Weird applicants: Beer, singing telegrams and a cockatoo
There’s simply no end to the crazy stuff people will do or say when they’re trying to nail down a job.
Our latest list of bizarre applicant behaviors comes from, of all places, the Reader’s Digest. RD collected anecdotes from HR pros, Robert Half Technology and Washingtonian.com for a pretty extensive list of out-of-the-ordinary actions of jobseekers.
Here are our favorites:
We ask prospective job applicants at our business to fill out a questionnaire. For the line ‘Choose one word to summarize your strongest professional attribute,’ one woman wrote, ‘I’m very good at following instructions.’
An individual applied for a customer-service job, and when asked what he might not like about the job, he said, ‘Dealing with people.’
I had somebody list their prison time as a job. And an exotic dancer who called herself a ‘customer service representative.’
Applicant put up posters of himself in the company parking lot.
The candidate arrived in a catsuit.
Applicant announced his candidacy with a singing telegram.
Candidate specified that his availability was limited because Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was ‘drinking time.’
Candidate explained an arrest by stating, ‘We stole a pig, but it was a really small pig.’
Advertising is a tough business. Which may be why one prospective adman wrote a cover letter boasting, ‘I am getting to my goal, slowly but surly.’
A job applicant came in for an interview with a cockatoo on his shoulder.
A guy who forgot dark socks to wear with his suit colored in his ankles with a black felt-tip marker.
The candidate told the interviewer he was fired from his last job for beating up his boss.
An applicant said she was a ‘people person,’ not a ‘numbers person,’ in her interview for an accounting position.
A candidate complained that she was hot. She then said ‘Excuse me’ and removed her socks. After placing them on the desk, she continued as if everything was normal.
Applicant rented a billboard, which the hiring manager could see from his office, listing his qualifications.
I swear this is true: Someone threw his beer can in the outside trash can before coming into the reception area.
Got your own bizarro-applicant story? Send it along.
