R.I.P.: Interview ettiquette
June 17, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Interviewing, Latest News & Views
They just don’t make job candidates like they used to. At least that’s what one recent survey says.
Have you ever seen a candidate answer a cell phone during an interview? If so, you’re not alone. According to a recent Vault survey, 26% of recruiters have run into that problem.
Sounds like a big mistake and an automatic deal-breaker, and in many cases it is — 68% of the survey respondents would disqualify someone who answered a phone call. But apparently, that’s not stopping a lot of people.
Overall, the majority (59%) of recruiters said job candidates’ manners have gone downhill over the past few years. Some of the findings:
- 87% said they’d seen candidates dress inappropriately in the interview
- 43% had interviewees who used profanity, and
- 19% had candidates who brought children to the interview.
Door swings both ways
While employers should be on the look out for unprofessional behavior, job candidates are doing the same thing with hiring managers. For example, 56% of employees said they’d been interviewed by someone who interrupted them to take a phone call.
Other examples of bad manners include showing up late, checking and responding to e-mails and eating lunch during the conversation.
Just as candidates need to focus on making a good impression, HR needs to remind hiring managers to avoid behavior that could be a turnoff for a potentially great employee.
Tags: ettiquette, interviews, phone calls, profanity
June 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I had an applicant reschedule his next interview by cell phone in front of me. I can see though how a cell phone incident would not be a complete and utter fatal flaw given todays market.
I agree the door swings both ways, and admit that I am guilty of checking an email during an interview, I just got so tired of the quality of applicants, I considered my interviewing days a total waste of time.
Yes, I have had more than my share of Hiring Manager Horror Stories. After experience applicants with multiple defects including tardiness, unkempt, and unshaven, slouchy, foul mouthed, cocky and arrogant, and let’s not leave out the blatant LIAR…I reevaluated our hiring methods. Said goodbye to my Monster Rep, and stopped accepting the daily recruiter “cold call”.
The last two placements I’ve made through an online networking service called Dayak. A fairly new internet company where I post the career opportunity or better yet my Dayak CSR posts them for me (that service was a bonus) then I set my own recruiter fee, the screening is done by the bank of recruiters competing to fill the slot.
I find it budget-friendly since I don’t incur any expense until after the position is successfully filled and the new employee stays on board for something like 3 months. Not sure of the timeframe we haven’tt run into that situation yet.
Its appears to be a winning process for everyone involved.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I have read several posts regarding the “mistake” of bringing kids to an interview. I have a different take on that I think.
I am a well educated, skilled and mannered person. When going thru my divorce after being a stay at home mom for a few years I came up against this challenge. I lived in a place I did not know a single soul, my soon to be ex was unfit to watch the children, we were on the verge of bankruptcy from my husband’s mental illness.
Basically, I was stuck. I needed to go to interviews. I desperately needed a job to take care of my family.
I had to take my kids to interviews. It was the hardest thing I had to do. I knew I shouldn’t but I was stuck in a situation. I did get a job with a good company and the guy who hired me still to this day teases me about the kids.
Believe me when I say that there are little services (I could tell you stories) that help with children in that situation.
That was a long time ago and I have been currently with my company now for over 4 years and I am so glad I am no longer in such an uncomfortable and difficult position as I had been long ago.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:13 am
I was interviewing for an HR job, and the HR Director was checking e-mails and her cell phone as I was answering her questions. She was nodding her head as if she was listening to me, and at the same time using her mouse to scroll through e-mails on her computer. I was completely offended and when she called me for a 2nd interview, I said, “I don’t think your culture would be a fit for me.”