Jerry_the_cheese

Sales Manager - Pharma

What is the strangest thing you have ever heard in a job interview?

It could be a question you or someone you know has been asked, or something said that was unusual,

To give an example my friend (also in sales) was once asked for her favorite swear word in an interview, and the sales director interviewing her was over the moon with joy to hear her say hers was fuck

She didn't get the job though, so that was an odd one

👥 Hiring

🤝 Interviewing/Offer

32 comments

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JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Interviewing someone for a BDR position (they were coming out of a recruiting job):

Me: So, why are you leaving recruiting. I've done that job before and it can be tough, but also rewarding financially and emotionally.

Them: Well, I really don't like the micromanagement and focus on call numbers.

Me: Well, in this job you'll have to make lots of calls. What's the issue with monitoring call numbers?

Them: I get really nervous making calls and I don't like it at all. It's hard for me to get started dialing for the day. So I always feel under pressure and it makes it worse.

Me: I used to feel that way too. Is that something you are willing to lean to work past if you join our team?

Them: I really prefer not to make calls. I like to just send emails and use social.

... yeah. We didn't offer for the BDR job. But we did offer them a position in our PR team which they did well at.

Luckily we had the lateral thinking to capture an otherwise good employee... but damn why interview for a BDR job when you hate dialing?

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Great to see that you were able to identify strengths and align that with another opening in the company - don't see that very often.

But we should!

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

Decent

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

"Take your tie off. You look like a fed" -- a man who took his flip-flops off mid-interview and put his feet on the desk.

Keep in mind, everyone else in the office was business casual, except for this cowboy. Oh, and my tie had a bunch of little skiers on it...not fed like at all.

I declined the next steps.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

The foot thing is GROSS.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

I was interviewing someone…

Me: have you ever sold cloud solutions before?

Them: No, but, you know… I use the cloud, so… like, iCloud…

Me: 😐

Them: 😏

Me: 😐

Them: 😕

Me: Fair enough…

TheOverTaker

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

Was interviewing for an internship way back in the day and the interviewer asked me, in a very combative way, "So who do you know here that got you in my office?"

SO that wasnt great especially as a college kid who was already nervous as hell for an interview

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

That's brutal - so combative and negative.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Your Mom.

TheOverTaker

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

Honestly I think about what my older, wiser self woulda said. I usually land on "Someone more important than you"

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Did you get the internship?

TheOverTaker

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

No I did not...but havent been phased in an interview since....also it was for a PR firm and thats lame anyway

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

We definitely need to know.

And if so, how awful was this person to work for/with!?

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Sounds like you may have dodged a bullet.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

I was getting a job as a janitor. I got the job because the first three guys ahead of me failed their background check & drug test.

THAT WAS THEIR OPENING LINE when offering me the job. Like, "I mean. I guess you can have it."

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Well, I can see why one might want to be a bit altered to do that type of work all day...

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

it was rough.

Stardust

WR Officer

President

The strangest for me was interviewing with a CEO for a c-suite position. Huge conference room and he's swiveling back and forth in a chair like a 4 year old picking his nose FOR 45 MINUTES. The mining was as impressive as it was unproductive. His EA asked on my way out when I would like to speak with him again, my response was 'never'.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

This wasn’t an interview, but rather my first meeting with our sales director (boss’s boss at the time). In a span of about 30 minutes, he put a fat chew in, audibly farted, and managed to relate my new apartment to his very recent divorce. This was my first job out of college so I just assumed this was what corporate life was like…….boy was I right

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I'm pretty sure I worked for that same sales director...lol

BeatCancer

Fire Starter

Account Executive

I did the 5 hour interview with AWS and one of them didn't know what an ideal customer profile was. It wasn't the "bar raiser" fyi... Probably because the interviewer was an AM and I was interviewing for an AM role coming from greenfield.

Also, been asked at one interview to start the next day even though I told the CSO I had a month notice period.

CSO then proceeded after the interview to move a desk inside the sales office.

I asked my Team Manager where I was employed if I could stop from todays date and of course it was a no.

The CSO then called asked to speak to my Team Manager trying to persuade him to let me go without luck.

I worked the month with no problems.

I really liked the relentlessness from that CSO though and learned a ton from the time with him.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Did the CSO talking to your Team Manager make the last month awkward? I've never heard of anything like this before, elaborate if you can. It's awesome they wanted you so bad.

JECU

Opinionated

Account Manager / Co-Founder

Happened to be interviewing during the 2016 election and was asked if I was Republican or Democrat. Then they walked it back by saying “ wait don’t answer that”

ColdCallHotCoffee

Politicker

TSR

I was in college accepting every interview I could find. One company seemed a bit sketchy from the outside, but I accepted the interview anyway thinking "What do I have to lose? I'll hear them out".

Almost immediately after answering some basic questions, they start talking about compensation and it was sooo sketchy. Literally they were talking about handing out cash (not a lot of it) for certain sales. My favorite line that I remember is "And if you sell this, thats $20 cash in your pocket."

I bounced so fast and never took their callbacks.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

Had an interview where the CEO asked me how much I drink.

I gave a middle of the road answer and then he proceeded to push me on it.

Company in the wine trade clearly concerned about me ending up in TMZ or something.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I went to a well known party school for college and in one of my first interviews out of school a hiring manager asked why I chose that school and I had to try real hard to come up with reason that didn't involve women and alcohol. Probably the most I've ever sweat in a meeting. I got the job and down the road at the bar with said manager, I found it he wanted to know if I was "cool" or not. lol

Fletch

Opinionated

Full-Time AE/Side-Hustle Owner

I had an interview recently where the sales director said “I hire slowly, but I fire quickly.” almost as a badge of honor. The same guy told me he’d be bringing on one to two more AEs depending on the performance of one of his AEs over the next 7 days.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

Someone once asked me if i was an Android or iPhone guy. Would've walked out just for that, until they asked me if I am trained in the Challenger method. That's when i actually walked out

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

I heard of a story in which someone had to act out their fav film scene. He performed a war scene. Dying. Odd.

FromaBlankPerspective

Politicker

District Manager

My husband is a law enforcement officer. During a 3 person panel interview, he was asked "marry, fuck, kill?"

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

I’ve had someone cry once, and talk about how they just broke up with their boyfriend and that I reminded them of him and she “couldn’t control the tears” that was a pretty big WTF moment

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Interviewer: Do you have any questions for me?

Me: Yes, I have 3. 1. Abcd... 2. Efgh... 3. Ijkl....

I: You know what I am running out of time, you can email me all.

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Jerry_the_cheese

What is the strangest thing you have ever heard in a job interview?

32 comments

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