the infiltrator, the borrowed research, and other people who were much too honest in job interviews

In the recent post on people applying for jobs that were clearly at odds with what they wanted to do, one theme that came up over and over was candidates who were way too honest in interviews. Here are 11 of my favorite stories you shared that fit that category.

1. The competition

A candidate once wrote in their cover letter that their dream was to one day work for [our competitor] and they saw us a an important stepping stone to getting there.

2. The mole

I was working for a very progressive Democratic candidate’s campaign, hiring a finance director. Someone with two decades of experience working in Republican offices applied. I decided to phone screen him just out of curiosity, and when I asked him why the switch to the other side of the aisle, he said his politics hadn’t changed – he just wanted the inside scoop on what we were working on.

3. The borrowed research

A presentation by an applicant for a faculty position in computer science began poorly when the fellow couldn’t get his slides to work. The candidacy really tanked when, following the research presentation, he answered a question about the material with, “Well, I don’t know. This isn’t actually my research, but I thought it was interesting.”

4. The wrong answer

I used to interview people for software quality engineering roles, as distinct from software engineering — different job responsibilities, different expectations, and it was always useful to make that clear right at the start to smoke out people who were just going to try to switch in six months.

I got on one interview call (at 2 am my time, mind you — global company), started right off with, “Why do you want to be a quality engineer?” and he responded “I don’t.”

Shortest interview I’ve ever done.

5. The aspiring film director

I was trying for my first career-type job out of college. I was recently graduated communications major with a concentration in film production and was interviewing to be an office manager at an advertising firm that did a lot of commercial shoots. The second person to come in the room to interview me asked, “So, describe your dream job to me.”

Friends, I did not know this was meant to be a “describe the job you’re applying for or maybe where you’d be in five years” question. I proceeded to talk at length about being a feature film director.

I did not get that job.

I also didn’t end up even getting into the film/TV industry, but I am all the happier for it.

6. The infiltrator

I work in entertainment. About 10 years ago, I was at a production company that prided itself on connecting with its fans and would take a meeting with pretty much anyone. One person we met with asked us for an internship and was very clear that he wanted to be part of the company because he was not a fan of our work. Our sub-genre was not his preferred sub-genre, and so he planned to infiltrate the company and take us down from the inside.

We explained that this wasn’t the way to get more of his preferred content made and wouldn’t be taking him on. He was shocked.

Years later, the company did go under, but not because of him.

7. The Francophile

My favorite cover letter I’ve ever reviewed was for a run-of-the-mill admin assistant temp position at a U.S.-based study abroad provider for college students. While there were other teams in the company that had lots of travel and excitement, this position was helping process application materials and answering phones. We tried to be up-front about this in our listing and our screening/interviews, as sometimes people would apply to “get a foot in the door” and then leave when they realized we needed them to commit to this very unexciting work.

We received an application with a two-page cover letter that read more like a personal essay than a professional document. In the letter, this candidate explained that she had worked doing very similar admin work for two years very successfully, but while on a lunch break in a park realized that she hated admin work and needed to move to Paris immediately. She quit on the spot and moved to Paris and loved living in France, but now she was back in the U.S. and needed a job. It is the only time I’ve read a cover letter that laid out, in explicit detail, why the candidate would not be happy to do the job for which they were applying.

8. The teacher

Interviewed a candidate for a position that was primarily teaching. At one point during the interview I needed to hand her off to a different person so that I could go teach, one of the things that she would have been doing if she got the job. I explained that’s where I was going and she laughed and said, “Oh, I totally understand. I just HATE teaching!”

9. The third choice

I was interviewing a candidate for an intellectual property attorney position at a federal government agency. A standard question is, “Why do you want to work here?” He made it clear that he would prefer private practice or a corporation and we were his third choice. He did not get a second interview.

10. The software developer

While doing phone screens for a junior software developer, we asked all the candidates, “Why are you interested in software development?” (or some similar phrasing).

One candidate answered, “I don’t know if I really am.” They did not get invited for an in-person interview.

11. The thief

I was doing induction for a small group of new starters, explaining to them our CRM system and the customer information database behind it. From one guy I got a lot of technical questions — How is the data formatted? How easy is to run queries locally? Can the results be stored on a flash drive? — so asked outright, “Why do you want to know?”

Back came the reply: “I’ve downloaded the customer databases of my last three jobs ready to start my own company in future. I just wanted to know how simple it’ll be to do that here before I leave.”

I finished my CRM presentation and left via the HR office. The guy was escorted out of the building 20 minutes later.

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