Well, I wore a long wrap skirt to an interview. It unwrapped when I was crossing & uncrossing my legs. I didn’t say anything, of course; I have no idea if the interviewer noticed. Luckily, I did have a slip on.
I did get offered the job, but didn’t take it.
Susan
In our final year of an MBA program, we were furiously interviewing as much as possible while managing the demanding workload. My friend had an interview with a company called Proxima (I believe it has since gone through a merger). Anyway, he was doing just fine until his closing statement. He simply wanted to express how much he loves the company and how he would give his blood and soul to them if they hired him. As many of you know, making such pronouncements are a prerequisite for certain companies. Unfortunately, his words lost some credibilitiy when he got the company’s name wrong.
Cos the boss was an a*sehole of the first magnitude. They could only attract applicants from places that had never heard of the guy. This was the only place I have ever worked where I have had a serious discussion with my cow-orkers about how to get the boss killed. Boating accident was the consensus. I took that conversation as a sign to get the hell out of the place, which I promptly did.
Interviewer (for some company that cleans businesses after hours): “So what would you say is your biggest fault?”
NailBunny (19 years old): “I have a really bad temper.”
Interviewer: several seconds of silence “Well, at least you’re honest.”
Did not get job.
My first job interview ever was with Hollywood Video. I was confident I’d get the job, because I had quite an extensive knowledge of movies. First, I took a nap and was over an hour late to my interview. Second, the nicest clothes I had were wrinkled and I did not have the time, nor the means, to fix them before the interview. And last, after bragging to him that I could probably name any movie he could come up with from a description, I could not name the movie he described.
Did not get job.
But! The absolute worst, most ridiculous job interview I’ve ever had was not that long ago. I want to say December of 2003, perhaps? Interview for a receptionist job, turned out to be for a lighting fixture company. I was unthrilled to say the least, but it was a job, which I needed desperately. I had spoken briefly with the owner on the phone, described my previous jobs, and he was delighted with my qualifications and said it was pretty much in the bag, they just needed to interview me as a formality. Great!
So I go in, all gussied up, with my resume. He gives me an application and tells me to only worry about filling out the parts not covered by my resume. I was all full of myself, feeling pretty cocky about getting the job, so I skimmed briefly through the application and filled out the parts not already covered in the resume, take the application into him. He looks through it, and asks why I didn’t fill out this part, pointing to the previous job information? I said that it was all on my resume, and he points out this teeny, tiny little column hidden there with everything else entitled “Reason for leaving”. D’oh. I explain that I didn’t see that column, and tell him my reasons for leaving my previous jobs. He says, and I quote “Well, we’re pretty detail-oriented here, and I gotta tell ya: it’s a bad sign that you missed that. So I think we’re going to have to say good bye and good luck, at this point.”
I think I burst into tears before I even left his office, and cried all the way home. :smack:
Oh man, I seem to have blocked out my worst mistake when I went to respond to this thread.
I was fresh out of college in a young hip surfing town. At the center of the young hip center of this young hip town was a very young hip music store. I was desperate for a job- any job- and this job would have simply been the coolest.
I go in. We sit down and talk a bit. Then they ask me what kind of music I like. I blanked. I stood stunned for a moment. And then I answered the only thing I could think of.
“Peaches”.
Peaches, if you don’t know, is a young woman who sings very increadably raunchy songs to a very spare drum machine. It’s sleazy, raunchy, unpleasant and slightly scary music. We are talking the height of unsavory. Licking the floor of a peep show booth is probably a cleaner and more wholesome activity than listening to Peaches.
“Uhhh…” the young hip manager said “Anything else”
“Nope.” I replied, still blanking “Just Peaches”
I didn’t get the job. They must be wondering about the freak that listens exclusively to Peaches.
you channeling the younger george bush or something?
This happened to me just today.
Friday I went to apply for a job and they had me fill out a survey/personality profile type thing of 150 questions. Except I only answered 110, as I had missed the last page.
I showed up today for my 3:00 appointment, and the busy manager asked me to fill out the rest of the questions I had missed.
I did, and when he finally got around to interviewing me (I was on time and it would have happened right away had I finished the questionnaire like I was supposed to the last time, but due to him being very busy I ended up having to wait about 45 minutes) one of the questions he asked me was:
“How do you avoid making mistakes?”
I said:
“By being very thorough.”
Weee…
He told me by the end of the interview (a question or two later) that they couldn’t offer me a position.