Where did it all go wrong?
is Libra, the symbol for justice.”) Having something positive to say about the town or city you are in is helpful – definitely don’t be like the candidate who, when asked why he wished to move to Norwich, replied: “This is Norwich?” And possibly not best to tell the partners interviewing you how very hungover you are. Outright rudeness will make you the stuff of legend at a firm or chambers, but won’t get you a job. One City firm tells how an interview was interrupted by the candidate’s mobile phone ringing (bad). The candidate answered her phone (very bad) and then asked for some privacy while she conducted her conversation (very, very, very bad). Another candidate, when asked why he had applied only to City firms, bar the northern firm interviewing him, replied: “You must have slipped through the net!” Remember that you’re not in your living room. One top national firm describes how a candidate was making a presentation in front of a panel of recruiters, but “decided to demonstrate a particularly flamboyant cricket move and split his trousers”. And the interviewer certainly isn’t your “mate”: especially not when you try to stretch a personal contact by saying: “I’m a great friend of your wife, you know.” Accidental disaster It happens. You’ve covered every angle, done your research, arrived hours early and while you’re waiting, you manage to spill coffee on your shirt. Don’t panic. Tell somebody what has happened. Don’t be like the woman who walked into her interview in an inappropriate party dress for this reason, but only told the firm after the interview, or the man who arrived covered in blood from a stress-induced nosebleed and likewise gave no explanation. Pouring a cup of scalding tea into the lap of the interviewer can also be a tricky situation, as a candidate in Yorkshire
discovered. As long as you apologise for any mistakes, you should be OK.
Hopefully this chapter puts things in perspective. If you do have a rush of blood to the head and pull off something similar to the above, don’t despair – just move on to the next application. And remember, mishaps don’t only happen to candidates. A recruiter in Bath conducted an interview using the wrong candidate’s name throughout and then fell down the stairs while showing her out.
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