No way would you pass the interview, the grammer is all wrong.
“golly you have a fine pair of buttocks.” or “golly you have fine buttocks” would be much better.
Seriously, the interviewee should be able to guage their responses to the interviewer. So it isn’t the fact the interviewee said damn that is the problem, but the fact that they failed to recognise that the interviewer was the sort of person who might object to that sort of thing.
this is awesome… i might need to change my username!
I’ve worked in business offices all my adult life, and I rarely hear profanity, even as mild as “damn”. It just isn’t done. I think that when you’re a kid you learn situational appropriateness. What’s right on the schoolyard (or in the bar) with your friends may not be right in the classroom, in front of your parents, or in the workplace. And it just isn’t professional.
StG
I think the varying opinions expressed in this very thread show that your absolutist conclusions are on shaky ground.
While I would be surprised to hear someone in the office say “shit” or “fuck,” I don’t think anyone would even notice a “damn” or a “hell,” as in “Mr. X is a damn good editor” or “What the hell is going on with this printer?” Around here, anyway, they’re not even considered strong language. They’re just words, completely unremarkable. “Ass” is probably moving in that direction, especially when used as a synonym for “stubborn fool” (when describing an absent person) rather than “backside.”
I’m afraid you are the one who needs to deal with it. When you interview at my company, you are required to adhere to the same standard as the 1300 other employees working there. We don’t have to adhere to yours.
I mean seriously, if being polite during the interview process is “exerting too much power over you”, what are you going to be like when we need you to fly across the country to work with a client? Believe me, we’ve had people like that. They are a disaster and they don’t last long.
I’m sure you’d be much happier in a system where you could do whatever you liked and people just fed, housed and clothed you. Unfortunately, I don’t know where that system exists.
Profanity isn’t ‘lazy language’. Adverbs are.
If I were interviewing someone for a position in my office, “damn” would definitely be a strike against them. It may be partly regional–in my neck of the woods, “damn” is still definitely profanity. In addition, a big part of my job involves working with people in a variety of other countries, so I feel it’s important to maintain a more traditional sense of professionalism. “Damn” may or may not be offensive to my counterpart in Chile, but I don’t want to take that risk.
Damn, **burundi ** beat me to it! I was going to mention that I think this is at least partly regional, and here in the South it would definitely raise an eyebrow. I have conducted over 200 job interviews, and can’t recall ever hearing damn or anything stronger. I also think, around here at least, it would be held against a woman much more than a man.
Also, when interviewing you try to avoid hiring those employees who will be testing the boundaries all the time. I don’t mean the boundaries of innovation and sales numbers, but the boundaries of sick days, break time, dress code and expense account. So if I got the sense he was “testing me” that would be a strike against.
I do recall getting an F-bomb while checking a reference, once. That was rather informative.
But tha’s because here in the South, we recognize cussin’ as an art form. Why on earth would you want to waste a perfectly good ‘damn’ in that situation? Hell, it’s just a job interview, it ain’t like you’re talkin’ about your sorry-assed brother-in-law. 
My boss is a vice president at a major US retailer. A couple of months back, he met a new vendor contact at a social engagement funded by the vendor. During the conversation, he dropped several F-bombs. When he found out that the new contact wouldn’t swear, he yelled to her boss “Hey, fire this woman, she won’t fit on our fucking account!”
Scared the holy living crap out of the new contact, but my boss just has a sense of humor like that. It’s a pretty common attitude in my office.
The OP never said the candidate was ever going to see a client. Where I work, in Silicon Valley, if anybody but a really junior candidate came to an interview wearing a suit I’d have severe doubts as to his social intelligence.
Interviews are two way streets. If I happened to say “damn” by accident during an interview, and the interviewer got pissed about it, I’d have severe doubts about working at that company. What I do requires some degree of creativity and iconoclasm, and I sure wouldn’t want to work at a place that would make me toe the line that way.
BTW, when I was interviewing we went to lunch in the cafeteria, people at the next table were hurling fucks in a work context left and right. It made me feel good about the place, and ten years later I know I was right.
I have too, including doing consulting at some of the biggest companies in the Twin Cities. Been in 3M, Medtronic, Pillsbury, Wells Fargo, United Healthcare.
And I’ve heard people swear at a much more offensive level than damn. I’ve heard low level PC techs do it and I’ve heard CEOs do it.
Because I’m not much of a swearer myself (I grew up in a house where chickens had “white meat”) and am someone who used to visably flinch over those words, one of my first professional development lessons was ‘get over it.’
So I’d say “it just isn’t done” is probably regional and may also vary by profession and corporate environment. The Pillsbury execs I worked with (mostly British or from the East Coast) could make sailors blush. United Healthcare execs were far more professional in their expression - but the IT guys I worked with were not - they had some of the worst mouths I’ve ever worked with. A fun group of guys - and it may have been a case of “lets see if we can make the girl blush.”
I’m pretty sure it would have helped you get a fucking job at fucking Enron back in the fucking day. The famous “Grandma Millie” tape (pdf).
Interesting. I always come to interviews in a suit. I believe that it shows respect for the interviewers, the company I’m applying at, and the gravity of the situation. It’s not like I’m going to show up in a suit from then on, no matter the corporate culture (although I’ll still probably dress better than you ;)).
What do you expect interviewees to wear?
And, to contribute to the topic, I try to get a feel from the interviewer what type of language is appropriate, and I would never be the first one to use any profanity, not even “damn”. If the interviewer throws something like that out, though, I’m more than happy to follow the lead. 
Silicon Valley - my office is out there (I’m not). We had to send a note to people to say “casual dress does not mean flip flops, cut offs and muscle shirts or tube tops.” Not kidding.
Its an “interview in dockers and a shirt with a collar and buttons” kind of place. But flip flops would be a no.
Yup. Notice that shorts are okay. (I wouldn’t expect anyone to wear them on a interview, but people wear shorts to work all the time in the summer.)
I don’t know. I wear Dockers and button down shirts - but then I’m old.
Something that looks like they snuck out of work early to come interview that day, which is how I did it when I moved within the Valley. Interviewing, for tech jobs at least, is done to determine technical smarts, team work, creativity, stuff like that. There are a few eccentrics who dress up, and rather more who dress down. My understanding is that interviewees should be slightly better dressed than what they expect to find on the job - Dockers, real shoes, and a real shirt fills the bill most adequately. You don’t dress to the max - someone coming to a banking job interview in a tux would be considered quite odd.
I agree that it isn’t something to do deliberately, but in the case the OP gave it seemed to slip out in the middle of a story. That would be no problem at all to me.
Just for Damn? Hell no.
Not at all, in fact suits- for an interview- are pretty well expected. Not for everyday workwear, of course- then it’s chinos and polo shirts. Long sleeved button down shirts during the winter. But wearing a suit for the interview shows respect for the interview process, even if everyone knows you won’t be wearning one at work.
If someone is interviewing for an internal transfer, would you expect him or her to wear a suit? How is that different? How about if the interviewee is well known in the field?
It all depends on work environment. When I started this job, I got a packet of articles about the company and our CEO, who was seen in one being upset about having to wear a suit to meet with the leader of an entire country. He’s been quoted as saying that the purpose of a tie is to keep soup off your buttons. (He’s a billionaire, by the way.)
I have great respect for the interviewing process, none of which involves a candidate wearing a suit. BTW, I’ve noticed that even salespeople, and especially technical sales support people, being less dressy over the past 10 years. At the conference I’m involved with, it has gone from universal suits during presentations to under 25%. I wore one at my talk last month, but only because I was on srtage during the plenary earlier that day, and didn’t have time to change. IIRC, our keynote speaker didn’t wear one. He was one of the founders of a very big company. I get to see the comment cards from the audience, and not one mentioned it. About half of the people in booths wear company logo polo shirts to meet potential customers, not suits. That’s changed also in the last 10 years. I think the idea is that booth people come off as more technically credible out of suits.
Engineers around here just don’t care. I like that.