Comments on: Don’t Be Weird and Other Interview Advice

By: Patrick McLaughlin

Patrick McLaughlin — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:54:39 +0000

I can muster sympathy up for one of those–#5. I had been working for a defense contractor, doing tech writing work that was classified (except for the corporate newsrag) for three years. I was asked in the interview for a RECENT sample of my writing. I offered the journalistic material–and was rather snottily asked for some TECHNICAL writing. My explanation that I didn’t have copies of any it, because if I did, I’d have committed a felony, and if I had it and showed it to them it would also be a felony didn’t seem to get through either. “Well you must have SOMETHING recent you can show us…”.

Um, no. I had some years worth of stuff BEFORE that, and evidence I’d been working for the defense contractor, and stuff I’d written during that time–just not the (classified) tech writing.

I’m certain that the list of equivalently strange, stupid, rude and deranged interviewer comments and behaviors would be equally “good.” My favorite may be the job requirement for at LEAST 10 years of experience with a programming language that had only been around for three years at the time.

Of course, there was the guy who wanted to know if I played the guitar (applying for a writing/editing job in a firm that had nothing to do with music). That was strange…

By: h sofia

h sofia — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:11:21 +0000

The clear heels thing has GOT to end. I don’t know how they made their way from the stripper stage to Main Street, USA. I checked out shoesusa.com and all I can say is … not one of those pairs of shoes on the main page is appropriate for a job interview (unless the workplace is named Bada Bing).

By: Scott Wells (Boy in the Bands)

Scott Wells (Boy in the Bands) — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:58:56 +0000

Hmm. . . US-made huh?

I think I could pull off lucite, but at 6′4″ would be hard pressed to wear three-inch heels.

By: mindthing

mindthing — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:54:12 +0000

My husband works at a company where roughly 90% of the employees are female. He once interviewed a man who was in his late 40s/early 50s who asked “Are there any hot chicks who work here?” when he noticed a group of women holding a meeting in a conference room.

By: Ms. Theologian

Ms. Theologian — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:57:49 +0000

What greatly disturbs me here is that I bet I can tell you where she got them. Shoes USA has an enormous collection of all types of lucite heels. And they’re made in the USA!

By: h sofia

h sofia — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:46:58 +0000

This reminds me of a time when I was riding the bus on a weekday afternoon, and there was an attractive woman in her early 20s wearing a decent pinstripe suit. She was thin, and her hair was nicely done, her jewelry tasteful. She was standing about eight feet away from me on the crowded bus. She was on her cell phone talking to someone about how she’d just come from a job interview, but didn’t know what to think after months of job hunting rejections. She kept saying things like, “I don’t know why I’m never the number one choice,” and “All that private school and college education is being wasted.”

When we got to her stop, she stepped off the bus, and I watched her walk down the sidewalk. At that point I noticed she was wearing 3 inch high lucite heels.