Candidates do want to stand out when they meet with recruiters and their client companies, but perhaps not as entertainers.
If they have a college degree and will be commanding a decent salary, you might think their smarts would transfer to interviews. Not always so, according to Kathy Harris, in executive search (harrisallied.com).
Harris mentions the man interviewing for a tech job paying more than $100,000. He spotted “snacks in the pantry,” she says, “asked the HR person if they were free and started filling his backpack.”
Was he just hungry or big on employee theft?
A recruiter warned the hiring manager at one company that the candidate being referred for a $90,000 developer analyst position wore body piercings. The candidate startled the interviewer “with silver fangs protruding from his cheeks,” Harris reports.
The HR interviewer in financial technology listened to a senior candidate for CMO confess to a weakness: “I can’t deal with hedge fund guys,” Harris relays. Too bad. If he’d researched the company’s customers, he could have spared himself the interview.
Then there was the disappearing act. Harris cites a business analyst interviewee at an investment bank. He left half-way through for the restroom, never to return.
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