Flushing the Job Interview Down the Toilet

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Flushing the Job Interview Down the Toilet

Those that have not had to hire for a living may not be aware of some of the weird and funny ways in which people respond to interview questions. While I have heard many funny job interview stories, this one is likely one of the very best, so I hope you enjoy.

A well-respected staffing company sent a candidate to a high profile IT company. The candidate did as he was coached and arrived early and waited in the parking lot of this secure building. Like many candidates, I suppose he felt nervous and a lot of pressure waiting for his job interview. The candidate has an emergency, well he needs to use the bathroom. What happens next is well, where it gets interesting.

Instead of getting access into the building and using the toilet located inside, the candidate decided to take it “back to nature”. Within minutes, a security guard notices this unusual activity in the parking lot and confronts the candidate.

Needless to say he didn’t get the job. It was an embarrassing situation not only for the candidate but for the staffing company since their candidate represents them to the employer. When telling this story, I only wish I had been the one conducting that interview. In my professional opinion, some appropriate questions would include “Describe a situation when you had to make a decision under pressure?” or “Give me an example of when you had to take urgent action to meet a deadline?” While these two questions would be good (correction, would be great), ultimately the question that would be most fitting in this case would be “Tell me about a time when you made a mistake and how did you handle it?”

If you want to hear more interesting job interview stories just take our your local recruiter or HR professional out for a drink (or two) and I am sure the stories will ensue. I will wind this up and while I cannot promise any more stories quite as memorable as this, I do nevertheless promise more job interview stories to come. In the meantime, here is a newspaper article with some more funny interview responses.

Got any funny job interview stories? Feel free to share…
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