Interview Horror Stories: The Bluetooth Tool

Have you ever encountered an interviewer as rude as this one?

We love technology here at Above the Law — check out our wall-to-wall coverage of the big ILTA conference if you doubt it — but we acknowledge its downsides. For example, it can interfere with face-to-face communication, even inducing outright rudeness.

Which brings us to the latest installment in our series of posts on interview horror stories:

My favorite/worst OCI experience that I was a part of occurred when I was the last interviewee of the day for this attorney. Naturally, time had run over, so I was starting the interview about 20 minutes after the interviews were to end.

Unbeknownst to me, the attorney had a bluetooth in his ear. As we started the interview, he kept saying hello and other nonsense statements at random points during the interview. So I naturally would reintroduce myself every time he said hello, or try to respond to statements that had nothing to do with the interview.

After a while, I caught on to the Bluetooth and realized he was taking calls during the interview. Needless to say, I didn’t get a callback, and I still thinks he believes me to be an idiot when I see him around.

But who’s the real idiot here? I can hardly blame the interviewee, who had a reasonable expectation that the interviewer wouldn’t be taking calls in the middle of an interview. If the interviewer had a true emergency, he should have apologized to the interviewee and told the interviewee to come back later, perhaps after the end of official OCI slots (a time often saved for meeting with candidates who for one reason or another didn’t make it on to the schedule).

Have a terrible tale to tell about an interview gone awry? Please send it our way by email, subject line “Interview Stories.” We’ll read all the submissions and share our favorites in these pages.

(And remember, as we’ve previously explained, “The ‘horror’ in ‘interview horror stories’ is loosely defined. Stories that are somewhat embarrassing or mildly amusing will suffice.”)

Earlier: Interview Horror Stories: How To Respond To A Raging Racist?
Interview Horror Stories: What Was She Thinking — Er, Drinking?
7 Epic Examples Of On-Campus-Interviewing Fails

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