I think you missed the point.
Well, it may have been negligent for you not to visit www.peepingdave.com.
That link led me to page saying “Dave’s not here, man.”
Seriously though, I didn’t see anything particularly surprising about the OP’s list. Most of it boils down to “be professional”.
Here’s some real life reasons I turned down candidates:
Don’t send your resume in a crappy anthrax-y looking envelope with the address written in large, childlike scrawl. I’m not hiring for the position of “Kidnapping ransom letter writer.”
Don’t tell me how you “WILL get this job” with psychotic intensity. I can assure you, you won’t.
Please be able to articulate why you want to work here. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I will accept “I am looking for a job as a project manager and I see you’re hiring”. I will not accept “I don’t know, what does your company do?”
Let’s try to keep the interview tone less “sexual”. Particularly since it’s a group interview.
FWIW: We state in the employment ad that it’s part of our hiring process - and, yeah, I work for a financial institution. That said, it IS invasive, and in my opinion we shouldn’t eliminate people who’ve fallen on hard times and unemployment in our current economy.
Sadly, what I said right there is NOT how upper mgmt here views it. In fact, they see a poor credit score as a character flaw or moral failing. Someone who doesn’t live up to commitments, doesn’t plan well, and it’s definitely indicative of someone our company doesn’t want to hire.
I’m with the OP when it comes to valuing communication skills, both verbal and written.
If we judged nurses and other medical staff on spelling and grammar however, a lot of jobs would go unfilled.* Based on what I see written on lab specimen forms, we’ve got a ton of fourth grade dropouts working here.
*M.D.s seem to fare better judging from reports in the electronic medical record, but I wonder if transcriptionists are responsible for some of that generally good impression.
I once read a letter from a neurologist that would give an English teacher apoplexy.
Yeah, sometimes companys pretend to want to hire people but do it only to get a good idea at what they should be paying their employees plus it gives some insight into their competition.
Also I was at one place and they had us people there for the interview sitting across from the employee entrance so everyone could see them and would be nervous if we were being hired to replace them.
Good luck finding quality candidates from a Craigslist help wanted posting.
As someone who has interviewed hundreds of candidates over the past several years I can tell you that the Craigslist applicants were always the least qualified and biggest waste of my time.
Didn’t read all intervening posts, but why are you hiring an MA to be your secretary?
I’ve read notes form my children’s English teachers that give me apoplexy.
Mostly a little tongue in cheek. I have spent a fair bit of time reading about the psychology of hiring and interviewing and have been on both ends of the process a few times. Although what I was suggesting was not good practice, there are a few nuggets of truth in there.
Applying for most jobs with coloured/perfumed/scrapbooked to death paper, for example, is usually considered unprofessional.
In the case of a telephone receptionist position, anyone who sends a three page resume is not good at paring down or is massively overqualified.
I want to start a guitar repair business some day soon and talking to many of my friends who have small businesses always gives me small psychic shivers when I talk to them about having to find trustworthy employees.
I feel for you, Psychobunny, and I hope you are at least got a bit of a chuckle from my “helpful ideas” and are successful in your search.
I’m sorry, I laughed. 
Gaudere’s Law strikes again…
Isn’t apoplexy a neurological condition?
What company ever does that? Interviewing people is time consuming and costs money. Why waste that time and money running ads, sifting through resumes and then conducting interviews with people they have no intent to hire just so they can get some anecdotal information that they could otherwise obtain cheaper and more easily?
What usually happens is that companies conduct interviews with the intent to hire someone for a particular position but they either can’t find a suitable candidate, they run out of funding or the business needs change.
FAP!
fap
But seriously now, somebody tried to get sexual during an interview? Did this person think they were going to impress you, or are they just a pervert?
And why isnt your Office Manager screening out round #1 of applicants???
I once corrected the spelling and grammar on a note from the principal and returned it.
AFTER my child got her final grade, graduated and left the school.
I don’t mind Googling, I suspect you won’t find much on me by my real name, however it’s the new thing of asking for the password to your Facebook so they can see how you really are that I say “Um no.” I don’t do anything illegal on there but the friends locked stuff is locked for a reason.
I’d be quite annoyed if I found out an HR person was googling me. There’s not much they’d find, my name is somewhat common and I share a name with my father. Thankfully, over the past ten years or so, I’ve only applied and worked at two very large financial companies and I highly doubt that the extremely busy HR staff has time to spend googling me. There’s a very comprehensive background check required anyway.
I wouldn’t google the name of a person who was interviewing me either. I’d absolutely read up on the company and study Glassdoor to find out about the company’s interview style and work environment. But, I don’t want to know personal details about a potential manager going into an interview. I’m not going to ask him about bass fishing or if his daughters enjoyed the trip to Kings Island last summer.