A funny thing happened at the interview

I am sure we have all at some point in time in our career had something happen or a question answered that made you say....DAH! It's time to liven things up and look at the lighter side of hiring and interviewing. This could be something provided in a resume, or how a person answered the question. Now please don't make things up as anyone can do that, and let's keep it clean. I keep resume's that have those "Dah" moments, as I usually can find a way to work them into training on hiring or situations like this. I will start us off with two "real" situations.

1) Resume for a manager position I received. "I have had many different jobs, but I have always dealt with people and would not have it any other way." Glad she was not applying as a veterinary assistant. On the same resume she has under qualifications; "I am very comfortable working in a group or alone." So exactly what other ways are there?

2) We were interviewing for a service manager position and the manager asked me to assist in the interviews. She said there was something about this one candidate, but could not figure out what was bothering her about him. I believe if you ask the right questions, you might get the answers you are looking for. I asked him to tell me something the last two employers would say about his performance. He provided favorable information on the most recent and then said the employer before that might have an issue with the vehicle he was responsible for. I asked him to elaborate on what he meant. He said he was responsible for the property truck and they might tell me he blew up the truck. I figured the motor had problems and maybe it was lack of preventative maintenance or mis-use that lead to the engine blow ing up. I asked him if he was responsible for the maintenance of the vehicle and he said yes. Now some interviewers might have left the questions there, but not me. I said, "please share with me the specifics as to how this happened." He looked down and then back up at me and said, "The truck was old and they would not give me the budget for a new truck. So I stuck a rag in the gas tank and set it on fire and blew up the truck." I apprecited his honesty, however, I ended the interview and thanked the candidate.

Funny interviewing stories? hmmm....
1.) I once had a pig farmer apply for an accountant position. His resume ACTUALLY said PIG FARMER. He didn't have OTHER relevant experience noted on his resume, so I've always wondered why he applied. We never called him.
2.) My assistant, who did all the phone screens once had a guy who had his wife on the other line, and everytime a question was asked, he would ask his wife how he should answer. They would discuss it, and then he would answer the question. Keep in mind, my assistant could hear their entire conversation! We often wondered if we hired him - if he would bring his wife along to help his make decisions too....
3.) I had a woman who spent the first 10 minutes complaining about her current position and her current boss, and tell me how she was scheming to "get even" with her boss. When I finally told her that I didn't think this position would work out for either her or me, she got up and swore all the way out of my office, stopped to swear at the receptionist, and swore all the way out to her car! VERY glad that I did not hire HER!
4.) I once had a guy come in gym shorts. It was like a bad episode of Seinfeld. He leaned all the way back in his chair. He even SCRATCHED himself while interviewing. The interview lasted 5 minutes. When I asked him to leave, he winked at me. Not even sure WHY, I just called security. He left before they came.

One of my more memorable interviews was one where when I asked a man “What have you been criticized for” He was bi-lingual, heavy on the Spanish, light on the English. I speak only English so we were really working hard! His answer was “stealing”! I was pretty stunned that he would be so honest so I started to close the interview. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that he told me that he stole at his last job so I asked him “you were criticized for stealing” and he again said yes and even mimicked putting my pen in his pocket! I blurted out “You stole!” before I could stop myself and good thing I did because he got this confused look on his face and started saying “no, no, not me”. It turns out that he worked for a grocery store that was having problems with theft from customers. Management wanted the employees to be more aware of the problem. He was one of my best hires.

I saw Shelby's post and she mentioned Fair Housing. I always ask candidates for them to name the protected classes. I have found over 90% of candidates including seasoned manager veterans cannot name the protected classes. This number goes up for service personnel and leasing, which is really sad. I believe the funniest response I have heard was a manager that asked a service candidate what the protected classes were. He named a couple and one of them was sex. She being who she was (one of our more inquisitive managers) asked the candidate what sex meant. The candidate said and I quote, "I guess it means whether they are sexually active or not."

Got to love some of the stuff we hear. I think my next book will be the funny side of our business.