For every job interview rule, there are exceptions -- Career Center Blog

July 12, 2012

For every job interview rule, there are exceptions

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By Randy Woods
NWjobs

Has someone spiked the water cooler? Perhaps it's this summer's unseasonably hot weather. Or maybe the Mayans were really correct about 2012 being the end of time. Whatever the reason, a few recent stories in the news appear to be rewriting some basic rules we thought we knew about job interviews.

Are we undergoing a sea change in the way employers evaluate worker skills? Or do the job search gods merely have a keen sense of irony? Here are a few essential bits of advice I'd always figured were the bedrock of every successful interview — but now I'm not so sure.

1. Honesty is the best policy. Though it may be tempting to exaggerate your abilities and accomplishments to impress hiring managers, it's never a good idea to pad your resume, fabricate your past experience or hide potential problems that might affect your performance. It's always better to come clean up front rather than explain a lie after the fact.

In Park Hills, Mo., a 26-year-old job seeker named Christopher Stringham took this advice to heart in the most twisted way imaginable. In late June of this year, he applied for a position at the Missouri State Highway Patrol. During the interview, a police sergeant asked Stringham a routine question about any convictions he may have had concerning sexual crimes. According to news reports, Stringham replied that he had, on several occasions, touched a child inappropriately. He was later arrested and charged with 20 counts of child molestation.

At first, this seemed like a rather odd, isolated story of impromptu justice via job interview, but it was not the only recent occurrence. Less than a week later, another man, Cody Slaughter, 22, of Yuma, Ariz., applied for a position as a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent and was asked a similar question about any unreported criminal acts in his past. Without much prodding, Slaughter admitted not only to molesting a 2-year-old girl several years before, but also to several acts of bestiality with a number of animals, including a horse, a dog and a pig. He was promptly arrested by the Yuma County Sherriff's Office.

Of course, in the end, things worked out for the best: Two alleged (and not very bright) criminals who admitted to heinous acts are, at least for now, in custody and unable to harm another child (or animal), and two law enforcement organizations proved that even the most obvious questions still need to be asked.

2. Always be punctual. Few things can leave a worse impression in the mind of a hiring manager than to show up late to an interview or, worse, to skip it altogether. The latter scenario happened recently to a man named Delroy Simmonds, who, after a year of unemployment, had secured an interview for a warehouse maintenance job in New York City on June 27.

Simmonds, 30, did not show up, but he did have a pretty good excuse. While waiting on an outdoor subway station in Brooklyn for the train that was to take him to the interview, he witnessed a sudden gust of wind blow a stroller containing a strapped-in child over the edge of the platform and onto the tracks below. Acting on instinct, Simmonds jumped down to the tracks as the train was arriving in the station and rescued 9-month-old David Zamara just before the train screeched to a halt. Both emerged relatively unharmed, with the child suffering only a few minor cuts.

Simmonds' heroic deeds that day meant he missed a rare shot at gainful employment, but his story didn't end there. After a call to explain his unexpected mass-transit detour, another interview was set up the next day for a different maintenance position at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Reportedly, he is scheduled to start his new job there this week.

3. Don't play video games during the interview. Even if you're applying for a video game developer job, this seems like a no-brainer, doesn't it? What hiring manager could possibly be impressed by someone furiously firing away on a game controller when he or she should be describing their cutting-edge skills?

Well, ad man Yossi Lubaton, for one.

The CEO of the BBR Saatchi & Saatchi advertising firm in Israel has posted a notice for a "wicked programmer" and set up a rather unique pre-interview schedule. Every Wednesday this July, at 8 p.m. Israel time, Lubaton will challenge a job candidate to a 30-minute, mano-a-mano battle via the multiplayer warcraft video game "Diablo 3." While playing the game, Lubaton, a self-described "level 60 Barbarian," will ask the applicants various salient questions and assess their abilities to work as a team, solve problems quickly and "show no mercy" to competitors.

In a video explaining the "Hell of a Job" interview process, Lubaton said the person who performs best in "Diablo 3" will win "Warmonger, the legendary sword, 1 million gold coins and maybe manager's insurance." Oh, and the winner will also win a chance to have a real, face-to-face interview at the Saatchi offices, presumably without the medieval weaponry.

So far, two epic battles have been fought, leaving two more to go for the rest of this month. Tune in to hellofajob.co.il for more details and to find out who emerges victorious.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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Stephen Keen | July 12, 2012 5:38 PM | Reply

I had worked almost 24 hours one time at this office
as a programmer. The next morning, I received a phone call from another prospective employer asking me to show up in two hours for an interview.
I politely explained that the way I looked would scare little children and dogs, and that I was not wearing anything from Savile Row. "Don't worry! Come as you are". I did. I had the interview. Got the job the next day.