One of the most asked questions we get is “What should I NOT do in my interview”. While that list can be pretty long, there are definitely a few things you should never do. To make things a bit more exciting, and to share what types of things we see in the office, we’re going to offer up a few stories from our recruiters that showcase first-hand what you shouldn’t do in an interview. Remember, all the stories you are about to read are 100% real.
Not a Family Affair
We understand that many people that come in for interviews are parents, but what we can never understand is why many of these parents bring their kids along with them to their interviews. It wouldn’t be that much of an issue if they were older, like teenagers, but we frequently have people come into the office with kids anywhere from 3 to 8 years old. We’ve even had people wheel in strollers! Unfortunately, these parents are often told to reschedule because we cannot have their children roaming around the office during their interview, and we definitely can’t leave them unattended in the lobby. When you’re scheduling your interview, make sure you have child care set-up if you need it.
–Tonya Winebrenner, Staff Source Recruiter
The Late-Comers
It’s pretty well-known that you should try to be on time for your interview, and if you are late, you need to call to let your recruiter know. Well, not everyone follows these guidelines. We have countless stories about candidates showing up late for interviews, but none worse than a candidate who showed up a WEEK late. It was so late, in fact, that we initially thought WE had made a mistake in scheduling them. Come to find out the person no-showed their original interview date and then came in the next week because they had booked a trip a few days before their interview. Lesson to learn from this story: Always let your interviewer know if you wont be able to make your interview so they can get it rescheduled. (And maybe don’t schedule an interview when you’re going to be on vacation)
–Jennifer Musleh, Staff Source Recruiter
One-Liners
How can you make a resume that is only one line long you ask? The answer is you can’t. That didn’t stop one candidate from submitting a one-line resume online that not only didn’t include their name or contact information, but also didn’t have any work experience or skills listed. Oh, it gets better. The document they submitted was a single blank page that simply read “i need a job”. And before you say “hey, you’re really gonna call someone out for a bad resume when you forgot to capitalize the ‘I’ and add punctuation to that last quote?”, no I didn’t. The resume was not only one line, but that single line also had punctuation and capitalization mistakes. We had never face-palmed harder in our lives. Make sure you always review your resume and make sure all the information is correct.. and including your name is greatly appreciated as well.
–Tyler Geeve, Staff Source Marketing/Recruiting Assistant
TMI, Guys
Nothing is worse for a recruiter than a candidate who starts oversharing during their interview. Most of the time, it wastes interview time and becomes a little annoying when the recruiter wants to focus the conversation on your job experience and not how you spent your weekend or something like that. In some cases though, we come across that rare breed of person who seems to have no filter and will talk about ANYTHING in their interview. Take a guy who came in to interview for an available position and continued to talk about the various bathroom situations he has had to work around, in detail, and how he frequently had to “do what he had to do” on the job (and we HEAVILY censored this story, you’re welcome). So, when you go into an interview, remember to keep it professional, avoid talking about the bathroom at all costs, and maybe don’t pee on your new employers building.
– Colleen Nicholls, Staff Source Recruiter
What Resume?
Resumes are absolutely critical for the interview process. The recruiters use them to assess your skills, they are sent to clients to review for long-term positions, and almost every job hiring process requires one. This was news to one person who called in to schedule an interview and was asked to bring a copy of her resume for us, something we ask all new applicants to do. They had scheduled the interview as normal, only to call back minutes later and say, “Sooooo, I don’t have a resume and I’m not about to make one for this interview. So I’m just gonna cancel my appointment”. Things like this drive us crazy! Especially after we process your application, ask our pre-screening questions, and get an interview scheduled (steps which all inform you that you will need a resume for your interview); only to have someone call back minutes later and cancel because they don’t want to bother putting together a resume. It’s very frustrating for us, and a real waste of our time. AGH! Sorry, that one really gets me going. Always be sure to have an easily accessible copy of your resume for interviews, and be sure to update it when necessary.
–Maria Martinez, Staff Source Recruiter
The Swordsman
This one isn’t so much a direct interview lesson to learn from, and more a life lesson that could affect your ability to get a position. One day in the office, when not much was going on, our receptionist noticed a man in our parking lot moving around pretty quick. She called the rest of the office over to take a look, as many of us were worried that he was running around between all of our cars. Turns out he wasn’t running, he was rollerskating in figure-eights… with a sword on his back. Seriously. This is real. This happened. He was out there for about 20 minutes before he skated away down the sidewalk leaving us in total awe. Lesson learned from this: be careful what you’re doing and where you’re doing it; because you better believe if sword-boy walks into our office looking for work, we’re all going to remember him.
-Tyler Geeve, Staff Source Marketing/Recruiting Assistant