A survey of personnel executives at 200 of the Fortune 1,000 companies provided the following unbelievable but true examples of job applicant behavior:
“[The applicant] had arranged for a pizza to be delivered to my office during a lunch-hour interview. I asked him not to eat it until later.”
“[The applicant] said she had just graduated cum laude, but she had no idea what cum laude meant. However, she was proud of her grade point average. It was 2.1.”
“[The applicant] insisted on telling me that he wasn’t afraid of hard work. But insisted on adding he was afraid of horses and didn’t like jazz, modern art, or seafood.”
“She actually showed up for an interview during the summer wearing a bathing suit. She said she didn’t think I’d mind.”
“He sat down opposite me, made himself comfortable, and proceeded to put his foot up on my desk.”
“The interview had gone well, until he told me that he and his friends wore my company’s clothing whenever they could. I had to tell them that we manufactured office products, not sportswear.”
“[The applicant] applied for a customer service position, although, as he confided, he really wasn’t a people person.”