Mad To Work Here

I used to work at a recruitment agency until seeing the light and coming inhouse. While at the agency, that will remain nameless to protect the innocent, I was indeed exposed to more illness, injury and even death than I ever thought possible. The type of excuses I used to hear from candidates not turning up for interview was truly shocking. In one case I will never forget a repeat candidate of mine told me that he could not go to the interview I had set up for him because his Granmother had unfortunately died........this would have been met with considerable empathy from my end had he not told me over the course of the year and a half I had dealt with him (placing him once in that time) that he had lost his last Granparent the year before, that time also excusing his absence from an arranged interview.

The other well worn excuse for non-attendance is that they got lost and, even in this day and age of mobile phones, somehow could not find their way to calling up to explain the situation. It seems true that when interviewing is involved all logic and basic understanding of how to effectively communicate with other human beings is somehow lost entirely.

Avoid recruiting unlucky people by putting half the CV's received in the bin

grouting the bathroom was the all time winner of an excuse (better than a night out on the tiles, I suppose). I have had a mugging as an excuse, which sounds more common than I thought - perhaps thats a true headhunter at work?

Thanks all! Some priceless ones.

But special thanks to Michael Oxlarge:

"Avoid recruiting unlucky people by putting half the CV's received in the bin."

We laughed out loud.