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10 Great Examples of Interview Horror Stories

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A Job Interview may not always go smoothly. But to what extent can an interview go wrong and how badly?

How you present yourself in a job interview is the determining factor in whether or not you will land a job. According to a study by Anderson & Shackleton in the Journal of Occupational Psychology, people who are perceived as “relaxed, interesting, strong, ambitious, mature and pleasant” are the ones who tend to get hired.1 That is a vibe that employers can pick up quickly. In fact, a survey of 2,000 employers revealed that 33% of interviewers know whether or not they will hire applicants within 30 seconds of meeting them.2

“33% of interviewers know within 30 seconds of meeting someone whether or not they will hire them”

This is an alarming statistic and for many people it is difficult to maintain composure under the stress of an interview. It’s no wonder there are a number of job interview horror stories. Here are ten noteworthy interview fails, each accompanied by tips to help you prepare for your next interview and avoid similar mistakes. Integrate these interview tips and skills into your repertoire, and next time you will have the know how to ace that job interview.

  1. Bomb the First Impression

One interview candidate was running late and so frazzled that he left home for the interview wearing two different shoes, and his prescription sunglasses instead of his eyeglasses! Suffice it to say, the cool “hipster” look came off as unprofessional and he did not get the job.

Advice: While it’s hard to believe that someone could actually do that, the message here is clear: Make a good first impression. In most cases, opt for business attire, understated makeup and jewelry, good grooming, and excellent hygiene.

  1. Be a Negative Nelly

Another interviewee when asked about her last job, went off on a tangent ranting about her old boss and spent a good portion of the interview badmouthing him – only to find out that he was a relative of the interviewer!

Advice: Even if you have strong feelings about someone, there are ways of being authentic without being negative. Sometimes a short, polite answer can speak volumes. At any rate, be respectful when talking about your former employers and coworkers, as bashing an old employer creates a negative vibe and can tank your interview.

  1. Make Yourself at Home… Literally!

Believe it or not, there are a number of reports of people falling asleep during job interviews! One job interview candidate even removed their socks and shoes during an interview, because she felt it was too hot in the room!

Advice: While it’s great to be calm and collected during an interview, don’t over do it. The interviewer has just met you, so remain professional and be aware of appropriate boundaries. Don’t start getting casual until you have landed the job, but generally speaking, you probably don’t want to fall asleep or take your shoes off if hope to keep your job for a long time!

  1. Don’t Think Before Speaking

A job candidate was asked one of the standard interview questions, “What is your greatest accomplishment?” She replied, “Writing my first novel.” When the interviewer said, “We mean something you have accomplished in a work setting.” she replied, “Well, actually I wrote most of it while at work!”

Advice: While this is an amusing anecdote, a prospective employer does not want to hear that you work on your own projects while on their clock. When asked a question, be sure to pause for a moment or two and consider the impact your answer might have.

“When asked a question, be sure to pause for a moment or two and consider the impact your answer might have.”

  1. Tell a Few Politically Incorrect Jokes

One job interview candidate was reported to have made derogatory comments about a Country. Sure enough, the interviewer was from the same Country!

Advice: While it’s natural to want to break the ice with a joke, stick to neutral topics that have no risk of offending anybody. Avoid topics like religion, politics or anything that might offend a particular group.

  1. Bring your Cell, so You Can Phone a Friend for the Hard Questions!

After being asked a particularly tough question, one woman stopped her interviewer, and asked if she could dial her therapist! Needless to say, she did not get the job.

Advice: An interview is not the time to “phone a friend.” Be sure that you are as prepared as possible when walking through the door. If you’re hit with a question that seems out of left field, trust your instincts and give your best answer.

  1. Break a Law or Two, and Tell the World About it!

As one interview was getting started, the candidate revealed that by crossing the state line to attend the interview, he was in violation of his probation, but that he felt the interview was worth risking the possible jail time. Yikes!

Advice: Maybe it goes without being said, but you should not break the law to attend an interview, and you should also be selective about what you reveal from your past. Everyone has a few skeletons in their closet. If it’s not relevant, don’t share it.

  1. Don’t Waste Your Time Preparing

Almost every interview includes some form of the classic question, “What is your greatest weakness?” Some not-so-great answers on record are: “I have a bad temper, and when I get really angry have been known to throw things,” or “I love to gossip.”

Advice: Interviewers have heard all of the canned, cheesy answers like, “I’m a workaholic,” or, “Some might say I’m loyal to a fault.” The best way to approach this interview question is to state a true weakness and moderate it with steps you have taken to counter it. Here are some examples:

  • “Being organized just wasn’t my strongest point, but now I’ve implemented a time-management system that has really helped me stay organized.”
  • “I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, so in the past I have gotten caught up in checking every little detail and wasted a lot of time. However, over time I’ve developed a balanced approach that is less time consuming.”
  • “I used to want to control every aspect of a project myself, but now I’ve gotten really good at delegating appropriately.”
  1. Don’t Plan for the Unexpected

Recently, many companies like Google and other high profile tech companies are mixing it up with some seemingly oddball interview questions. When one applicant was asked, “What person would you like to have dinner with, living or dead?” He replied, “The living one.” Probably not what the interviewer had in mind! Here are some other examples of non-traditional interview questions:

  • “If you could be any superhero, who would it be?”
  • “What animal best represents your personality, and why?”
  • “How would you move Mount Vesuvius?”
  • “What color characterizes you, and why?”
  • “What was your best McGyver moment?”

Advice: The purpose of this type of question is not to stump you, but to see if you can think on your feet, and how creative you are. Many employers want to see a bit of your character along with your credentials, so have fun with these questions (within reason!) and let your personality shine.

  1. Part in Awkward Manner

One job applicant made quite the exit when he got up to leave the interview and walked straight into a glass door, shattering it into pieces! Fortunately, he was not hurt, but his chances at getting the job were.

Advice: Your final impression is just as important as your first. Exit the interview as gracefully and professionally as possible.

“Do your homework and research the company you interviewing with.”
So there you have it — ten of the biggest interview fails reported on the Internet. Could you imagine being in one these situations? Maybe the sheer embarrassment and awkwardness of it all is enough to help you avoid the situation in the future. If you’re still unsure, check out our interview hints and tips page by following this link. They will no doubt help you avoid making the same mistakes. Do your homework and research the company you interviewing with. Practice makes perfect. Find a partner and do some mock interviews using the job interview tricks explained above, and you will have the know-how to ace the job interview and land your dream job!

 

– Brad Zomick

A guide to building a good Marketing Team!

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A Detailed Guide on how to build good Marketing Teams

The right team dynamic can have a huge impact on productivity, business growth and employee retention. Marketers at Notonthehighstreet.com, Aldi, Boden and ClearScore share what it takes to create the perfect team.

There is no set model for building and nurturing an effective marketing team, as all teams and objectives are different. As marketing functions and communication channels become increasingly dispersed, however, businesses are changing how they structure and manage their teams. This is reflected in the emergence of new job titles such as chief digital officer or chief customer officer.

One of the best ways to understand effective team-building is to look at high-performing brands and the team dynamics that drive them.

Supermarket chain Aldi, for example, has enjoyed a long run of success in the UK thanks in large part to the strength and skill of its marketing team. At the Marketing Week Awards last month, Aldi came away with two of the top awards – Team of the Year and Brand of the Year – in recognition of its continuing business growth and recent executions, such as its partnership with the Great Britain Olympic team.

Aldi’s UK marketing director Adam Zavalis, who heads up a team of 19 at the retailer’s headquarters in Atherstone, Warwickshire, believes there are several core attributes needed to build a successful marketing team. “An effective team is made up of complementary skill sets, great people managers and personalities with the right mindset,” he says.

“They should be hungry to keep learning, not afraid to share their knowledge with others and willing to embrace change and be agile.”

Zavalis adds that his marketing team constantly searches for “marginal gains” that will help it improve and maintain its momentum. “Effective teams need to understand the direction of travel that you as a brand and organization are headed in,” he says.

“The individuals within the team need to understand their roles and responsibilities and collaborate across departments so they can make significant contributions towards achieving those goals and know how to take all stakeholders on the same journey.”

Clothing retailer Boden also places great importance on having a clear delineation of roles and duties in its marketing team. Responsibility for leading a team of 70 is split between global brand director Penny Herriman and commercial director Mark Binnington. Herriman explains that she is responsible for “the customer, the brand and communication”, while Binnington looks after performance marketing functions and sales.

“There’s an inherent tension that is a good thing to have in a business,” she says. “It’s the right brain and the left brain – the creative brain and the rational brain, the instinct and the data. Ultimately, as a senior marketer you have got to be able to wrap all those things up together.”

The Boden business has undergone considerable restructuring in recent years and in 2015 launched a new “more contemporary” brand positioning using the slogan ‘New British’. The change reflects the ongoing evolution of Boden as a digital company geared around ecommerce, having started life as a direct mail catalogue business in 1991.

“It starts with changes in customer behavior and making sure that we change our business to reflect that,” says Herriman. “As always in business, there are people under 30 years old who understand this because they are the digital natives, but then you also have to skill up.

“We have had a big digital development programme for the people who need to learn that stuff. It’s also about bringing agility into the business – digital has enabled us to speed up, whereas a catalogue business is generally very fixed and slower.”

Accommodating different skill sets is also important to online retailer Notonthehighstreet.com. Earlier this month, the company hired customer director Hannah Webley-Smith from Benefit Cosmetics, where she was marketing director for UK and Ireland. Her appointment is the latest in a string of new hires for the retailer, which includes Sarah Atkins joining as head of brand marketing from John Lewis and Louise Winmill as head of corporate communications and CSR, from PR agency Freuds.

The team comprises “a good mix” of people who have worked within the business from the early years and those who have recently been hired as specialists.

“I know that all of them are hungry to learn from one another. This means we can work together to ensure the mission and ethos of the business remains at the heart of all we do, while also bringing in fresh thinking and ideas across the functions,” says Webley-Smith.

She sees the injection of new talent as “a brilliant opportunity” to develop her team, which numbers around 40 people. She adds that her title of customer director is an important statement about the direction and focus of her marketing team. “It’s because my job is about every touch point with our customers,” she explains.

“We have to deliver consistently, whether that is online, through an app, or the various offline channels and partnerships. Recent ‘Open Door’ experience showed how important the physical experience is for any business, including those that are online, and I am excited to have joined a business that is so inventive in that way.”

Productive meetings

Day-to-day interactions within a marketing team are just as important as its overall structure. According to new research by Wisembly, a collaborative working platform, marketing departments have the longest meetings of any other business department – an average 1 hour 42 minutes – and an average of seven meetings per week.

The survey of UK employees also finds that 37% of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive, while 22% believe they do not get the opportunity to voice their opinion in meetings – more than in any other department. Meanwhile, 100% of the marketers surveyed admit to multi-tasking on non-related tasks such as checking emails during meetings.

“Too many meetings can begin without a clear objective for the outcome,” says Webley-Smith. “Every participant should be clear as to why they are there and what they should be gaining from that meeting.”

However, that is not to say that all meetings should be about receiving direct action for your particular marketing or creative function, she adds. “It could be about gaining wider exposure to core business challenges that leads to a flash of inspiration that you didn’t expect.”

Anna Kilmurray, head of marketing at online credit check business ClearScore, says working in smaller groups and using collaborative tools have helped her to oversee more productive meetings. ClearScore features in Marketing Week’s list of 100 Disruptive Brands, published last month, and has grown from eight to 36 employees over the past year.

The company is seeking to maintain the fast pace of its early growth by fostering a competitive spirit, she says. This includes organizing projects into three-month long ‘races’, which are each divided further into ‘sprints’. “We even do our own mini awards to recognize those who have contributed over and above expectations,” she explains.

“We are not afraid to tear up the playbook and try different ways of working – we’re about to break the company into multi-disciplined factions to empower teams to deliver projects more autonomously.”

Q&A: Adam Zavalis, UK marketing director, Aldi

What is special or unique about the way the Aldi team works that makes it so effective?

“At Aldi, we never rest on our laurels or take anything for granted. If we are fortunate enough to gain a degree of success, we may pause for a short while and celebrate but most importantly we learn from what went well and also what didn’t quite work, so we can build on it.”

“Like the great Team GB athletes, we are supporting on the road to Rio, we keep searching for the marginal gains that will keep the momentum going and keep us moving forwards. It never stops and we know we’re simply the current custodians of this great brand with a duty to keep driving us towards greater growth.”

Are there any areas for improvement that you are looking to address in terms of the way your team works?

“We are always looking for improvements: new ideas, better ways of collaborating, greater efficiency so we can achieve more, and more killer consumer insights that keep the progression and growth moving. There are no secrets, it’s about constant progression.”

More than a third of marketers feel their meetings could be more productive. What can marketing leaders do to improve the quality of their meetings?

“Every meeting, marketing or otherwise, should have a purpose, a goal and everyone should go  into the meeting knowing what they expect to get out of it, what is expected of them and what they need to do as a result of the meeting.”

“However, as marketers we sometimes need longer meetings for ideas to flow and that can take time. Sometimes this can make people feel uncomfortable when they are under pressure and have a thousand other things to get done but if it’s managed within a framework, then it’s those moments that can lead you to something unique, compelling and sometimes something very special.”

“To build an effective team from the start you need to set out your vision for the culture, creativity and working environment you wish to create.”

“At its heart, the vision needs to reflect the importance of building connections between the multiple marketing functions. For a customer base to understand the brand, all channels and functions need to be aligned and conveying the same message. As the leader of that team, it is essential that this is a focus from the start.”

“Another key element is ensuring that all functions have built and bought into the plan – ensuring they are working towards a shared vision and goals. Building a culture that is both supportive and invests in team members is essential in gaining a team’s trust and bringing them with you in the direction required for the business.”

“Ensuring that every team member understands their part in the bigger picture, and can see progression and development for themselves that is intrinsically linked to the development of the business, is also important in building loyalty to the department and the brand.”

– Jonathan Bacon

If you have an interest in marketing then be sure to check out our latest marketing role here!

Adobe CMO gives career advice on technology marketing

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Adobe’s global CMO on what it takes to forge a career in technology marketing

Ann Lewnes, executive vice-president and CMO at Adobe, shares the moments that have shaped her career and led to her heading up marketing at a company that made £3.3bn in sales last year.

What advice would you give to marketers looking to progress in their career?

Look for companies where a pivot is about to happen because I think that’s when things are most exciting. Look for an opportunity at a company that is transitioning or starting from scratch. That’s personally what I like to do.

The other thing I would say is learn new things. Marketers are not always the fastest to adopt new things. We’ve seen that with digital marketing, it’s probably taken some companies longer than it should have. You can’t resist.

This is a great time to be in marketing. Everybody should embrace it and move quickly. Don’t avoid risk.

What are the key moments that have influenced your career?

I’ve been blessed to work at two great technology companies, which is unusual, especially in Silicon Valley, as people move around a lot. I worked for 20 years at Intel and now almost 10 years at Adobe.

At Intel the biggest success was coming in at the right time because the PC industry was just starting to take off. I had the good fortune of working under [former CEO] Andy Grove who unfortunately passed away recently.

He had a great vision for what marketing could do to a very non-marketing-oriented business like semiconductors. His chief lieutenant, my boss [former CMO] Dennis Carter, instituted the whole ‘Intel Inside’ programme [that targeted consumers] and the branding of microprocessors – things that seemed completely crazy at the time.

What did you learn from Carter’s strategy?

Under him I was able to learn everything about marketing. We started off as a small team – four or five of us – I learnt at the hand of the master how to do everything. It was an on-the-job MBA. At a time when a business is really scaling there’s no better experience. Over time the company grew to be quite large and I felt I had stayed long enough and felt like I wanted to try something new.

Why did you decide to join Adobe?

With Adobe it was slightly different because it was about taking a brand that was already quite healthy, transforming it and expanding its value into new spaces. We’ve taken it from a creative packaged software business, and transformed it into a subscription business, and created a whole new adjacent business in digital marketing.

What is the best advice you have ever received?

My personal mantra has always been ‘no doesn’t always mean no’. That’s my career path and it’s not for everyone perhaps, but I get excited about trying things that people don’t think can work because that to me is a challenge.

That is a good philosophy for marketers now because there have been a lot of organisations that have completely transformed themselves. It isn’t easy and you may say we’ll never be able to do this, our people won’t change, our technology won’t change, our processes won’t change. But it’s very motivating to employees to be able to transform themselves, even if they are a little resistant at first.

I’ve seen PR people become social media people, I’ve seen traditional market research people become web analysts and everyone comes out the other end feeling better. You learn new skills and you have impact on the transformation of a company.

– Lucy Tesseras

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