We’re currently interviewing for a front desk position here at Sunray (we’re still looking for the right person, so e-mail me your resume if you’re that person). We just had someone come through the office that was the most brutally honest person I’ve ever met in my entire life. There are just some things you try to avoid discussing during a job interview, if you can avoid it, but I almost want her here because she was so honest (and she was actually very nice).
We have standard questions we ask in every interview. One of them is “If there’s one thing you could improve upon, what is it?” Her answer? “Well, I’m not the most punctual person in the world, and I’m frequently late for my job.”
Okaaaaay…How about driving record? “I’ve gotten a couple speeding tickets, and I currently don’t have insurance on my car.”
It slowly gets worse… Do you have any felony convictions in the last 10 years that haven’t been expunged by a court of law, blah blah (and we’ve never had anybody actually answer “Yes” to this)? “I have a felony possession of a stolen weapon on my record, but only because I was the lease holder on the apartment that the gun was found in, and it was my old roommate’s gun.”
So we gave her an application to fill out, and she gets to the part on the form where it asks if they’ll consent to drug tests at random intervals, etc… . She asks how often they would be, and we said that she’d probably get one in her first 90 days, and then randomly thereafter. “Sorry for wasting your time, but I wouldn’t be able to pass,” and she sets down the application, says a polite goodbye and leaves our office.
I have to say, that was the most entertaining interview I’ve ever sat in on.
Comments
Okay, I can understand the problem with the first answer, especially for a front desk person.
What’s wrong with the rest of her answers?
Radnesin: You have never been in the position of hiring anyone, have you?
Many, many employers ask these and similar questions routinely. They give you insight into the person’s character and help to determine whether or not they fit in with the company and its overall objectives/requirements. Sunray (no affiliation) would most likely require this employee to accept and use customer credit card information and give her access to keys to people’s homes- entrusting her with hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, abusable personal information and the very integrity/reputation of the company.
It is funny that it is the drug testing that got her to give up though.