Scary stories aren’t just for campfires. Nightmare interviews can put a shiver down your spine no matter which side of the desk you’re on. Here are six stories of job interviews that went horribly wrong.

The employers tell:

Interview 1

“We asked a candidate to complete the sentence, ‘People who know you well would say, “Suzie is great, but sometimes____,”’" says Robin Thompson of TT&K Inc. “The candidate became irate (angry) and said that she couldn't believe that she was being asked that question. She said that it was totally inappropriate and that she wouldn't answer it. Then she said, ‘But I guess I would have to say that sometimes I overreact.’”

Interview 2

A couple of years ago, Bruce Hurwitz of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing had an IT client looking to hire a systems engineer. “I found a candidate who we all liked. The employer asked me to check references. All the people on his reference list were individual clients; the candidate had never actually worked for a company. The first reference was from the man who had introduced him to his wife. The second was his brother-in-law. The third was the husband of his wife's best friend. They had all been clients of his, and they all said positive things, but since he had not told me of his personal relationship with them, and did not have enough sense to tell them not to tell me, the client literally laughed away the job offer,” Hurwitz says.

Interview 3

“We ask prospective job applicants at our business to fill out a questionnaire. For the line ‘Choose one word to summarize your strongest professional attribute,’ one woman wrote, ‘I’m very good at following instructions.’”

Interview 4

“An person applied for a customer service job, and when asked what he might not like about the job, he said, ‘Dealing with people.’”

Exercises

1. What was the problem with Interview 1?


2. What does it mean to "check someone's references?" (see Interview 2)


3. What was wrong with the candidate's references in Interview 2?


4. What lesson(s) can be learned from Interview 3?


5. Why was the candidate's answer a poorly chosen one in Interview 4?