I recently needed to call an applicant to inform him he was not eligible for employment with us because his drug test was positive. He called me back 10 minutes later and said, “If I study real hard, can I come back in two weeks and take the test again?”
In my early days, when it was legal to have boxes on the top of the application that asked for name, Social Security Number and sex, one woman put “three times a week.” I told her what we wanted was M or F for male or female. She replied, “Well, I did think it was kind of personal, but I need a job so I answered honestly.”
One of the questions we ask when interviewing someone is, “What brought you to our company?” By this we mean motivation. I had a guy look at me and answer, “Oh, I drove myself.”