With thoughts already turning to the annual recruitment round in the New Year, an HR consultancy has uncovered its own list of top interview and application blunders.
Online agency Top-Consultant.com ran a competition earlier this year to find out some of the best howlers seen by recruiters in the management consultancy sector.
There were two first prize winners. The first was an MBA candidate who was out to lunch for a final interview with the managing partner.
The candidate spilled soup on his tie. Normally this would be no more than simply embarrassing. But in this case the candidate then proceeded to lick the soup off his tie.
The second winner was the candidate who sent in his CV without realising his ex-girlfriend had amended the hobbies, interests and personal details section to “beer drinking”, “belching and farting” and “generally laying around and barking orders from the sofa, picking nose and eating it and picking up random women in bars”.
Runners-up included the HR professional who was interviewing a graduate for management consultancy post.
“I introduced myself as head of recruitment,” he told the poll. “My colleague introduced himself as a senior consultant. The graduate then turned to my colleague and said: ‘Well thank goodness you’re here - these HR types don’t know anything about business’.”
Another, perhaps too honest, classic was the candidate who described his ideal role as “high salary, easy work and around the corner from home”.
Similarly, the candidate who turned up for his first interview with a client wearing a purple suit, brown shirt and yellow tie probably did himself no favour.
Nor did the candidate who spelt his own name wrong, said Top-Consultant.com.
