13 Crazy Stunts Job Candidates Are Using To Get Your Attention

You want silly? Just put up a sign or a post for job interviews.

In many cases, when it comes to job interviewing these days, candidates will pull silly stunts to get face time with hiring managers. Some will follow up after the interviews with another set of unique approaches to keep the attention.

But do you really want that?

Why the Frenzy for Job Interviewing?

The job market may be improving, but the competition remains stiff. A great cover letter and strong resume only go so far these days in getting job candidates noticed.

Instead, for better or for worse, some job hunters yearn to be indelibly seared into the minds of interviewers.

And that’s where the silly comes in.

Would You Hire Any Of These?

Our friends at Careerbuilder shared a list of some of the silliest stunts job candidates pulled to either get an initial interview, a follow-up conversation or the job.

Here’s some of the best (or, would you say worst?!) of the stunts:

1. Had a priest contact the hiring manager and ask for a candidate to be hired.
2. Bought a first-class upgrade to sit next to the hiring manager on a transatlantic flight.
3. During the month of October, a candidate came dressed in a costume for Halloween.
4. A candidate’s wife made homemade lavender soap bars for the hiring manager as a thank you for taking the time to interview the candidate.
5. Sent a pair of embroidered socks with a note saying he would knock the company’s socks off if hired.
6. Asked the hiring manager to share an ice cream cone.
7. Showed up in his camp counselor attire with some of the children from the camp he worked for to show his leadership capabilities.
8. Sent a shoe with a flower in it as a thank you after the interview. The note said: “Trying to get my foot in the door.”
9. Mailed the hiring manager money in an envelope.
10. Arrived at the interview in a white limousine, an hour early, dressed in a three-piece suit. The open position was middle-wage and had a required dress code of khakis, company button-down and black shoes.
11. A candidate kissed the hiring manager.
12. Gave the hiring manager a book on a subject he knew the manager enjoyed.
13. Wore a tie that had the name of the company he was interviewing with on it.

Keepin’ it Real When It Comes to the Hiring Process

Now, we know you want to keep the hiring process as professional as possible — for you and job candidates. While these situations are real — and real silly — they aren’t exactly the setting for an ideal interviewing process. You want that to be free of lies, pranks and debauchery.

In fact, you want to help job candidates feel they’ll get a fair, honest and relatively pleasant experience interviewing with your organization.

Here are three keys to create that kind of environment for job candidates:

1. Start with Phone Interviews

Phone interviews put people at ease. Why? Their purposes are simple and stress-free:

• A casual conversation
• A brief exchange to make introductions between you, the company and the candidate
• Your opportunity to gauge their interest, passion and excitement for the job
• The candidate’s opportunity to ask simple questions
• The candidate’s opportunity to opt out of the process, and
• Your opportunity to explain the next steps.

2. Use an Agenda

When you get to in-person (or on-camera) interviews, create and share an agenda for the conversation. This helps job candidates know how to prepare and feel less stressed going into the interview.

And when they’re prepared and at ease, they’ll be less likely to find a need to do anything out of the ordinary.

3. Cut Back on Interviews

Sounds counterintuitive to finding great candidates, but holding fewer interviews is better for you and job candidates. Experts found that the law of diminishing returns kicks in if you have more than four interviews.

It doesn’t matter if interviews beyond the fourth are with different people or HR; the costs associated with delaying the decision and adding complexity to the process outweigh the benefits of talking to candidates again.

Bonus: An Interview That Really Stands Out

There are other ways to stand out, even if the candidate didn’t mean to.

For instance, there’s the tale of the recent college graduate. Ten minutes into the interview, his cellphone rang and he looked up apologetically and said, “I thought I’d turned it off. Sorry.”

He pulled the phone from his pocket to quiet the ringer. But when he glanced at the screen, his face lit up.

“I’ve been trying to reach this girl! Do you mind if I take this?” he exclaimed.

“No, I don’t mind at all,” the hiring manager replied. “You can take it outside. Just don’t bother coming back in.”

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• Hiring