15 Ways to Annoy Your Job Interviewer

The same rules should apply to those who are doing the interviewing.

I had a job interview recently during which one of the people interviewing me was text messaging while I was answering a question. I thought this was incredibly rude. This person also asked me what my husband did for a living (how is this relevant to the position at hand or my ability to do the job?).

I showed interest in the position, did my research on the company, yet I felt I was not treated with respect. Although I have been out of work for several months, I consider myself fortunate that I did not get the job. If this is how I am going to be treated during the interview process, imagine how I would be treated on the job.

Anonymous 10:47AM August 26, 2010

Come on. If hiring managers really think that being nitpicky about a candidate's body language or personal habits will help them find the perfect person for the job, then they're sadly mistaken and incredibly shortsighted.

Don't get me wrong; you should definitely act like a HUMAN BEING on the interview and be on your absolute best behavior. But don't punish a nervous job candidate for making a mistake or two. I honestly think that job interviews are crap anyway...how on earth do you think you're going to find a good candidate from an hour-long interview or even a day-long panel interview, where you put the candidate through the motions of a dog and pony show? If you really want to find a good candidate whose personality and skills are compatible with the needs of your organization, hire them for a freelance assignment. Yes, I said hire them. It generally takes 1-2 months to fill a position anyway, so why not pony up a little cash and dole out freelance assignments to two or three of your top candidates? It'll help you fill the void while you're trying to make a hire. I think that making people come up with detailed and complicated work samples that are geared toward the specific employer is pretty selfish on the employers' part and just makes good potential employees hate you.

(Obviously if you're hiring someone to answer phones this probably won't work, and there are some jobs that won't work well with the freelance assignment scenario. But a lot do.)

Stop it with the antiquated, stupid hiring practices, employers. You're 90% of the reason why there's a revolving door in corporate America.

tired of it of SC 9:04AM February 16, 2010

I think this article makes very much sense in that people make a mental note of the things you do in front of them all the time. Snap judgments are harsh but people do them all the time; and once they're stuck they're hard to unstick.

Something that I think helps me is an attentive form of body language. I tend to not sit straight back in a chair (like a mannequin or something) but I lean forward a bit, while still maintaining my own comfort while sitting and direct eye contact. This gives the interviewer (or whoever you're speaking to, a date perhaps) the impression that you're not only focused on what they're saying but interested.

Couple that with actually using your brain to answer their questions correctly (intelligently) and chances are you'll leave them with a nice impression of you.

Conan O'Brien of CA 5:05AM January 29, 2010

You never know what the interviewer wants...It's all a head game...cut the chase and be humans. So what if you have to scratch your butt or blow your nose...The interviewer does it all the time. They ask the most stupid questions in interviews. I like this one: What is your weakness? Like I'm going to say...I love fat women that eat Tripple Whoppers while making love...Yeah, right!

Or, do you smoke crack or steal from people? Wow! Let me see, I guess both works together if you don't get caught...

Just give me the stupid job and leave me alone...

Big Daddy Dave of NY 2:35AM January 03, 2010