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Speaking from experience, a job interview can be hard, especially when it is your first. As feelings of anxiety, fear and excitement tangle inside your brain, you try your best to stay calm and composed during the interview. However, sometimes this is easier said than done.
A Quora thread asked people about the craziest thing they have ever said (or done) and still landed the job. While there were a lot of answers, this one by Akshay Kanth showed how thinking on your feet can get you places. Reminding of Christopher Gardner from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, this is a must-read.
I basically grabbed food off the interviewer’s plate.
This was the first interview in the final term of undergrad and the company as it is had shortlisted only people with a CGPA of 8.5 and above (about the top 10 percentile of people) to attend even the first round. We assembled at the seminar Hall by 7 am and the company reps were there by 8.30 with their basic presentation and so forth. By 10 am, the first round started. This was a quantitative analytical, verbal reasoning and language skills round; conducted on computers. As luck would have it, there were connection issues and that took around 2 hours to get sorted. The time was 12 noon by the time we started and we had to go through the whole thing all over again. We ended by 3 pm and were immediately ushered to the next round. No break and no time to eat anything. This was a technical round that went well until 6 pm to go through all the processes.
By 8 pm the final round of interviews (HR) started. My turn came at 8.15pm. I was cranky and moody as it is because I was famished! The interviewers were rambling on about the ethics and values of the company and then asked the one ambiguous question I hated the most – “So, why should we hire you?”.
I lost all self-control and resorted to my Base instincts. I reached across and grabbed the piece of pastry that was in front of them and started eating it. I then gulped down a whole glass of juice. This took about 90 seconds. Then I looked them squarely in the eye and said – “well you should hire me because I am a go-getter. If I see something I like, I go after it. I liked the pastry and I went after it. I did not hesitate…. Or you could just hire me because I had the presence of mind to come up with a whole go-getter excuse for my pastry grabbing fiasco…. Or please hire me just so you can have me around in important board meetings as a comic relief and tell the others – keep your food away gentlemen, or this guy will grab it off your plate”.
Yeah, that moment of bat-shit craziness worked. I was the only one selected.
Well, how’s that for a story. Did you do (or say) anything crazy in your job interview? Do tell us in the comments.
The content of this article has been taken from Quora with required permissions from the author.
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