The interviewee was an older gentleman. He was looking for a collections position. As I was walking him back to my office for the interview he stated, “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m just wasting my time.” He repeated this three more times within the first five minutes at which point I stood up, stretched my arm out for a hand shake and said, “You know what? You’re right and we don’t want to waste any more of it. Thanks for coming in and have a nice day.” And I showed him the door. TJNTIY.

When I asked a young candidate (early 20's) if he was punctual he responded with, "There were a couple of times that I was late. You know, I'm still young and I like to go out and party so sometimes I can have a hangover the next morning." But wait! It gets better..."But even though I was late I still made it in to work! I would just try to work twice as hard to make up for the time so I can still leave at 5 o'clock". I did not hire him. TJNTIY.

I once had a candidate for an interview. My recruiting assistant brought the candidate to meet me in a conference room. I greeted the candidate, had him sit down, and began the interview process. Into the interview for about five minutes the candidate suddenly changed subjects and asked whether his mother could come into the conference room to join him! I told the candidate I only had two or three questions that I needed to ask him and I asked those questions quickly! TJNTIY.

--The interviewee was an older gentleman. He was looking for a collections position. As I was walking him back to my office for the interview he stated, “I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m just wasting my time.” He repeated this three more times within the first five minutes at which point I stood up, stretched my arm out for a hand shake and said, “You know what? You’re right and we don’t want to waste any more of it. Thanks for coming in and have a nice day.” And I showed him the door. TJNTIY.

When they don't know who they are and what they want out of life. A candidate knows the interview isn't going well when they find my interview questions novel, meaning they haven't thought about these questions before. In reality, I'm just trying to get to know them, but they don't know themselves, so the questions make them very uncomfortable. Candidates typically get the picture virtually immediately, though, since I simply communicate to them that the fact that they don't know the answers to the fundamental questions I ask them poses a serious risk to everyone on the team.