Finding the right candidate for a senior position requires more than just a good resume.

When this recruiter started interviewing one man, a lack of humility, professionalism, and situational awareness led to an embarrassing revelation and a Zoom call cut short.

Read on to find out what happens!

Arrogant Interviewee

I was recruiting for a pretty senior global functional head role. After tracking what look like a good candidate down, I set up a video call.

He was located in a different country, but was the same nationality as me.

After a pleasant enough opening 10 minutes, he started laying down the law: “I expect a significantly larger remuneration package, and I expect your client to pay for me to in full relocate”, etc. etc.

Despite a negative first impression, the recruiter decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I decided this wasn’t the person that was going to be moving forward for the role for which I was recruiting – not least because he had done zero research on my client – always a really bad sign.

I wanted to show enough professional respect and stuck on the call for another 15 minutes.

But the interviewee quickly squandered it.

He took this opportunity to bury himself deeper into my bad books.

He then rambled on about having back to back video calls all day and that he was glad I was his last call.

The recruiter decided to just lay it on him.

It was then that I told him: “Look, you seem to be a pretty talented person, but I’m not taking you forward for this role. I have a number of equally well-qualified candidates who are taking this role more seriously, so I can’t risk putting you in front of my client when your motivation seems to be focused on remuneration rather than an opportunity with a great company.”

The interviewee tried to turn it around.

He was crestfallen. I think he realized that he was arrogant and had overplayed his hand and mucked it up.

He started backtracking, trying to be a little bit more humble, but I pulled him up with my Petty Revenge.

Then the recruiter dropped the bombshell.

I said to him: “I can see what you’re doing here, and I understand, but it’s too late at this point.

Sorry.

Also, if I’m your last call today, I certainly hope you at least had underpants on for all your previous calls.”

I went on to tell him that his camera was angled towards a mirror in his hotel room.

Although he was wearing a business shirt which covered his backside, when he leant forward you could clearly see he was wearing no underpants or trousers.

He quickly apologized and disconnected, then emailed me another very groveling apology days later, which I graciously accepted.

There was truly no coming back from that.

That was about a year ago and I have not heard a thing from him since.

I’ve never shared his name with anyone else, I would never do that.

Nevertheless, I suspect he was a damned sight more humble after that call than when he started at.

Arrogant jerk.

Overconfidence can certainly leave you exposed…

What did Reddit make of this?

One would think going fully clothed to a job interview would be a given, but…

Being underdressed for situations like this just doesn’t feel right.

Saying the quiet part out loud was another mistake of the interviewee.

This redditor thinks the interviewee was just advocating for themselves.

In any case, this interviewee sure learned a thing or two about humility – or adjusting his camera angles.

This interview was revealing in more ways than one.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.