re: Craziest/most interesting job interview?

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Stryker was my strangest interview by far. Interviewed with them twice. Never got the offer.

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What happened?

not as life threatening, but i have a pretty good one.

it's very TL;DR

this is for my current job. i install network security in schools for a living.

i'm was customer of the company i was looking to work for. their network engineer was leaving and they were looking to pull from their customer base and my boss at the school i worked at told me that i did great at my job, but he wasn't going anywhere and the best he could ever do for me was a 2% raise per year and that i should interview for this one.

so i go through the interview process. goes great. then they have me take a personality test, which i apparently fail. they said we love everything about you, but your willingness to be salesy is a liability. i was pissed at the time, but i get it now. if i'm not willing to work after a sale, we don't get money.

anyways, they think i'm good for the job but their consultant says, make him go install the product as a part of the interview. so i load up with the engineer in his car, that's leaving the company and drive down to the Rio Grande Valley to install in a few schools. outgoing guy is a bit weird, but it's fine. we go to the first school and i do the install fine, but when i get done, the guy is gone. I call him a few times and don't know where he is.

Then my potential new employer calls me and says "you got the job." he doesn't know how i did. the guy i'm replacing doesn't even know how i did. i'm sitting outside of a school in the valley and don't even have a ride and this is before Uber. Finally he rolls back up and i get in and he says "i've quit the company. you should take the job." little more conversation about the travel and what the job entails, but he's really cryptic.

we go to a hotel and he gets me a room and i'm stuck there having no idea WTF happened and what have i got myself into. Next morning he calls and says let's go to next school. we go, i install it, everything's great. meanwhile, new employer is texting me to take the job, upping the pay, practically begging me. Money is getting good, i just don't know WTF is going on.

I finally get dropped back off at my car and i call the employer to find out what's happening. it turns out that the outgoing engineer was leaving to a competitor and was actively trying to steal contracts from the old company while he was on his last two weeks before our trip and while we were down there. a few customers called and told my boss what was going on and he fired him while i was in the middle of our first job. Outgoing dude was threatening to leave me there in the valley and my boss was trying to appease him to not do that so that the company wouldn't be left high and dry and i wouldn't bail on them.

it's actually a great professional organization that pays well and i've been here for almost 10 years, but that insanity almost made me walk away.

I sat in on a interview for the technical side of the hiring process. I had done this in the past with the HR rep and knew she always started slow and easy to get the applicant comfortable and relaxed.
Within a minute after the introductions, this guy jumps right in and starts listing his 'demands' for employment. Salary, work schedule, location, office requirements and what areas of the job he would do and would not agree to.
It was pretty bizarre and at first, I thought HR was playing on joke on me. When I realized they weren't, I excused myself because I knew it wasn't going to last much longer and it didn't.

Anyone who has worked in sales or managed anyone involved in the sales process knows that when salespeople resign, throw them out right then. Do NOT let them in front of your customers because, as you found out, they are likely going to a competitor and will be trying to a)steal your client base, or b) trash your company to the clients so they stop doing business with you.

I've been in sales for 20 years and the longest I've stayed with a company after I resigned is one day (and I was asked to leave at 9AM the next morning after I finished up with HR). Every other time, I was asked to leave the same day I submitted my notice.

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Anyone who has worked in sales or managed anyone involved in the sales process knows that when salespeople resign, throw them out right then. Do NOT let them in front of your customers because, as you found out, they are likely going to a competitor and will be trying to a)steal your client base, or b) trash your company to the clients so they stop doing business with you.

I've been in sales for 20 years and the longest I've stayed with a company after I resigned is one day (and I was asked to leave at 9AM the next morning after I finished up with HR). Every other time, I was asked to leave the same day I submitted my notice.

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i think my boss knows that now.

it's a small mom and pop company and everybody is treated like family. this guy lied straight up and said he was going to work for the government, so my last boss let it ride out. ever since then, the second he lets somebody go, or they put in a 2 weeks, i (we're so small that i'm the sales engineer and the IT staff) shut off all their access.

The most interesting one I had was back in my youth when I was a golf professional at a country club.

Interviewed at an "old money" club in a smallish GA town. Head professional had been there forever. Last question in my interview was a request for a handwriting sample. Asked about it and he said that part of my job was creating the scoreboards used at every club tournament. He hired a guy years prior that was very good at the job, but had totally illegible handwriting and couldn't do the scoreboards. So he made that a part of the interview process. I can't do calligraphy, so I didn't get the job.

Or, you were suppose to ask questions relative to the project direction...being thorough and inquisitive about the job to id any mistakes...before you started..

Most of those are designed where the candidate never actually completes the task, once they exhibit the critical thinking skills needed, are present.

I gave a job interview once. Woman told me she needed the job to be able to support her habits

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Synthis

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Are you sure he wasn't a homo?