Candidate Interview Story: How My Children Were Conceived

I'll take a break from the resource reviews to share one of my most unbelievable candidate interview stories. It is somewhat PG-13, so viewer discretion is advised.

Several years ago, I was searching for an HR Manager for a high-tech web hosting company. The position description was pretty straight forward and, like any good recruiter, I made sure I knew the intangibles like corporate culture and what sort of personality would fit in best. The average age of employee was about 23 years old, so the CEO said that he needed a "mom to keep the kids in line".

I found Janine (or so I'll call her). She looked great on paper, had a charming phone presence, and turned out to be quite attractive when she came to my office for a personal interview. We sat down in one of our small interview rooms and began tossing the conversational ball back and forth. Everything went swimmingly. She was edgy, cool, and hip - a perfect fit for shepherding the flock of tattooed, tongue pierced, computer geeks. I began wrapping up the interview and just before we were about to stand up, she leaned forward and asked in a mischievous tone, "Want to know something interesting about me?" Intrigued, I nodded affirmatively.

"I didn't have any of my children through intercourse," she said as if she were commenting on the weather.

"Oh reeeeeaaaaallllllly," I replied (what else could I say?).

"Nope. I used a turkey baster for all four of them."

"Woooooooooooow!" I'm not normally in the habit of drawing out my words like that, but really, they don't train us to handle these types of comments.

There was an awkward silence. She looked at me with raised eyebrows and a whimsical smile as if waiting for a return confession of equal splendor. I can only assume that the look on my face was the kind of look that you'd have if someone asked you if you wanted to take a ride in their Tickle-Me-Elmo Spaceship that's parked outside.

"Well, thanks for coming in to meet with me," I managed to spit out while quickly standing up, careful to avoid eye contact, physical contact, or any kind of contact for that matter. I walked her to the door and gave her a weak smile goodbye (might have been a grimace).

Years later, I've learned to be friendly with the candidates that I interview, but not too friendly. And yes, Thanksgiving has never been the same.