Interview Bloopers

Interviews are essential to getting hired for most jobs. Most everyone knows the basic rules: bring copies of your resume, arrive 15 minutes early, dress professionally, etc. Sometimes, interviews take place where all rules are tossed out the door rather fast. Having sent candidates out on interviews for more than 20 years, I have acquired a mental list of resume bloopers and thought I would share a few today!

One candidate was dispatched to a very traditional client who frowned upon candidates who were not impeccably dressed and groomed. Having prepped the individual about this, she went to the meeting in a very impressive looking suit. The CEO walked in wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt and sandals!! The rest of his staff were dressed in similar garb!! As I learned later, he had secured concert tickets for his team later that day!

Another candidate arrived at the interview and was ushered into a VP's office containing a 100 gallon fish tank with some very sick looking fish. This candidate was a computer programmer who moonlighted in a shop that specialized in rare tropical fish. He spent the next 20 minutes inspecting and repairing the filtration system and walked away with a job offer as a programmer!

Several years back, I worked on a project for a client who needed to 10 people with various technical backgrounds and contacted me at the trade school where I was assisting graduates in their search process. Over the course of about 2 weeks, they interviewed about 15 people and selected 9. We had one slot to fill and I sent a talented, if not a bit offbeat, candidate. Right after the interview, the hiring manager called and asked if I had seen the young man before he went to the meeting. Having not, I was curious. As luck would have it, he stopped by on his way home......in his lime green trousers and bright yellow blazer! Apparently, he spilled breakfast on his suit and tried cleaning it in the washing machine! In a fit of panic, he borrowed clothes from his uncle! End of story!!

I am sure there are some entertaining interview bloopers out there worth sharing. Whether you were the interviewer or the candidate, please share your unusual experiences!

Transfer Your Skills

Quite some time ago I suggested that some of you might want to redirect your careers. It is becoming more and more obvious that the market for traditional computer programmers, financial analysts, research chemists, manufacturing plant managers, banking managers, etc. might never return to where it once was. Does this mean you are out of luck and destined to working minimum wage jobs? I don't think so!

Take some time to look around you paying special attention to jobs that might be able to take advantage of some of your skills. Chat with people in fields that interest you to learn about their backgrounds and those of their colleagues. Find a career coach to sound you out and see if they could help identify some new paths. Wander around your local area and dig deep online. Find something that interests you and figure out how to transfer your own personal skills inventory into that field!

Interview Processes

Employers seem to have very unique ideas on how to make hires. From personal experiences and the comments from colleagues, I have a collection of stories that could fill volumes! For today, just a few will have to do.

Many years ago, I was placing entry level computer programmers with a client who asked to see about 5 candidates. After the interviews were done, the employer chose the one I felt was less likely to be hired. Why? The manager had a huge saltwater fish tank that he was struggling to maintain and this programmer used to manage a fish shop and would be able to assist him!

A colleague sent a candidate to an interview a few years back, urging the person to take an extra minute when selecting her interview apparel as she had heard before that this individual showed up dressed neatly but a touch to casual. After the interview, the candidate reported back that the hiring manager wore a Grateful Dead T-shirt, bluejeans and flip-flops!

Predicting the mood or tempo of interviews is not easy. My best advice is to be prepared for the unexpected at all times!! PS: Feel free to share your stories with me!

Jobs in DC

While enduring the heatwave in the Washington DC region last Sunday, I picked up a copy of The Washington Post. After spending about two minutes on their pitiful sports page, I moved on to the classifieds and found a fair amount of postings. Most were from consulting firms looking for software developers with rather new technologies and all required high end security clearances. My assumption is that most of them are competing for the same contract. If you are a programmer who could spend 6 months to a year in DC, you might want to get your resume headed to that region.

Accounts with prior government agency background also looked to be in high demand which makes sense considering the current financial mess. Engineers, manufacturing professionals, and teachers will find limited opportunities in DC and it suburbs right now. Based on what I observed, those interested in the hotel industry should check out Washington or Alexandria as every place I saw was loaded with guests.