Strangest person you have interviewed ?

Strangest person you have interviewed ?

Author
Discussion

bad company

18,483 posts

265 months

Tuesday 30th June 2020
quotequote all
Doofus said:
bad company said:
Recruitment Consultants are fantastic. ;)
And so it begins....
My tongue was firmly in my cheek.

We are rather brilliant though.

The Moose

22,820 posts

208 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
bad company said:
Doofus said:
bad company said:
Recruitment Consultants are fantastic. ;)
And so it begins....
My tongue was firmly in my cheek.

We are rather brilliant though.
Still full of st then wink

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
bad company said:
Doofus said:
bad company said:
Recruitment Consultants are fantastic. ;)
And so it begins....
My tongue was firmly in my cheek.

We are rather brilliant though.
So was mine.

But, still...

22

2,268 posts

136 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
The Moose at 3:12am said:
Stuff
Seeing this reminded me of one I never got as far as meeting. Had been exchanging a few messages by WhatsApp. Short answers even when presented with a chance to expand.

"Are you working at so-and-so?"

"No I left there"

No further info, or an updated CV. But I woke up one morning and there was a missed call from him at 3:40am! We're not international or across time zones! Not sure what logic is used to call a potential employer at such an hour!

actionpotential

27 posts

83 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
No very odd ones, but did once interview someone who brought a banana in with them and put it on the desk. Half expected them to use it for some kind of elaborate ‘stripping back layers of bureaucracy to reveal the true value of the organisation’ analogy, but no. Maybe a suitable question didn’t come up (although that would have been an odd thing to do anyway).

No, it wasn’t David Miliband.

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
I used to recruit graduate coders, who where an interesting bunch to say the least.

One that stood out came with his mum, couldn't hold any eye contact at all, mumbled answers, hyper ventilated when I mentioned that the role may have some client facing aspect to it and niffed a bit. I still hired him as his code was exquisite, and some 20 years later he now works for Elon Musk.

The Moose

22,820 posts

208 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
22 said:
The Moose at 3:12am said:
Stuff
Seeing this reminded me of one I never got as far as meeting. Had been exchanging a few messages by WhatsApp. Short answers even when presented with a chance to expand.

"Are you working at so-and-so?"

"No I left there"

No further info, or an updated CV. But I woke up one morning and there was a missed call from him at 3:40am! We're not international or across time zones! Not sure what logic is used to call a potential employer at such an hour!
While if you interviewed me, I may well be the strangest person you have interviewed...I am actually international and that time was 10:40pm for me smile

mr mac i

267 posts

182 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
Had one who when discussing shift times said they would have to ask their gran (who she lived with) if it was OK and might be a possibility to get a key cut for the house....

Another when asked each of the standard HR "Can you give an example of...." set questions would answer 'yes'.
Very quick interview as even with prompting only gave one vaguely related answer.

standards

1,117 posts

217 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
Pothole said:
bad company said:
Dan_The_Man said:
I was a difficult interviewee once, I travelled down from the Scottish borders to Leeds the day after having my wisdom teeth out under general.
My mouth was swollen like a hamster and rammed with cotton wool and I was dribbling blood making it impossible to answer questions but I actually got the job and I'm still doing it 26yrs later.
Well you did show commitment.
Mo, he showeg commi'muh...
But by gum he got the job.
By the skin of his teeth
Etc...

Camelot1971

2,698 posts

165 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
zippy3x said:
techguyone said:
Luckily we are not you.

Recruitment is a filtering process, each stage reduces from the initial pool of prospective candidates, eventually you are left with a shortlist, these you interview, then further filtering applies until you end up (usually & hopefully) with the best fit for the job.

It's not rocket science or a huge expectation to suggest that any candidate whether new or experienced be expected to know a little something about the company they are applying to be part of.
I'd love to point out the flaws, but we're not allowed to talk anymore
You know you come across as an arrogant prick right? It's very obvious why you are a contractor and not a long term employee of a company. You completely missed the point of this thread.

Scrump

21,886 posts

157 months

Wednesday 1st July 2020
quotequote all
I had an interviewee arrive about 30 minutes late for an interview. They blamed a late train but had not bothered to call to let me know. Despite being late they insisted that they had to change their clothes before the interview.
They arrived wearing black trousers and a white shirt, spent a long time getting changed and emerged wearing what looked like the same trousers and shirt!
As they had travelled a long way I went ahead with the interview but soon regretted that decision so brought it to a swift conclusion.
As I went to show them out they said they needed to change out of their interview clothes for the return journey. I took a bit more notice of their clothes this time and after changing they emerged wearing the original trousers and shirt which were slightly different to the ones worn for the interview.

My colleague had a candidate take a carrier bag into the interview and place it on the table in front of them. About 30 minutes into the interview they took a lunchbox out of the bag and proceeded to eat sandwiches. The interview was terminated and they were shown a more appropriate place to eat their sandwiches.

Pit Pony

8,265 posts

120 months

Thursday 2nd July 2020
quotequote all
Camelot1971 said:
zippy3x said:
techguyone said:
Luckily we are not you.

Recruitment is a filtering process, each stage reduces from the initial pool of prospective candidates, eventually you are left with a shortlist, these you interview, then further filtering applies until you end up (usually & hopefully) with the best fit for the job.

It's not rocket science or a huge expectation to suggest that any candidate whether new or experienced be expected to know a little something about the company they are applying to be part of.
I'd love to point out the flaws, but we're not allowed to talk anymore
You know you come across as an arrogant prick right? It's very obvious why you are a contractor and not a long term employee of a company. You completely missed the point of this thread.
I've spent 20 years as an employee, and 11 years as a LTD company contractor. Would consider both ways to earn money to live now and invest in my retirement.
I'm finding it difficult to convince any one that is be serious about a permie position, despite having had numerous offers over the last 11 years.

anothernameitist

1,500 posts

134 months

Sunday 5th July 2020
quotequote all
The guy who we interviewed for a caretaker role.

The guy was a mountain but seemed gentle, did the introductions and he said to the lady who would be his supervisor,hello new boss, presuming something.

To say he had worked as a caretaker before he didn't know much.

One of our questions is around fire safety, and what would you do in the event of a fire

his answer, get out of the building.... Anything else I asked....silence.... Ah yes use my mobile to call 999, yes any more..... Yes ifI had credit on my phone I'd ring my boss.
Who at that stage would be at gas mark 10 in he building

CooperS

4,500 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2020
quotequote all
I've interviewed some very odd people in my short time being a manager. People who have turned up calling me mate, people who when asked a competency question about conflict resolution took me through the time when they locked two colleagues in a meeting room after a one night stand turned sour to shout it out ....... Looking very happy with himself.

A guy who said I know I won't get the job but can we spend the rest of the time taking me through where I could improve........ I was a little sad about that one.

Equally I've acted like a right weirdo especially when substituting for a colleague from another project or function. Something about not knowing the role makes me nervous for what the candidate might ask..... Haha

sociopath

3,433 posts

65 months

Sunday 5th July 2020
quotequote all
Not an interview, as it didn't get past the CV stage, but once had a graduate apply for an IT job with no IT experience at all. This wasn't an issue as we were happy to take people on to the graduate scheme and train them up.

They didn't get an interview however as they had written on their cv that they should get the job because they'd been a finalist on countdown, and their fame more than made up for their lack of experience.

bad company

18,483 posts

265 months

Sunday 5th July 2020
quotequote all
sociopath said:
Not an interview, as it didn't get past the CV stage, but once had a graduate apply for an IT job with no IT experience at all. This wasn't an issue as we were happy to take people on to the graduate scheme and train them up.

They didn't get an interview however as they had written on their cv that they should get the job because they'd been a finalist on countdown, and their fame more than made up for their lack of experience.
Equally off topic I was once recruiting for a warehouseman. One candidate spelt wehouseman on his application. That made us laugh but didn’t get him an interview.

Dynamic Space Wizard

925 posts

103 months

Monday 6th July 2020
quotequote all
myvision said:
I interviewed a lad and asked him why there was a gap on his CV and he then told me how he'd beaten up a bouncer after being thrown out of a pub.
He then left but went back to the pub later that night/morning as he'd left his coat so he broke in got his coat and set the place on fire!!!!!

He'd got two years inside
He did also say if you're going to do a job might as well finish it off properly.


I didn't know what to say after that
"Don't forget your coat"

Corvid-2020

1,994 posts

78 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
quotequote all
Strangest interview I have had was when I was a referee for someone undergoing Developed Vetting.

"Have you ever seen or heard of Mrs. XXX [the most mild mannered quintessential slightly oriental looking English Postmistress in waiting you have ever met] having any lesbian, dominatrix, subversive or other none socially normal sexual relationshops?".

"Has Mrs. CBAYXZ ever been to China, told you about having been to China, fabricated lies about being Chinese or displayed any physical resemblance in your opinion to people from China".

Given that Mrs.CBAYXZ was from China, moved to the UK many year previous with her husband, also from China, both with very Chinese names, with phds from Beijing University in the niche industry we were in, both being world class based on their papers etc etc which was all in the copy of the CV I'd been shown at the start of the DV interview I was of course quite confused by all this.

I did however, raise her poor timekeeping as my only concern.

Anyway she got the job elsewhere so I must have passed / she did. But it was still quite weird. And the fact I was interviewed on mine and Mrs. CBAYXZs work premises in working time about their future job elsewhere!

Oh, did I say there person interviewing me was a tweed suit wearing lady / battleaxe who could have passed physically as my Grandmother yet was asking me all these weird questions. I've never felt so uncomfortable in my life.

Edited as Mrs. XXX as original might not have been the best terminology nor the racial profile of the postmistress.....

Edited by Corvid-2020 on Tuesday 7th July 18:10

ChevronB19

5,737 posts

162 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
quotequote all
Dynamic Space Wizard said:
myvision said:
I interviewed a lad and asked him why there was a gap on his CV and he then told me how he'd beaten up a bouncer after being thrown out of a pub.
He then left but went back to the pub later that night/morning as he'd left his coat so he broke in got his coat and set the place on fire!!!!!

He'd got two years inside
He did also say if you're going to do a job might as well finish it off properly.


I didn't know what to say after that
"Don't forget your coat"
This reply deserves more recognition...

Pit Pony

8,265 posts

120 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
quotequote all
Corvid-2020 said:
Strangest interview I have had was when I was a referee for someone undergoing Developed Vetting.

"Have you ever seen or heard of Mrs. XXX [the most mild mannered quintessential slightly oriental looking English Postmistress in waiting you have ever met] having any lesbian, dominatrix, subversive or other none socially normal sexual relationshops?".

"Has Mrs. CBAYXZ ever been to China, told you about having been to China, fabricated lies about being Chinese or displayed any physical resemblance in your opinion to people from China".

Given that Mrs.CBAYXZ was from China, moved to the UK many year previous with her husband, also from China, both with very Chinese names, with phds from Beijing University in the niche industry we were in, both being world class based on their papers etc etc which was all in the copy of the CV I'd been shown at the start of the DV interview I was of course quite confused by all this.

I did however, raise her poor timekeeping as my only concern.

Anyway she got the job elsewhere so I must have passed / she did. But it was still quite weird. And the fact I was interviewed on mine and Mrs. CBAYXZs work premises in working time about their future job elsewhere!

Oh, did I say there person interviewing me was a tweed suit wearing lady / battleaxe who could have passed physically as my Grandmother yet was asking me all these weird questions. I've never felt so uncomfortable in my life.

Edited as Mrs. XXX as original might not have been the best terminology nor the racial profile of the postmistress.....

Edited by Corvid-2020 on Tuesday 7th July 18:10
A lad I worked with had undergone and passed Deep Vetting. His suitability for a job in Defence Engineering perhaps should have included questions like.
1) Do you think it reasonable to pay £100 To have the heals replaced on a pair of brogues?
2) What makes you think that a MOT includes a full service and strip down of the engine?
3) Why do you believe that the reason you can't afford to buy a house in London is that "Thier generation - the over 50's" have screwed it up.for you, when in fact you wasted £10k on 2 holidays, to Thailand £2k on coffee in Starbucks, £12k on renting a house in London when you work in Derby, and £5K on trivial st you don't need, like a cooker you've Never actually used. ??
4) You haven't done any work this week, but have been watching YouTube? Isn't that a fact?