I had a fellow recently that asked me to help him with his application. I realized that he could not read or write very well, so I sat down beside him and proceeded to assist him. Since we are alcohol distributors, we are required to do background checks, so I asked him, had he ever been bonded. He replied, " well Mam, I don't want to shame you or me, but the bondsman would not take my bond one time". I quickly explained that I did not mean that type of bonding and went on to explain. I then asked about his criminal Conviction record. He said, "Well, Mam, this goes back to that bonding problem. You gotta know that I wern't the trigger man, I was only the driver and I only had to serve 12 years"

Just thought I’d add another “faux pas” to your list. I once had a candidate show up late and apologize because she had been busy stripping…and not wood either. Who admits that in a job interview???

Just yesterday our number 2 candidate for a developer position in for an interview just 5 days prior had an email exchange as so:
Candidate: I'm thrilled I haven't heard anything from you last week although I was told you would send me some updates
Regards,
[OK, maybe he's making a poor attempt at humor]
ME:Please send me a list of your employment references.
Candidate: sure I will, but I rather get some official word from you prior to move forward. Based on my last interview, it was my understanding that you would get back to me with a detailed description of the position and salary range [which were in the ad he applied to].
That would be my expectation after a full morning of interviews with a satisfactory outcome. I'm honestly surprised I have to be proactive in communicating with you after 1 week.
I would appreciate if you can elaborate on this. Thanks!
[me to hiring manager: if he is like this as a candidate, can you imagin what he might be like as an employee?]
ME:Based on the tone of your last couple communications, it would appear that we would be unable to satisfy you. Please consider yourself removed from further consideration for employment with ___.
Candidate: my tone has been polite, concise and to the point, with a rational use of my words. On the other hand, you have been acting in a rather unprofessional way by not following up and showing zero interest with aggresive communications[?]. It's truly a shame because your counterparts were actually competent.
I hope you are aware of the poor perception external candidates receive through your unprofessional and impolite communications and should be aware of the way you handle this. My interest was gone the moment you did not follow up: supposedly your responsibility.
Best.

Guess we dodged a bullet.

I had a candidate arrive to the interview an hour late, she blamed it on "traffic". She then looked at me and said "Wow, I clearly overdressed for this".

Nothing more fun than a two-for-one! I've have candidates show up for an interview with their significant other wondering if we'd hire them, too!

Another fun interview is when the candidate brings their parents along. It's especially disconcerting when the candidate is clearly an adult in their mid-20's!

I screen candidates for many of the interviews conducted at our company. By just letting them talk, I get a lot of insight into what they are like as people rather than as employees. One candidate (about 23 or 24) I spoke with before her interview was very chatty and quite personable. After the interview, she asked the hiring manager to bring her back to me. She then proceeded to ask me about the hiring manager's extremely handsome son and asked me to find out if he had a girlfriend because she e-mailed her thank you note to his dad (the hiring manager), she was going to ask him to pass her e-mail address on to his son!

We posted an ad for work at a jewelry store, requesting someone with conservative attire. A young man showed up to the door wearing baggy black pants, a long chain from belt to pocket, a "wife beater" t-shirt and earrings up and down his ears. He stopped in the front doorway to put on a heavy black leather jacket (on a warm day) and came in. We thought we were going to be robbed! Then he asked for an application.

I work in a small office and everyone has very different schedules. Getting everyone in the same office on the same day to interview someone is a supreme challenge!

So, when we had two people practically beg us to consider them for interviews, we make the appointments and both never show up.

One even asked me if I would be e-mailing him a reminder or did he need to write it in his planner! My first thought was "Do I look like your mom?" and the second was "ah, no thanks."

An applicant asked me to help him fill out the application because he “was not good at those things.”

Answering a cell phone call during the filling out the application time is pretty common for our HR department.

I get asked if the references on the application are important .

I once interviewed a candidate who brought his girlfriend in with him. All the while he sat (practically laid back in his chair) and answered every question as negatively as possible. Needless to he wasn't hired, but the next week showed up on the warehouse floor through a temp agency.

Another candidate, who was perspiring profusely, reached into his shirt under his armpits and then wiped his hands on his pants. As the interview wrapped up, I prayed he wouldn't offer a handshake.....he did! Gross!!

I had a middle-aged man come in for an interview. I immediately noticed how unkempt he looked and asked him to tak a seat in the chair across the desk from me. I asked him the first question and while he was answering it, I noticed that he had ants crawling all over the front of his shirt and jacket. He just sat there as if he didn't notice (and maybe he didn't). I quickly told him we would contact him and rushed him out the door. I immediately went searching for some RAID!

I once interviewed a man for a position as a security guard. I noticed he had almost a two year gap in his employment record. I asked him about it and his reply was he "did odd jobs" for a while. He was nice and I considered him for the position until the police background check came back. Those 20 months were served in state prison for grand theft auto. Imagine what kind of security guard he would have been!!

I have so many priceless interviews to choose from. How abouth the interviewee with snot runny down to his face? Rather than taking the tissue I offered him he "wiped" it off with his tongue. Or how about one young lady, dressed more appropriately for a strip club, saying she preferred to work at 10AM (even though the advertisement statement 7AM) because she was a b$@ch in the morning. Wow. And last but not least, how about another young lady (interviewing for an HR assistant position) who told me EVERYTHING about her divorce, her custody battle with her evil ex husband, her subsequent committal to a mental institution and then her long spiral into to drug abuse (just the year prior.) Oh dear.