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esPResso Editor Sarah Stimson gives some valuable advice

21 July 2010

As soon as anyone realises that I work in the recruitment industry I invariably get asked three questions:

1. Will you have a look at my CV for me?
2. Will take my daughter/son/god child/next door neighbour on for work experience?
3. What’s the worst thing that anyone has done in interview?

My answers are usually:

1. Yes. But read my tips on CVs first and rewrite it before you send it to me
2. Possibly (I have been known to take on work experience folk before, some with more success than others).
3. Ah, now here's the interesting bit...

It never fails to amaze me how truly awful some people are at interviews. To start with, there are the people that just don't bother to turn up. I would say a good 10-20% of people who have been booked into my diary just haven't bothered showing. If they have a genuine excuse, like a volcano stopped their flight to the UK, or, more likely, the tube drivers are on strike again and they are stranded in South West London, then fair enough. Although I would expect a phone call informing me of their plight as a courtesy. I have lost count of the number of times I have sat twiddling my thumbs waiting for candidates to show up who don't, and then don't call to apologies or worse, don't bother to reply to the terse messages I leave on their voicemail.

It's bad enough that they don't turn up to meet a recruitment consultant, but when they don't turn up to meet a potential employer that is really poor form. It makes them look bad, and the recruitment consultant look terrible. I have, several times, taken the blame for a candidate not showing up for interview. Rather than tell the client the truth that the candidate is both unorganised and ungrateful I have shouldered the blame and made out it was a scheduling error by me, in order to salvage any hope of a job offer for them.

So, assuming the candidate gets to the interview, what are the worst things they can do?

You know that everyone tells you to look well groomed for an interview? Some people take this a step too far. Occasionally, I have been forced to open a window when a candidate arrives in a cloud of perfume or aftershave. It's good to smell nice and clean, but not great when your interviewer needs a gas mask.

Can you think of anything worse than spending an entire hour with someone who is monosyllabic? Nor can I. Dragging one-word answers out of interviewees is not up there on the list of things I enjoy doing.

Swearing, farting, chewing gum, answering your mobile, slagging off your current company, flirting (I had one candidate who winked at me the entire way through an interview - I nearly asked if he had a twitch), spitting, telling the interviewer they are wrong and looking bored are all interview no nos. I have had people do all of the above.

Interviewers get it wrong too though. "It was AWFUL", a previous candidate once said to me "she BREAST FED while interviewing me!" I am all for equality, but getting ones bosoms out during an interview is beyond the pale, surely? Another was disgusted when his interviewer took his CV, folded it into a tiny square and used it to prop up a wonky table leg. There is also the time the agency MD took a candidate to Soho House, got absolutely legless on cocktails and tried to seduce the Account Manager she had met for interview. Eeek!

When it comes to interviews, Mum knows best. Mine always told me to turn up on time, be honest and look smart. You can't get better advice than that.

esPResso Editor Sarah Stimson has over seven years of PR recruitment experience, and also heads up Unicorn Jobs' diversity and professional development projects.