The Unexpectedly High Cost of a Bad Hire

Re:The Unexpectedly High Cost of a Bad Hire by vehementi on Tuesday July 23, 2013 @02:13PM (#6091850)

What if the person in fact has amazing judgment and there were circumstances you weren't aware of and that e.g. there was good reason for him to get drunk at that conference (networking, other opportunities, etc.)? Would you be ready to admit your deductive reasoning ability is seriously flawed?

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Re:The Unexpectedly High Cost of a Bad Hire by bcbrown on Tuesday July 23, 2013 @02:27PM (#6091948)

Under what possible circumstances could it be a good reason to get drunk before a phone interview?

Either don't schedule a phone interview after an event where you will be drinking, or don't drink at the event. That doesn't seem so hard.

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Re:The Unexpectedly High Cost of a Bad Hire by hackinthebochs on Tuesday July 23, 2013 @03:25PM (#6092329)

I love how everything is so black and white with some people. If he performed just fine on the phone interview, why should you give a flying fuck? No really, please answer that. And it doesn't show "poor judgement" if there were no adverse consequences.

>Either don't schedule a phone interview

Perhaps he didn't have the option.

>or don't drink at the event.

As others have said, networking opportunities may have presented themselves. Who are you to judge his situation with absolutely no information? Judge him on how well he conducted the phone interview. That's all that matters at this stage.

What I see are people who are obsessed with irrelevant information when it comes to hiring. Its modern-day tea-leave-reading and it has no place in what should be a rational business decision.

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Re:The Unexpectedly High Cost of a Bad Hire by rwallace on Tuesday July 23, 2013 @07:36PM (#6093602)

I've seen a lot of people say they get nervous and freeze up in an interview, performing far less well than they do on a job. Perhaps for some people this also applies to phone interviews, and perhaps a moderate amount of alcohol might help them avoid freezing up.

To some extent I'm playing devil's advocate, but you did ask for possible circumstances. I suppose in the employer's shoes I'd pretend I hadn't read the Twitter post and go ahead and carry out the interview. If he aces it, great. If he muffs it, I wouldn't make allowances for him being drunk, because he would have demonstrated showing up drunk was lousy judgment on his part.

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