January 14, 2004
Article

10 Stupidest Marketing Interview Mistakes (Got More?)

SUMMARY: No summary available.
Most of us have interviewed marketing, advertising or PR job candidates who have made serious interviewing blunders. Here we've gathered 10 mistakes -- ones that real people have made -- for you to laugh (or groan.)

-> Mistake #1.

"I actually had a woman tell me, 'At my current job I work with all women and I just broke up with my boyfriend. And a girl's gotta get laid.' Needless to say, she did not get a second interview."

Submitted by Head of HR at a top NY ad agency


-> Mistake #2.

"One candidate interviewed for a job that was not as senior as it should have been for her, so when she got to the (interview), instead of embracing the manager-level job she was interviewing for, she told them she should have the top-level job."

--Smooch Reynolds, CEO, Repovich Reynolds Group


-> Mistake #3.

"One hiring manager was riding up in the elevator and a girl was checking herself out in the elevator mirror, raising her skirt higher and higher to check out the length. Then she unbuttoned couple of buttons on her blouse. Ten minutes later at the interview, she turned out to be the interviewee."

Submitted by VP of headhunting firm


-> Mistake #4.

"We had one interview where the candidate fell asleep with the senior executive. She claimed she was on medication, but she should have rescheduled. Very poor judgment."

Submitted by CEO of a marketing headhunting firm


-> Mistake #5.

"We had one candidate that went in and was interviewing with the Chief Operating Officer and called the President an a**hole."

Submitted by a top advertising headhunter


-> Mistake #6.

"Taking a cell phone call during an interview: 'Hold on a second, this is my girlfriend.'"

Submitted by Fredrick Marckini, CEO/CTO iProspect


-> Mistake #7.

"We had one person, it was an all-cubicle environment, and this person lobbed a paragraph about how unproductive the operating environment was. Blew the opportunity."

Submitted by Smooch Reynolds, CEO, Repovich Reynolds Group


-> Mistake #8.

"I interviewed a research candidate one time for a position that would require doing some sophisticated consumer segmentation work, so I asked her to please tell me three or four different ways of conducting a segmentation and what you consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of each. The candidate's reply was that she didn't know any of those different ways and didn't need to, because she would turn the work over to a vendor. Interview over."

Submitted by David van Nostrand, Global Market Research
Manager, John Deere


-> Mistake #9.

"Sometimes, honesty will hurt you. 'I'm just looking at this job as a stepping stone until the economy improves.' Oh, thank you for your honesty."

Submitted by CEO of an advertising services firm


-> Mistake #10.

"I was late for an interview, rushed in, sat down, halfway into the interview I noticed I had sat down incorrectly and my skirt was folded up under me. My entire thigh was exposed. I did get the job offer, but what would they have wanted from me? They'd expect me to jump out of a cake at a corporate party."

Submitted by Marcia Mintz, COO, Palo Alto JCC (Who didn’t take the job)

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