash register is the correct answer.

Do you buy Sanyo products?? Ha

it's interesting when employees of companies that are public facing treat employees at vendors and such like total crap. I've got a few companies I wont support from dealing with how ugly their internals are. It doesnt matter, but it's interesting they dont realize they are talking to a "customer" when they are using the "I'm a customer" excuse.