I don’t even know whether it does any good to write about this, but I have to vent somehow. Four times this week, our organization had four different candidates say the dumbest, most stupid stuff in an interview that you could ever imagine.<\/p>\n
These people are not high school dropouts or interviewing for their first job. They were grown people, ages 30 to 58. All had college degrees. Two had master degrees. Two of them had actually been managers in their previous jobs. One had been a regional VP. These were (supposedly) bright, intelligent professionals who had great track records. Even after all of these years in this business\u2026 our average recruiter has been in the profession 16.3 years … we are still amazed at some of the things that people say. Here were the four statements that were made in these people’s interviews:<\/p>\n
“I sued my last employer, but I won!”<\/p>\n
“I’m just coming off a bout with severe depression.”<\/p>\n
“I’m going through an absolutely terrible, horrific divorce. And it’s not likely to be over for two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
“I want your job in the next five years!” (Ok, it was the 30 year old.)<\/p>\n
Almost every one of these people said that the reason they gave for making these statements was that they “wanted to be transparent.” (All but the 30-year-old, who thought he was being candid.) What’s with that? Well, maybe they were. But they were eliminated for saying such stupid stuff.<\/p>\n
Now, if you interview for a job and you think it’s too much stress because you\u2019re going through a very strenuous divorce or you’re concerned about your most recent depression, don’t take the job. It’s okay. But there’s no good reason to tell an employer any of these things. The guy who sued his previous employer might have been 100% correct in doing so, but no employer is going to ever run that risk. A severe bout with depression or an ugly, emotional divorce says to a prospective employer, “this person might be messed up for some time and I can’t afford to run that risk.”<\/p>\n
Don’t give me that, “they’re not supposed to discriminate against anyone who is going through a divorce or has suffered an illness!” Riiiiiiiiiight! Suuuuuuuuuure! Do you think anyone is going to admit not hiring a candidate because they said such stupid stuff. Even two of the candidates stated that they could see the hiring authority’s enthusiasm die once they said what they did.<\/p>\n
People absolutely need to be honest. But none of these folks were asked these questions, they simply volunteered the information.<\/p>\n
You might be able to say stuff like this and still be a U.S. presidential candidate, but it will never get you a job in the real world.<\/p>\n
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I don’t even know whether it does any good to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n