Drunk at Interview
In morning carpool the other day, I put on the Hot 99.5 radio show for the benefit of the teenagers. Morning show host Kane reported on hiring a recent intern (and he said her name, but I forgot it). Anyway, the story was that later, after she was hired, she mentioned that during her original Skype interview, she was trashed. Nervous, she’d consumed a large quantity of Caribbean rum before her 10:30 a.m. interview.
Kane was [or pretended to be?] really offended by this, and told her he wouldn’t have hired her if he’d known. The other morning show personalities basically told him to lighten up, we want our interns to be edgy, kind of out there, we want them to distinguish themselves with their shenanigans. Kane said being drunk at your interview is taking it a little far and asked her if she needed to drink everyday before work so that she could be the same crazy, fun persona from the interview.
I’ve never had someone show up drunk to an interview, though a few people sure seemed to be tripping on something. And one guy did joke that he’d just had a sixpack–or I think he was joking. Maybe not, after this story.
Have you experienced a candidate arriving intoxicated? Do you think many candidates have a pre-interview cocktail to calm their nerves?
And job seekers, if you’re so brave, chime in and tell me if you’ve imbibed before an interview, and if so, how did it go?
photo by niffty..
If you liked that post, then try these...
Preaching to the Choir: Resume Help by Kfrancis on December 2nd, 2009
.
Avoid This Common Interview Mistake by Kfrancis on September 20th, 2009
.
4 Comments
This entry is filed under Job Search & Resume.
You can also follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Or perhaps you're just looking for the trackback and/or the permalink.
I have never had a candidate show up for an interview obviously drunk. I have had one show up smelling of beer for an afternoon interview and had a couple who seemed to be altered by something.
This does point out a problem I see with video interviewing. There is so much that you can miss in talking to a candidate on video, subtle body language and this. Just something to think about to those who are looking to solely rely on this. I am not even sure I would be comfortable in using it at an intital interview.
True, John. Hopefully Skype is one of many tools at our disposal, and we can choose the tool that fits the job at hand.
Of course, there could be a Skype breathalyzer that people breathe into, lol.
The closest I have heard of to being drunk at an interview would just be from having drank so much the night before that they still rated pretty high on a breathalyzer. My friend did not do this on purpose and could not fix it so it was inevitable.
Having a little drink to calm the nerves doesn’t really seem that bad though.
Adam – Ditto Effect´s last [type] ..9 Types of Useless Texts Everyone Hates to Receive But Send Anyway
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people have a nip before their interview. No big deal but if it’s obvious, then you’ve probably had too much.