I have plenty of stories about job interviewers not reading the “handbook” about job interviews, but this one still annoys me even years later. It’s all well and good for experts to throw advice at job candidates regarding how to prepare, act, and even dress for interviews, but if the other side of the equation doesn’t follow the same standards or procedures, then they are wasting your time — and potentially missing out on good staff, too.

The company I worked for at the time was going to be shut down. This left me looking for a new job, and my particular engineering specialty rather limited the range of companies that might employ me. I was invited for an interview with [Company]. It was about 200 miles from where I was living at the time, but it was also a major player in my industry. The interview was scheduled for first thing in the morning, so I drove there the day before, spent the night in a B&B, and then attended the interview the next day.

The interview itself was pretty straightforward. I’d had plenty of interviews before then (even more since), and this one was plain vanilla. They explained how the job was a field support engineering role that included a rolling call-out system where one week in four I would be on-call twenty-four-seven. This was not quite what I was looking for and made me a little uncertain, but I needed a job and couldn’t be too fussy. Then, something happened to push me right over to “You can stick your job where the sun don’t shine” territory.

Most of the interview panel was smartly dressed in shirts and ties, and I personally was wearing a business suit, but there was this one guy in a T-shirt and jeans with a mop of unkempt hair. He didn’t say much for most of the interview; he just slouched there in his chair looking bored. I don’t quite remember what his role was — senior engineer, I think — but he looked and sounded like a stereotypical nerd, and I say that as a professional nerd myself. Unfortunately, he also had a certain attitude, like having to be involved with something as pedestrian as a job interview was somehow beneath him and a waste of his intellect.

In my CV (aka resume), I naturally include the various training courses I had attended and certificates I had achieved, and a couple of those dealt with mobile phone technologies. I hadn’t worked in that area for some years, and this company didn’t use mobile phone technology at all anyway, so I had not revised that particular topic, focusing instead on the technologies that they did use and manufacture. My belief is that including all the things I had done over the years demonstrated a well-rounded experience and how I had been able to adapt and learn new subjects beyond my original degree as required.

We were nearing the end of the interview when this scruffy-looking guy asked a really obscure question about mobile phone tech. I couldn’t remember what the answer was and honestly said so, pointing out that I hadn’t revised that particular subject as it wasn’t relevant to the job spec they had supplied. He responded that I shouldn’t have even put it in my CV if I didn’t expect to be quizzed on the topic, leaning back in his chair with a smug look on his face. Any doubt that I might have had suddenly evaporated, and I knew that I really didn’t want to work in this place.

Now, this guy has no idea how much time and effort I spent working in that area of engineering or how I attained that qualification. As far as I am concerned, I fully earned the right to put that entry onto my CV, and if he wanted to be a complete smart-a**e coming up with a question just to trip me up, then that said far more about him than me.

It also occurred to me that if it had gotten the job, then this clown would probably have been my immediate supervisor. Oh, joy.

With hindsight, I should have given them feedback there and then that if this was the best example of their management and how they treated staff, then they were not really selling the job. But when you’re young and frankly desperate for work, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of anyone.

We have someone scheduled to come in the afternoon for a job interview. It’s been more than an hour since the appointed time and he has yet to show up or call. The manager assumes he won’t be appearing at this point and proceeds to leave the restaurant so she can make a weekly trip to the bank.

While she is gone, a man we recognize as the potential new hire enters the building, now ninety minutes later than expected. My coworker greets him at the counter.

Applicant: “Hi, I’m [Applicant]. I’m supposed to be here for a job interview.”

[Coworker] hands him a complimentary drink cup.

Coworker: “Hi there. Just to let you know, our boss isn’t in at the moment; she had to make a drive to the bank. She should be back any minute now if you want to have a drink on us and take a seat. I’ll let her know you’re waiting as soon as she gets back.”

Applicant: “Okay, thank you.”

He filled his cup and then immediately went out the door. Guess he needed the pop more than the job?

Back in 1997, I was invited to interview for a tech position with a company in Kentucky. My wife and I drove for fourteen hours from two states away so I could be there for a Monday morning interview.

I arrived about twenty minutes early so I could get a feel for the place, and after a little bit, I was told that my interviewer was golfing. Instead, they set me up with the tech lead and then later the branch manager. The interviews went well, and they asked me to come back the next day to speak to the technical manager.

I came back in on Tuesday, this time with my wife, so she could meet the people who interviewed me, and we were directed to the tech manager’s office. We talked with him for about fifteen minutes before he received a phone call. At this point, he had a couple of options. He could have asked us to step out while he took the call. He could have taken the call in another office. He could’ve asked someone to take a message and call them back later.

Instead, he took the call with us in the office with him, and he proceeded to berate one of his own techs to a customer. I remember him saying, “I can’t believe we have that level of incompetence working for us!”

At that point, I didn’t know what to do. I had already committed substantial resources to driving for the interview, spending a couple of nights, and then having to drive home again. They were offering me 50% more than I was making in a field where I had no professional experience, and they were willing to train me.

I took the job, and thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with the tech manager very often.

A year and a half later, I was on contract with one of our larger accounts and had been working at their corporate headquarters for about ten months. As I was walking down the hall one day, I happened to pass my tech manager interviewing with several executives. I stuck my head in my corporate contact’s office and asked to speak with him for a few minutes. I related the story above and told him that, obviously, they could do whatever they chose, but I thought it would be a mistake to have somebody with such poor character representing their company. I don’t know what became of that situation, but I’m hoping they took my advice.

I’m interviewing for a job. Honestly, it’s not going well. I’m nervous and keep falling on my face, and it feels like the skills they want from me are not the skills I advertise on my resume.

Finally, the interviewer asks me rather bluntly:

Interviewer: “Hey… Do you do any drugs?”

Me: “Uh. No. Why?”

Interviewer: “I just… I don’t think you’ll fit in well here. We all do drugs.”

Me: “Oh. Okay. Uh… thanks for the interview?”

I stood up awkwardly. The interviewer just watched me. And I left.

The whole interaction weirded me out so much that I didn’t even consider calling the police about it until months later. By the time I considered it, I couldn’t find any proof that the company was still in business.

Several years ago, I was living in Canada but looking for a job teaching in the UK. I applied for one job through a teaching-specific recruitment agency. Being overseas, I had to do a video interview. I had everything set up and was able to connect, but when their video came up, it was evident that they had set up the call in a rush.

There were two or three people interviewing; I wasn’t sure as the video didn’t show them all clearly. They weren’t using a split screen; they were all just sitting in one room with the camera too close. As the interview started, the principal entered and sat behind everyone but coincidently was the only one I could actually see.

This is where things went downhill. The department head was very enthusiastic, but the principal kept interrupting, and it was very obvious she hadn’t bothered to read my resume at all. She didn’t know my name, my education history, my teaching experience, or where I was calling from.

As I answered the questions, she was slouched in her chair, rolling her eyes, and generally acting very unprofessionally. This threw me off completely as, again, she was the only one I could see. By the end of the interview, I felt that they were really not interested and that I wouldn’t get the job.

We ended the call, and the agency said they would get back to me once the school had made a decision. They called back almost immediately offering the job. I accepted, but the principal’s behaviour felt like a big red flag.

The next step was to sign the agency contract. This is when another very obvious red flag showed up. They broke down my pay and showed all the fees and deductions that would come from my pay, including tax, union, etc. My husband pointed out where they had deducted both employee and employer fees. After reading about it on the official government documents, it turned out I was only supposed to pay the employee tax and the employer had to pay theirs.

I contacted the agent, assuming it was an error, but every time, they avoided answering the question. Eventually, after such bold red flags, I decided not to go with the agency or the school.

I could have let it go, but the deduction wasn’t a small amount and would equate to several thousand pounds for the year.

From this and later experiences, I learned that agencies were taking advantage of foreign applicants hoping they didn’t understand the UK laws and would tell them anything to get a teacher into the classroom. I ended up finding another job; it still wasn’t brilliant, but they weren’t deducting so much from my pay.

If they treat you badly from the start, it will only get worse later.