More dumb things actually said in job interviews
August 17, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In This Week's E-Newsletter, Interviewing, Latest News & Views
When HR pros ask candidates why they’re leaving their current job, they expect to get a picture about what work environment the applicants succeed in. But sometimes they get answers like these.
Here are the five dumbest responses to the question “Why are you leaving your current job?” according to a recent CNN poll of HR managers:
- “Because I [wet] my pants every time I enter the building.”
- “Cigarettes are more expensive, so I needed another job.”
- “I got fired because they were forcing me to attend anger management classes.”
- “My boss didn’t like me, so one day, I left and never came back. And here I am!”
- “I stole some equipment from my old job, and I had to pay for its replacement.”
Other random interviewee comments reported in the survey:
- “How many young women work here?”
- “I didn’t steal it; I just borrowed it.”
- “You touch somebody and they call it sexual harassment!”
- “May I have a cup of coffee? I think I may still be a little drunk from last night.”
- “Can we meet next month? I am currently incarcerated.”
Tags: dumb comments, interviews
August 17th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
[...] out kind of excited about A/R, or at least kind of intrigued . Oh, how the worm does turn. More dumb things actually said in job interviews – hrrecruitingalert.com 08/17/2009 When HR pros ask candidates why they’re leaving their [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 10:15 am
Really? It is so hard to believe that someone will actually say those things. As people that may hire you, cant you be smart enought to HUMOR US? Wow, really? Lol
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
How about the guy applying for a safety sensitive position coming to the interview wearing a pot leaf earing and necklace? Doubt he could have passed the drug screen.
August 24th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Interviewers need to change their perspective. These are not dumb answers these are great answers. There are no wrong answers to an interviewing question at least from the interviewers point of view. These applicants have just given you reasons not to hire them.
Would you rather they not tell you and you find out these things after you hire them? I will take these answers every day and love them.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I asked an applicant where he saw himself in 5 years and he said that he really wanted to go to Disneyland. Unfortunately, a fellow manager had just walked by the door and stood there making funny faces at me over the answer. Somehow I kept composed and clarified my question.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:51 am
We had a wife call on behalf of her husband for a job. Wife said that her husband really needed a job becuase 20 years in prison just has made him so sad. (We looked him up afterwards, arrest consisted of escape, hard core drugs, child molesting, assault on an officer, grand theft over $100,000, etc, etc) She then went on to explain that we needed to overlook the most recent cocaine charges, because “You know how it is when you are visiting a friend, he gets arrested and everyone hanging around just gets arrested too. My husband was perfectly innocent.” Wife kept telling me that I will just love her husband, “He is such a sweet guy”. We did not hire this one.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
A candidate once said to me, “you seem like a reasonable woman. This is only a technician job; I won’t really have to take a drug test, will I?”
October 9th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
When I asked someone what kind of notice they’d have to give their employer before they could start with us, he told me that he couldn’t give me an exact time frame. His employer had paid for some training for him and if he quit he would have to pay it back. If he got fired, then he wouldn’t. So, he couldn’t give me a time frame because he wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to fire him.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
LOL @ Mary Kelley. My first gut reaction when a woman calls for her husband or boyfriend is to say “If he gets hired, are you going to come to work for him as well?” I have never seriously considered an applicant if they have someone else call for them.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Joyce’s comment reminded me of a situation I had to deal with. A few years back I was an internal corporate recruiter at a software company. I vividly remember a woman calling me several times over the course of a year to ask about what kinds of job opportunities might exist at our company — for her son. She said he spent most of his time with his friends or in his bedroom watching TV or playing video games (he was college-age, by the way). Mommy thought it would be a good idea if her little boy got out of the house once in a while. I suggested to her that the best first step would be for her son to be the one to start calling around for job openings, but she didn’t want to bother him or get him upset, so she was doing it for him.