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Summer Fun: True tales from the recruiting front lines follow this blog post

posted by on July 7, 2009

There's nothing more stressful - and exciting, exhilarating and nerve-wracking - than looking for a new job. As recruiters and hiring managers, every day we're meeting candidates who know that their lives could change in the course of interviews with us.

Which is why it's not surprising that we tend to accumulate a rich archive of 'Strange but True' stories from the recruiting front lines. Some stories are horrific, some heartwarming - and many are just downright hilarious.

With the summer vacation season upon us, July's a great time to kick back, relax, and talk about recruiting. From the fellow who put his name and phone number on a billboard to the one who used racial slurs in his cover letter, to some of the most brilliant and creative resumes we've seen, we'll be sharing some of our favourite recruiting stories.

And we'd like to hear yours, too!

Got a great recruiting story? Post it as a comment below or send it to us at sarah@head2head.ca (let us know if you'd like to stay anonymous!).

 

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7 comments

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  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Well, I hope this fits the mold of recruiting stories, but we had to share. Each year in our college recruiting process, we have about 100 students through the doors for second round interviews. And each year, there is always a tidbit here and there that are interesting. However, last year takes the cake.

    We hold de-briefing sessions after the day's interviews to get manager feedback in (as close to) real-time, for accuracy sake. One manager, who has been on the interview team for about 3 or 4 years, and is a strong evaluator, came in stunned one afternoon.

    After probing, she finally blurted out, while laughing "So after my other question, "his tooth flew out of his mouth, and bounced all over the table, almost landing in my lap!"

    No one in the room could control their laughter! We assumed that he would definitely be participating in the dental plan!

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Ahhhh, recruiting for Sales people is always a fun challenge especially when your turn rate is close to 100% so as part of the interview process we decided to add a "role play" interview section to really see if candidates have what it takes. We would give the candidate 45 minutes to read a case study and prepare and then would bring them into the boardroom and step right into character...us playing the client and the candidate the playing the sales rep for a Telcom company called Unicom [Please not I said Unicom]. Don't get me wrong this is not an easy interview, but only meant to see how candidates think on their feet, communicate and ask questions....sounds easy right?!

    Our sharply dressed candidate [who we'll call Bob] looked ready for the challenge,  he entered the board room full of confidence, firm handshake and said "Hi my name is Bob and I represent a company called Unicorn" [my colleague and I looked at each other in thought - did he just say Unicorn, instead of Unicom?] Ok slight oversight but lets move on...he's probably nervous right?

    Bob says "I am here today to sell you Unicorn's Telcom products - are you interested in buying them?" [Shocked....is that really how he would start his sales call....I guess asking for the sale is right, but the first thing that comes out of your mouth and did he say Unicorn again?] Since the role play is supposed to take 30 minutes to play out and with the candidate already asking for the sale we had to think quickly so we asked him to tell us about his company and why we should buy his products

     Candidate: Well we do Telecom stuff, we fix home telephones and sell people them, you should buy something from me because I just started at Unicorn [ Us: Unicorn again - ugh] and I need to keep this job so I can make money and pay my rent to my parents so they don't kick me out

    [ At this point we're thinking.... LETS END THIS INTERVIEW NOW, he keeps calling the company Unicorn and he doesn't even understand what Telcom is but we're only 2 minutes in and we told the candidate it would take 30 minutes so we decide to ask him ["How are you better than the competition"]

    Candidate: Well our competitors suck and don't compare to what I have to offer you, I assure you that if you buy our products I can get you a better deal, our products are cheap

    [At this point the candidate is nervous, sweating and studdering out of control] He ask us if he can take a 2 minute break from the interview and use the washroom because he had Mexican the night before and his stomach is hurting - grossed out we agree and the candidate gets up from the chair (which he trips overs) and leaves the boardroom.

    My colleague and I look at each other and try to think of a way we can end the interview...10 minutes later...20 minutes later we decide to go and have a look in the washroom to make sure our candidate is ok....and guess what...he was GONE!

    We can laugh about it now....we can only assume that the candidate realized that the interview was not going well and decided to cut his losses and leave - good on him for doing it, but boy he must have been cold seeing that he left without his jacket in the middle of February!

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    I don't know whether to laugh or cringe at this one.   Yikes.

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    [Another reprinted post - signed 'Anonymous' - from the Head2Head blog.]

    How about the time I called the recruiter after the interview to say "Just wanted to let you know the client said they were 99% certain they would be hiring me within the next week..."

    The recruiter's response?

    "[silence, then] Wow! I thought I'd NEVER be able to place you, but you've been my easiest placement in WEEKS!"

    (sigh)

    Thanks for the vote of confidence there, buddy. I'm cheesed off that you never believed in me anyway (because obviously you only sent me to that interview to shut me up); if I were the client, I'd ALSO be cheesed off, because basically you're sending them what you think are dud candidates!

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    [Posted as a comment from 'maren' to the Head2Head blog.  Reprinted here by permission - because it was too good not to share.]

    The worst recruiting story I ever had was about 10 years ago. I got a call out of the blue from some agency recruiter who I'd never heard of (god knows where she got my name).

    She started to pitch me on an 'account executive' job in an ad agency, but after a couple of minutes I stopped her, saying "Actually, that job is too junior for me."

    HER: [impatiently, mad that I'd interrupted her] "How do you know? I haven't even finished telling you about it yet!"

    ME: "I think I do understand the role, actually. It's probably paying around $45k and is more tactical than strategic, right?"

    HER: "Well - yes. It'd be perfect for you. I mean, $45k is more than you're making now, isn't it?"

    ME: "Actually, no. I'm making twice that - "

    HER: "What? I can't believe it! Who'd pay you that much? Huh - that's WAY more than you're worth. You sure lucked out."

    ME: [speechless, then laughing] "Well, I guess it's good that my current employer isn't as familiar with my skills, experience and abilities as you are, then. I sure hope they never find out that they're overpaying me by tens of thousands of dollars! By the way, where did you get my name?"

    HER: "Someone recommended you - I can't say who."

    ME: "Riiggght. Well, perhaps you'd better go back to your database. I need to go back to my overpaid work."

    I mean - what??! I wish I could remember that recruiter's name - I wonder if she lasted in the business more than 5 minutes, or whether her abusive, "I'm doing you a favour" attitude actually worked with some people.

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    I had nearly EXACTLY the same type of conversation with a recruiter a few years ago. My position then enabled me to exercise both my tactical and strategic skills and I was compensated accordingly. The recruiter pitched a tactical position that would have been unsatisfying in both compensation and contribution to corporate goals at best. Recruiters often tell candidates to research the companies they are applying to -- the reverse is also true -- recruiters need to research their candidates to understand how their experiences can contribute and not just look at how many keywords match up.

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Excellent point - I once overheard a recruiter telling a candidate that their resume wasn't too impressive because "You don't have a recognized brand name in your work history..." - except that the place where the candidate had been working for the past 6 years WAS a huge global brand with 140,000 employees worldwide. 

    It's because of episodes like this that I created a section in our orientation manual called "Knowledge:  The #1 tool for delivering great experiences" - and a subsection on keeping up wth economic trends and current events.

    We all have access to so much info via the web these days - there's no excuse for some of this stuff.