Recruiter Thought The Candidate He Was Interviewing For A Job Was Arrogant, So He Ended The Interview In A Humbling Way
by Heide Lazaro
Recruitment interviewers meet people of various personalities.
This recruiter encountered an arrogant candidate.
When the interview started, the candidate was quite demanding, so the recruiter found a way to humble him towards the end of the interview.
Read below for the details of the story.
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 has the same nationality as me.
This recruiter noticed that the candidate was expecting too much.
It started with a pleasant enough 10-minute opening.
After that, he started laying down the law.
“I expect a significantly larger remuneration package.”
“I expect your client to pay in full for me to relocate.”
And more like this.
He immediately knew this candidate was not right for the job.
I decided this wasn’t the person that was going to be moving forward for the role.
Not least because he had done zero research on my client.
That’s always a really bad sign.
But I wanted to show enough professional respect.
I stuck on the call for another 15 minutes.
The candidate buried himself even deeper.
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.
He then explained why the candidate wasn’t right for the job.
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. I can’t risk putting you in front of my client.”
“Your motivation seems to be focused on remuneration, rather than an opportunity with a great company.”
The candidate realized what he did wrong.
He was crestfallen.
I think he realised that he was cocky 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.
He had more to say to the candidate.
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 hope you at least had underpants on for your previous calls.”
Apologies were offered.
I went on to tell him that his camera was angled towards a mirror in his hotel room.
He was wearing a business shirt which covered his backside.
But when he leant forward, you could clearly see he was wearing no underpants or trousers.
He quickly apologised and disconnected.
He then emailed me another very grovelling apology days later.
Which I graciously accepted.
Now, he hopes that the candidate has learned his lesson.
That was about a year ago.
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 more humble after that call than when he started at.
What an arrogant jerk!
That call certainly didn’t go the way either person expected!
Let’s read the reactions of other people to this story on Reddit.
This person thinks the revenge was hilarious.
Here’s another comment with the pun intended.
This one shares a funny assumption.
People are amused!
Finally, this user shares some insightful comments.
Remember to show your best self during the job interview.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · client, interview, job, petty revenge, picture, recruitment, reddit, revenge, top, video call

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.