I recently interviewed 2 people. People dress quite poorly for job interviews in Vietnam. Worse than they dress for work. It's odd. And Interviewee A was no exception.
Interviewee A was so wet behind the ears that I spotted something running down his neck.
As we shook hands I noticed that A's pants had the distinctive sheen of ironed polyester. His short-sleeved shirt had large sweat stains in the armpits. His hair was 1950's (Pee Wee Herman, not Jimmy Dean) and his face was framed by long, wispy sideburns and a beard that had been refusing to grow for several years. He looked like a 14-year-old who was held back in Year 8 because he'd been bullied. Not someone I need to stand in front of the client. Apart from that, he only understood about 25% of my questions. Apart from a couple of uni assignments he had no other relevant experience and was not strong enough to learn on the job.
Interviewee B was much older. He looked at least 27 and had excellent English and good experience. What a relief. He had worked quite extensively abroad - Chad, Nigeria, Uzbekistan. My only concern was that he seemed to screw up his face when I asked questions he didn't understand (or see the relevance of).
At the end of the interview I gave him some feedback: "You are obviously intelligent and experienced and have excellent English. However, sometimes when I have asked you a question you look bored, or look at me like I'm an idiot. If you do this with the client they will think you are arrogant. That is my only concern." He screwed up his face, then said "I'm trying to be honest with you in this interview because we will work together. I have another face for the client." Hired.
I informed the agency that we would take B, but not A. I arranged for B to start this morning.
This morning I received a call from B at 9am. He was on time, but at the wrong location. He was at our client's head office. No one knew who he was or who I was or where he should go.
I called him back and spoke to A, who answered his phone. I knew it was A because he couldn't understand me. He was also waiting there at the client office, with B, for me to arrive.
I asked them to please come to my office and called the agency immediately. The person I spoke to confirmed that, yes, both had been sent to start today. I told her we had only selected one. She said "Then just pick the one that you want and send the other one away". I told her we had already done this - that is what the interview process was for. I insisted that she call A and explain that there was a mistake. She said "Oh - so you are too nice. You want me to be the bad one!" I said yes, I did, so please call A and tell him they got it wrong. No need to be bad.
The last thing I needed was a line up. It's not a brothel after all.
About 15 minutes later I got a call from reception to say that I had a visitor. I went to the reception desk to find both A and B sitting in the lobby waiting for me, eager to start their first day's work ...
