This wasn’t so much a job interview, but I kind of get-to-know you session. Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what it was. Here’s the thing … when I was bopping between jobs in Maine for a while, I got a job with the State (data entry). The initial interview - with three people grilling me - was normal, went well and I got the job, but then when I met with my boss on the first day, we sat at his desk just shooting the shit for like two hours. Just about the job and about my experiences, his experiences, where did you go to high school, oh your dive a Mustang, cool … just shooting the shit. But the entire time the guy had his elbow on the desk with his hand sticking straight up and kind of casual lolling around - right in front of his face. At no point in the conversation did I make out his entire face. His hand is flittering over his mouth, in front of one eye, wiping his nose … it was weird. Like he was afraid of me or something and he couldn’t make eye contact.
One of the oddest interview experiences I had as the interviewer was hiring for basic part-time retail help. The girl I was interviewing had no past experience which was fine but she was completely clueless as to how part-time hourly jobs worked.
When I asked her what days and hours she was available she said it depended on the day and she was planning on just coming in when she wanted to work and leaving when she wanted to.
Maybe she did volunteer work where you just came and went as you pleased or her parents had salaried positions with excessive freedom but she didn’t grasp the concept of a schedule.
I was interviewing a candidate for a customer service position. When asked about his experience dealing with customers, he brought up his volunteer experience through his church. This was very similar to the hiring manager’s church and they started a conversation all about their respective churches. I don’t mind a candidate bringing up their volunteer experience even if it’s through their church, but let’s not start conversing about our churches.
The pièce de résistance came when the hiring manager invited the candidate to her church. It was like watching a potential lawsuit in the form of a runaway train heading right towards me in slow motion and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. The hiring manager had more than thirty years of seniority, she had trained the CEO when he started, and was very difficult to work with at the best of times, so I said nothing to her. I gave my director a heads up and told him he could figure out how to handle it.
My interview started, I think, at 9:00. They kept extending it, wanting to add other people to interview. Lunchtime came and went, no offer of food or a lunch break. Eventually it was after 5:00 and they wanted to add another, and I had to decline because by this time my partner would be standing outside, waiting for me to pick her up with the car we were sharing.
Also, one of the interviewers asked me what religion I was, and what were the religions of my parents.
It wasn’t a very positive experience. But weeks later they called with an offer, and I worked for them for the next 42 years.