Bringing Mom and Other Interview Flubs

June 5, 2008— -- John-Paul Lee, CEO of Tavalon Tea, a premium tea company based in New York, recently interviewed a job candidate he's not likely to forget.

"The first two minutes were great," Lee says of the recent MBA grad. Then Lee asked the candidate who he believed Tavalon's biggest competitors were. To which the candidate replied, "I think Tavalon Tea is a formidable one."

"I assumed he was nervous and had blurted out the wrong company," Lee says, "so I played along and asked him, 'Why?'"

The candidate's answer? "I don't think they have the right management in place. I know the CEO of the company and he is a real jerk."

Rather than let on right away, Lee asked the interviewee if the two had met before, and if the grad knew where, exactly, he was interviewing.

The candidate, who finally noticed the Tavalon Tea logo on the wall, realized he was in hot water: "Oh my god, I'm sorry," he fumbled. "I know this is no excuse, but I partied a bit too hard last night."

It was too late -- the MBA was stepping in it.

"He didn't get the job," Lee says. "But he definitely made me laugh."

Ask any hiring manager about the worst job applicants they've interviewed, and you're bound to get an earful. Candidates have waltzed in an hour late, some of them clad in cutoff shorts and flip-flops, some even drunk.

With the class of 2008 getting ready to pound the pavement in search of its first big gig -- and many of the parents also making the interview rounds in the wake of a layoff -- I thought it fitting to present a few exhibits from the Interviewee Hall of Shame.

Edward Collins, president of Collins Wealth Management, a financial planning practice in Parsippany, N.J., soured on a promising candidate he'd been interviewing for an administrative assistant position when her cell phone rang.

"Not only did she answer it," Collins says, "she proceeded to have a 2½ minute conversation with the caller."

Collins would have understood if the call had been about a family emergency. But it wasn't.