Interview of my future boss

Hi friends,

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing my future boss (I know it sounds weird that I was interviewing someone to be my boss but that’s a different story for another time). This is noteworthy if for nothing else but to get a good laugh out of it and know what NOT to do in an interview. Here it is for all of you to mull it over and enjoy!

My current boss interviewed the candidate and asked us to join him half way through to get our perspective on the new guy. Things were going along somewhat okay - I wasn’t impressed by his overall demeanor; he wore a suit that was two sizes too big and was hanging off of his shoulders while his tie was a complete mess. Every time he spoke, it seemed like somebody turned on the radio at full blast. I wanted to get up to turn the volume down but he didn’t come with a switch for that!!!! To make the situation more humorous, he vehemently shook his body from head to hips when he wanted to nod and display his agreement (amazingly he managed not to hit his head on the table while doing this…what a skill!!). I had a hard time keeping a serious profile due to this while listening to the exchange between my current and future bosses. They were now at a point where my boss was wrapping up the interview and asking him whether he had any questions (so he can hand over the candidate to my colleague and I). The guy asked about the benefits that the company offers and some other lame questions that are not appropriate to ask in an interview. Amazingly, he had no questions regarding our team, clients, work environment, his role or the project. Okay I know what most of you are thinking, what’s so funny about this…well you gotta read more to find out…..

My boss excuses himself and tells the “future boss” that we (my colleague and I) were going to talk to him briefly (he was told this once before at the beginning when we joined him). As my boss gets up to leave, the guy closes his folder and puts away his pen and gets up to leave as well…my boss politely explains that the interview isn’t over. Now things get better and better with him….

As usual, we conduct our interview in a manner such that the future boss does not take revenge if he/she gets hired. We tell him about the project, technologies, our roles, clients, current issues, etc. while probing him to demonstrate his knowledge and see if he will be able to get the job done. However, this guy just doesn’t want to contribute to show what he brings to the table. Worse, he is only interested in knowing what his bottom line (money) is going to be if he joins us. He asks again about benefits even though our boss had told him that our HR will discuss that with him (btw, one should never ask about compensation or benefits until you are at a stage in the interview process where you are going to be given an offer). All of this coming from a guy who is a director at his current company….my god, I was shocked by the unprofessional and unpolished behavior of his.

Then we try to stir him in a direction where we can talk just about the project without any success. Then I gave a signal to end the interview by asking him if he had any questions for us. Wrong move on our part….as again he is taking it easy and only talking about things that he shouldn’t talk about…He is asking exactly where the work location is (as we were interviewing him at the nearby Marriott Hotel) which is okay to ask. He is excited about the fact that his commute will only be 8 miles from home. He goes about how to get to work (what route to take)….then somehow he jumps into where he worked before and why he moved to Philly (Pennsylvania) ….his wife getting a job there and him moving…them having two kids…what area they lived in Philly…his journey from apartment to house….having his third baby on the way….honestly I lost track of half of the mumbo jumbo as I had lost all interest in him. We somehow manage to detach ourselves from him and close the interview. We walk him out to the lobby where he stops and asks us about how the bonus is like with our company (again another mistake…you should NEVER ask this question at an interview). We feed him some lame answer and asked him if he knew his way out of the hotel just to give a hint to leave. He left the hotel from the front entrance and went to the parking deck that was 20 feet away. We exited the hotel from the rear as our workplace is located in that direction. Now my colleague is talking to me about what he thought of this guy….he basically liked the candidate…wow, another shocker….we have interviewed many people together and this was the first time we had different thoughts…that too after such a poor performance of our candidate…before I could tell him what I thought.... we hear someone yelling (by this time we are about half a block away from the hotel)…we both turn around to find our “future boss” running from the hotel flimsily and yelling (radio on loudspeaker) my colleague’s name, even after we start walking back towards him. We meet him half way and he says that he forgot to ask one thing….he asks….what are the work hours??...We answer his questions and again mumble our good byes and start walking back to work. As soon as the guy is our of site and earshot, my colleague turns to me and says…forget about everything I just told you….thank god….phew…he had me going there for a minute….well the story can go on about how my boss still wanted to hire this guy and what a hard time we in convincing him that he wasn’t our man….my boss was desperate to hire anyone since we couldn’t fill the position and our clients were now threatening us to cut our payment significantly.

 

Hi Meeta,

Thanks for your reply.

I would be willing to look over certain little details/characteristics of a person as long as they had the skills to get the job done. This guy had a resume that put him at the top of our promising candidates list. When it came to deliver, he didn’t exhibit one iota of that in the interview.

To add to the misery, I had told my boss (before I met the candidate) that he had attended a very prestigious college in India and talked about how smart and intelligent you have to be in order to get in and complete your degree there (this guy held a masters from IIT kanpur).

Vib

 

Nope, his name isn't that...and I don't want to publicly humiliate him as there may be someone here who may know him.