After I retired from the Air Force and moved back to Nebraska, one of the big companies in the town was Thermo King, who manufactures truck refrigeration Units. Submitted a resume and got called in for an interview. After being greeted, I was ushered to a waiting room that had one couch, one easy chair and a coffee table with magazines. I sitted myself in the chair, sat upright and waited. I was in there maybe 20 minutes. One thing I noticed was that there was a mirror that didn't look quite right. I do not know if it was a two-way mirror, but it sure felt that way. During the course of my wait, I reached for a magazine and found there was a 'Sports' one, a 'People' mag and an one about Over-the-Road trucks and equipment. I picked up the one dealing with trucks and flipped the pages. Almost instantly, the door opened and I was lead to the Shop Supervisor instead of the HR person. They already had my resume for some time and I was offer a job right then. Told them I would have to think about it and promised I'd call them back. I always thought that they were watching to see if I 'kicked back' on the couch or which magazine I picked up from the table. Guess I made the right choices. Two days later the Ethanol Plant called with a job offer, so I called Thermo King back and thanked them for their offer. I read many years later about these type of things being used in HR classes, as a tool to find the right person for the job. Your Weirdest?
I have already told part of the story here, but I guess I didn’t get into the most amusing part of it. When I applied for the job of health inspector and EMS director with the City of Los Fresnos, the mayor had told me they were going to hire me even before I interviewed with the city manager. He also told me what they had agreed to pay. The city manager tried to get me for less. After interviewing me, he told me what my salary would be, and it was quite a bit less than the mayor had told me they were going to pay. Me: “Would that qualify me for food stamps?” He offered a few thousand more per year, but still less than I knew the council had agreed to pay. Me: “How about subsidized housing?” Him: “You’ve been talking to someone, haven’t you?” Then he offered the amount I knew they were going to pay. He told me that I could take comp time for any hours that I spend on ambulance calls at night or on weekends. Having volunteered there prior, I knew that most of the calls were at night or on weekends, so he’d rarely see me in the office during the day. Instead, I offered to not keep track of any hours that I spent doing EMS calls after hours since I had been doing that as a volunteer anyhow, but that if I was tired in the morning, I wouldn’t feel obligated to report to work at nine. That worked out well. I could come in whenever I wanted to, go to lunch whenever I liked, and come back whenever I wanted to. I worked well over forty hours a week, but that’s the kind of schedule I liked.
Maybe not the strangest, but definitely the most "fruitless": I applied for a job that I was highly qualified for. The first interview was with the person I'd be working directly for. We hit it off and she said it would be a pleasure working with me and asked me to interview with her boss. A couple of days later, I did that and she seemed to feel also that I'd be ideal for the job. She said I'd need to interview with the "big boss" and so I came in the next week for the interview with him. I sat down across from him and the first thing he said to me was, "I don't why they're having me interview you because the pool employee who has been doing the job temporarily has been hired permanently for it." I thanked him and left, fuming and pretty pi$$ed off. Here I had had to arrange time off from the temp job I was doing to come in for THREE interviews and they had no intention of hiring me. A big waste of time.
Don't know how "weird" it was, but a company hired me instantly, due to the computer experience I had. The area where I was waiting for the interview had eight other people waiting for an interview. Right after they hired me, a person from HR went into the waiting area and announced "sorry, the position has been filled". Apparently everyone left looking sort of pissed, but "oh well".
I did some interviews at a jobs fair one time back in the mid Seventies. One of the first things one recruiter (future boss) asked me was what I expected to be doing at the job, if I got it, and he added, "Most of the women at our organization work in the lab ... (long pause) ... cleaning test tubes." I suppose looking back he may have just been trying to make a bad joke, or maybe he was testing to see how tough I was. Anyway I failed the test and inched my way walking backwards toward the door, and out of there before the interview went any further.
Always disliked job interviews....the question I hated to answer...Where do you see yourself five years from now.? Depending on how things went I would answer accordingly.....Probably not here or..... And your position is what ?
After an interview and the manager looked at me and said "I still have some others to interview, but we will let you know", I said...….."you don't have to look any further because you have the "best of the best" standing right here." Apparently he liked my response, called me this next morning and I was hired.
After I retired I applied for a part-time job as the caretaker of a Psychologist's combination home and office. The list of duties was long and the pay was low but the thing that sent me out the door was his explanation of how he would leave money and other valuables lying about to test the integrity of the people that worked for him. As the words came out of his mouth I gathered myself up and told him that I would not be interested in the position. The man seemed flabbergasted but I figured it was better to end on pleasant terms right then than to go through some bizarre unpleasantness at a future time. That was the last time I ever interviewed for a job.
Years ago when Bennigan's was just a fledgling restaurant learning how to fly, I applied for a cook's position. One young manager who I am sure was corporate trained interviewed me. He asked questions and I answered them and at some point before he went on with the interview, he let out a small breath and said, "it might be nice having someone older in the kitchen". Now do note: I wrote that this was Years ago so if you can envision a professional kitchen packed with cooks who are younger than my mid twenties, that's what it was. Instead of bowing out after the interviewer made his comment, I suddenly decided to get stupid. He asked what I liked to do in the kitchen and I told him "crusting bread" and at times, I even liked to toast it". I wasn't surprised when he gave me a very blank stare and even less surprised at the way he looked when I explained to him exactly how I crusted and toasted bread. It went something like; You see, in order for a sandwich to be properly crusted, one has to first make sure that all sides are measured precisely so that they are equal otherwise when it is cut on the diagonal, one side will be smaller than the other. Depending on if the bread is toasted or not, the proper knife has to be chosen otherwise it will either crush the edges or fragment them and a guest of a good restaurant certainly doesn't deserve to have inferiorly crusted bread. As far as my personal toasting procedure, I carry a small propane torch to insure that there are no small untoasted areas in the bread. If a professional bread toaster doesn't look for the untoasted spots then that is the area that will hold the most moisture which will guarantee that one bite will not be consistent with the other. A consistent bread toaster and cruster is worth his weight in gold in my opinion and is probably worth even more than the kitchen manager himself. Long story short, he paused for a moment and then excused himself to get a cup of coffee. After a bit, he returned and..……..he hired me. Not for a cook's position but for the kitchen manager's position whom he had given the pink slip to while he was getting his coffee.
My weirdest job interview was a group interview. I did not like that at all. They brought in 12 potential employees. Sat us all around an oval table and began asking questions. The loudest ones took over the interview.
I remember another strange one when I was in a group interview/information session for a job as a 911 operator. A woman came in who was "hearing impaired". She asked for a sign language interpreter (her speach was hard to understand) and everything was delayed while they located one. Finally the session began with the interpreter hard at work. At the end, I decided it wasn't for me and didn't hang around for the formal interviews and I don't know if she did, either. There only thing I can figure out is that she was just checking out to see if they would "discriminate" against her so she could file a complaint. They must have realized that and treated the whole situation as if it was normal. I'm not sure how a person who could neither hear nor speak clearly would be a candidate for the job. Even if she were only responding to "calls" from people using one of those hearing impaired phone systems, the job could have been done more efficiently by someone with no impairment who could also respond to regular calls.
I was interviewing with Sperry Secor nearly 40 years ago, and was being out-processed by the HR person. This was in an open cubicle area. So I'm talking to the HR guy, and we could hear one of his female coworkers next to us whine about what an a$$hole her boyfriend was, and who she was in the process of dumping. My HR guy got up in mid-sentence, walked over, and started making the moves on her!!!! I picked up my stuff and just walked out. He didn't even notice me.
Good morning to all- My most recent- and I expect last of my life- job interview came about four years ago. I saw an opening for an English teaching position in a small rural school close to our fish camp in Florida. I was getting bored, so I applied and was invited for an interview. It went well. I met with principal and small group of present on-staff teachers, and it was obvious to all present that I knew what I was talking about and that I had been to more than a few rodeos in the school business. I fully expected to get a job offer. After the teachers left, I was with the principal in the exit interview and he told me that he and the selection committee were quite impressed with me and my answers to their questions. then he said, " I can't offer you this job. With your experience- I had taught almost 40 years previously- and with your credentials"- I have two master's degrees in education- "I can hire TWO fresh out of Florida State University teachers for what we'd have to pay you. . We're sorry- you just would cost us too much." So that was that. Actually, I was sort of relieved that I didn't get the job, and I actually appreciated the principal's honesty. You don't always get a honest response from school administration. Of course, I wasn't looking for a job to pay the rent and feed the kids or I might have felt differently about the truth. good day to all- Ed