Interviews are nervewracking. It’s long, it’s tedious and it makes or breaks your chances of getting your foot in the door. What happens when the interview isn’t even conducted in a professional manner? I’m in my second week of my new job and I sit here, grateful that my six month search has finally come to an end. I also think back on the 27 interviews I went to. Some were good, some were bad, some were downright ridiculous. I think it’s safe to say I have a pretty good idea of how the interview process works, or at least, how it should work.
Sure some companies like to differ from others, giving creative interview questions such as “Describe to me your favorite cereal” or “Act out any Disney character trying to change a tire” (an actual interview question if you want to work for Disney), but at the end of the day, most interviews are generally the same: they want to see if you will fit into the company culture.
There are dozens of work articles that teach you important interview etiquette and tips. These articles hit more topics including what to wear, body language, eye contact, research the company beforehand, etc.
Being on the other side of the interview, I’ve compiled a list of things of how an interview should not go. For the record, I’ve never conducted an interview in my life but I’m pretty sure I know what shouldn’t be done.
Here is a list of the do’s and don’ts of how to conduct an interview. These actually happened to me and I would never want it to happen for anyone else.
1. DO show up to interview me. It’s rude to skip out on an interview without cancelling first. It’s also rude when I, the interviewer, show up and am told that you decided to take a lunch break five minutes our scheduled interview was about to start. Maybe you forgot, maybe you wanted to play the authority card; whatever the reason, my time is still precious to me, even as an unemployed citizen at the time. I don’t appreciate spending 45 minutes just waiting for you to come back from your lunch break. At the very least, please give me a call to let me know that our interview will be pushed back until later. I respect your time and would have done the same for you.
3. DON’T have me interview with someone who doesn’t even work with the company. When you first brought your uncle over to talk with me, I assumed he worked for the company too. After all, it was a small business, perhaps it was a family-run business. However, when I found out that your uncle was merely visiting and had no connection with the business whatsoever, I was beyond confused. Maybe he was just getting a feel for my personality. Maybe he wanted to see how I dealt in unexpected situations. Whatever the case, I really don’t know how talking about his two daughters and their desire to attend Julliard had anything to do with anything.
4. DO give me the right address to your own company. It’s one thing for you to expect me to research on your company before I get to the interview, it’s entirely another when you don’t even know your own company. I get it, you just moved office locations. If you got the wrong office number, it’s somewhat understandable. It’s not understandable when you give me an address that is completely random and not even the address of your old office location. How do you expect me to know the basics of your company when you yourself, do not even know?
5. DON’T have me run a personal errand for you after our interview. If I was your personal assistant, hell, if I was even employed by you, it would make more sense to do an errand for you. But asking me to drop off your dry-cleaning when I don’t even work for you? I wouldn’t want to work for you even if I got hired. Maybe it was a test to see how dedicated I was, but considering I was not officially offered a position yet, I have no obligation to do your dirty work for you. Honestly, this entire scenario made no sense. I thought the interviewer was cracking a joke, until he pulled out a handful of work shirts from under his desk and handed them over to me. Being afraid (and stupid) to say no, I took them and dropped them off. And then I never heard from them again. Good to know that you wanted to play the power card right before I left. Also good to know that I’m a sucker who can’t say no to doing things like this.
6. DON’T Facebook while interviewing me. Hey, I get it. You want to be hip and up-to-date with what the kids are doing today but please don’t be updating your profile while you’re interviewing me, especially if I can see your computer screen. If you expect me to work for you and not conduct leisure activities while on the clock, please give me the same respect of not doing the same, especially if our interview is only 15 minutes long. I think you can pry yourself away from Facebook for that long, right?
Okay that’s all I can think of right now. While I am grateful for being able to improve my interviewing skills with every interview, I’m even more grateful that I’m not doing this anymore. It’s been exhausting and I hope no one ever walks into a ridiculous interview.
HAHA wow these are just.. beyond crazy.
“why are you here?” i got yelled at before because I showed up 15 minutes before the scheduled interview time. the interviewer was pissed because the HR person scheduled me when the HR person should’ve known that he would’ve been busy for another 30 minutes. i said it wasn’t a problem, i didn’t mind waiting for a bit. sheesh. i come on time and get chewed out because the guy is pissed at HR. American Express Financial, you are lame. i was to have a second interview, but didn’t schedule it. why would i want to work there?
what company were #1 & 2 at?