Job interviews: Recruiters reveal the five worst mistakes you can make

Never, ever, ever, be late

Rose Troup Buchanan
Saturday 12 December 2015 17:43 GMT
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What's the worst mistake you made in an interview?
What's the worst mistake you made in an interview?

Past and present recruiters have revealed some of the worst mistakes during interviews they have witnessed in more than 20 years of working.

Many of those responding to the question on the social website Quora said drunk, high or otherwise incapacitated candidates were among the worst – although often only because they stood out.

Lateness

“Employers will pickup on verbal and nonverbal indicators that help them predict what kind of employee you will be,” Chau Nguyen, founder of HireWire, writes.

Mr Nguyen added nothing “screams red flag” more than a prospective candidate being unable to make an appointment on time.

Marcus Ronaldi, also in recruitment, added: “Unless you have a fantastic excuse that was on the news, this is a hard hole to climb out of.”

Hungover, drunk or high

Ambra Benjamin, an engineering recruiter at Facebook, says drunken interviewees “happen a lot more than one might think.”

The unnamed man had been “a little too aggressive with the hotel minibar, got hungover and missed the entire 4-hour interview the next morning.” He did not get the job.

Her favourite was a candidate being interviewed by a company director in a nearby coffee shop. After the interview, she messaged the director to ask how it went:

"It was fine I guess,” the director replied. “I mean, he asked me if I wanted to go smoke weed after the interview, so I guess you could say we hit it off…"

Not stopping talking

Recruiter Matthew Lancy described one candidate who after acing his interview, then proceeded to force his interviews to look through his pre-prepared work.

“In the end the interviewer had to tell him to stop so she could get to her next meeting on time,” he wrote. The candidate didn’t get the job.

Talking on the phone

Not just answering calls, but Kory Ferbert describes one candidate answering a call from another firm about recruitment mid-interview.

And finally -

Hitting their interviewer with a car

Although fairly unusual, Eugene Akulich described how en route to work (where he was interviewing candidates for a position) he was hit by a car. “The guy yelled at me swearing dirty and threatened to smack me into my face because I could have scratched his car and was wasting his time as he was running late.”

After arriving – late – at his office he found the man waiting for him in the lorry was the driver of the vehicle.

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