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.
One of the strangest questions I’ve ever been asked in an interview was, “Do you play cricket?”
Seems that the company had a lot of people from South Asia and the West Indies who did play cricket, and somehow, had got themselves into an after-work cricket league, much like many offices have a beer-league softball team. I admitted that I did not play cricket, but I was willing to learn. Gotta at least try for the job, right?
Well, I didn’t get the job, but at least they were nicer than the place where I learned that employees were expected to play squash on their lunch hour, and tennis after work. The job didn’t sound good to me, for reasons unrelated to those sports, and I knew I wouldn’t take it even if I got an offer, so I was brutally frank: “Lunch is for Big Macs and after work is for a couple of cold beers.” Obviously, no offer.
I later found out that that company’s office in Toronto had a difficult time financially, and while the company still exists internationally, it no longer exists in Canada. It made great products, and still does, but maybe if the Canadian office had put less effort into developing racquet sports players, and more into actually refining, designing, and manufacturing products, it might still exist in Canada.
At my last job, we often had to interview with a potential client. Sort of like a job interview.
So I’m meeting with the COO of a fintech company and it’s going well enough. It’s right after COVID so it’s remote.
So the COO asks me, “tell me about a time when you had a client who didn’t agree with one of your recommendations and how you handled it.”
So I start to answer and suddenly my daughter who was about four at the time shows up on camera and is like “Daddy, can I put candy in my cereal for breakfast.”
So I’m like “Daddy’s on an important call, Princess. Can we discuss this in a bit?”
“No”.
So now the COO is watching me to see how I handle it. Anyhow I got the job.
Unrelated. I don’t know if it’s “silly”, but I interviewed at IBM’s strategy consulting group many years ago. Part of the process was they were interviewing like 40 people. They broke us up into teams of 5 or so and had us do a group presentation on a business case. sort of like an MBA project. I’ve had interviews where I’ve done those sort of cases individually, but never with a group of strangers before. In all fairness, it is a big part of the actual job
At one stage I applied for a job as a merchandise planner with a small textiles distributor. The job description as promoted was fairly standard and I had the requisite experience and skills from a decade in that role with one of their larger competitors. Breezed through the first stage interview and got on the shortlist to be interviewed by the MD and owner.
The MD redefined the role in much more detail. The person currently in the role had built their career and personal fiefdom there. She wasn’t just the merchandiser planner, she was the fabric designer, the procurement manager, the merchandise planner, the marketing department. A one woman force of nature.
The whole distribution business was absolutely dependent on her capabilities. There was negligible supporting systems, processes or technology. The role was essentially retained in her teledex, a couple of Excel workbooks and her memory. She should have been the head of a department and paid three times more than they were offering.
She was leaving to take 2 years maternity leave. This literally represented an existential crisis for the business who were hoping desperately they could find a doppelganger to fill the gaping hole of expertise asap. I told them that they really needed to get her back to work as soon as physically possible from the post-natal suite and to build a creche for her personal use. That ended the interview.
They didn’t find anybody for the role and went out of business barely a year later.
On one job interview I was asked if I was interested in learning to fly.
It seems that the group provided pathology services to several far-flung labs, which they accessed via small plane trips. There was a vacancy in that role because a previous pathologist had accidentally walked into the propeller while the engine was being warmed up for a flight. He survived but was not much good for work purposes thereafter.
I did not display sufficient enthusiasm for replacing him (or even for a non-flying role), which probably explains why I wasn’t offered the job.