I don't have much in the way of interview mistakes in my past. Probably the worst was the very first job I ever had: file clerking at a small law office, the summer in between my junior and senior year of high school. They said: "You understand the job pays minimum wage only?" And I said, "Sure. Remind me what that is, in these parts?" They told me, and without thinking, I blurted out, "Jeez, people live on that?!"
The boss was a friend of a family friend, so I still got the job.
A friend of mine in college, however, enjoys telling about the time he forgot an interview, and when-- fortunately-- they called at the last minute to tell him they had to push the interview back half an hour, he flew out the door to keep the meeting-- unfortunately-- while he was high as a kite. He swears he busted out the Visine, and they couldn't tell at all, but I doubt it. When he was that high, he sounded like someone playing Keanu Reeve's dialogue tracks from "Bill and Ted" at half-speed. He did not get the job.
I also overheard one interview at the pizza place I worked at after college, when I was an actor. My boss asked this guy what were the areas in which he felt he needed improvement. His answers: "First of all, I totally need to figure out the right stance when I'm front porching, because I am getting shacked every time I hit the tubes. Oh, and I should probably cut down on the shrooms, because I'm getting hella trails right now, and I haven't even had any today." Also did not get the job.
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Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.
(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)
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