Ok, I thought it was time for a bit of fun… When you have interviewed as many people as I have over the years, you are bound to run into some interesting people and funny situations.
I was recently asked by a student that was looking for a co-op placement if it was ok to bring their Mom to the interview. I said absolutely not. It is perfectly fine for Mom to drive you to the interview, but Mom needs to stay in the car. This reminded me of my next story.
Let me share my story with you. Years ago I was interviewing candidates with a co-worker for an IT related position. The interview room was directly inside the front door where coincidently the Administrative Assistant and waiting room were positioned (literally a small love seat couch directly in front of the Administrative Assistant desk). The rest of this story is pieced together between our direct experience and the feedback from the Administrative Assistant outside of the interview door at her desk.
While we were finishing up interviewing a candidate, the next candidate came through the building door into the waiting room. Interestingly enough, he was not alone. His wife came with him and introduced him as an interview candidate to “Sue” (name changed) – the Administrative Assistant and told her that “George” (name has obviously been changed) was here for an interview. George (and his wife) were told to have a seat and we would be with him shortly. During this time, George’s wife proceeded to groom him. She combed his hair, she touched it up by licking her hand and tapping some out of place hairs, straightened his collar…etc. This all directly in front of Sue – about 6 feet away while sitting on the love seat. All of the sudden George’s wife jumped up and said “OH! I need to get something from the car!” Out she went – at the same time my co-worker and I opened the door to say good bye to our candidate and to call George in for his interview. George’s wife then came through the front door and immediately stopped dead in her tracks…her face turning white. She said, “Where did George go?!” Sue said “Well, he went in for his interview”. George’s wife then said “OH! Can I go in with him?” It was then that Sue politely told her “No…this is something George has to do on his own….”
Unfortunately George did not do well at all during the interview, to the point where about half of the interview questions were skipped and George was quickly back to his wife.
So hopefully you got the humour in this story. If you are applying to a job, the company is looking to possibly hire YOU…not your Mom or your spouse….they are looking to hire YOU. So, it is important to do the interview on your own. 🙂