Duncan had it in the bag
...or so he thought.

I'd worked with Duncan for a number of years. Our employer was a large educational establishment for distance learning with about 4000 staff. So while I'd met Duncan working in one department over the years we'd both moved about a bit.

While I'd landed a role with permanent employment, Duncan had ended up on temporary contracts and for the previous 6 months had been filling a tech support role in a quiet corner of campus. As such you might say he'd let his standards slip a little...

A senior colleague to us both had been keen to help Duncan out and pretty much lined up a permanent role with his name on it. The interview day came and said colleague was even on the interview panel. What more could you ask for - a job pretty much created for you and a friend on the interview panel!?

SO Duncan went through the motions, generally answering the required quizzing of his technical competence. It would be the last question that was his downfall though...

Interviewer 1: "So lets imagine you've done any open support calls or outstanding tasks and have a bit of time spare. What would you do with that time?"

Duncan: Ponders the possibilities with deepest consideration... "Probably bring in some CDs, or a DVD to watch".

At this point our colleague, Interviewer 2, leaps in to try and save things. Chucks Duncan "a look" and says in the most leading and assistive way possible: "OK, but imagine it's maybe more than a spare hour, possibly even a couple of days. What kind of things could you think of to fill your time at work that your manager may not have asked you to do?"

Now lets for a moment consider our own model answers... Maybe check the anti-virus was up to date on the PCs in the labs, or perform an audit of the hardware on site to check nothing was missing or in need of replacement?

Duncans answer: "Erm........ Yeah, I'd bring in some CDs".

He didn't get the job.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Mon 25 Nov 2013, 10:07, Reply)