Written by Vaclav Koranda

Beware of Interview Karma

Although this story originated in 2015, it hasn’t got old. As I emphasised in my book, Get Your Dream Job: When you come for a job interview, you should keep in mind that you are being observed the whole time, not just during the interview but also before and after. And look what happened…

Image Credit: Sean Sparling (@sasagronomy via Twitter)

A guy arrived for an interview in an obvious hurry. While parking his car, he hastily overtook another man and occupied the parking space that person had been waiting for. A discussion unfolded and at the end, he told the other man to F off. Later it turned out that his interview was with the same man — his name was Sean Sparling (see the image above). The original post has been taken down from Twitter (in case you would like to find the original tweet) but the story continues to circulate in the digital space.

It seems obvious that the closer you are to the interview venue, the higher the probability that you unexpectedly (and perhaps unknowingly) bump into the interviewer. Considering it usually takes place at the company premises, you can also cross paths with other not so unimportant employees, like a recruiter, or a senior manager of the company. Demonstrating disrespect towards any of these people is a surefire way to land yourself in the “NO” pile. Just like the poor individual in this story, you can burn your chances even before the interview starts.

As Sean Sparling commented later, he carried out the interview as normal, weighed all the circumstances, qualifications and references, …and then told the guy to F off.

Good luck!

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