WWMD - Hitting on interviewee

**MarsB** · 10-13-2006, 05:54 AM

I'm working the job fair at the engineering campus yesterday and this cute little chick catches my eye. Long, sandy blonde hair, green eyes in a green hoodie and jeans carrying the pattagucci messenger bag. Our eyes met, but st the time I was busy setting up our table with the other three folks who had come up to help from corporate. The job fair continues, we talk to tons of future engineers, give 'em the corporate spiel. The day is moving quickly, I'm lining up tons of interview call backs for the next day. As I'm getting ready to start closing up shop, one of the HR types from corporate grabs my arm, "MarsB, I want you to meet Maggie...". I turn around and it's the green-eyed hottie.

I introduce myself and she hands me a resume. We start talking about what I'm hiring for. She is more than qualified. Doctoral student on a full stipend, 4.0 (!) GPA, experience with data modeling. Cute, outdoorsy, and brilliant. "Sign her up for an interview", I tell the HR person. "Already did it." she responds.

So she is my first interview today. She is by far the most qualified of the interviewees, already has talked the talk yesterday and is obviously the real deal. In fact, she could easily turn this job down with her experience and I'm sure she knows it. So I really could offer her no inside help, and am interviewing for technical skills only. I won't determine salary, signing bonus, etc. So ethically speaking, asking her to go get a burritto with me is sound, right?

**bklyn** · 10-13-2006, 06:07 AM

If she complains you could easily get fired.

**Nobody Famous** · 10-13-2006, 06:08 AM

Be careful. If your corporate superiors and the HR dept have the confidence in you to interview prospective new employees, then they certainly expect you to know and follow their conflict of interest/sexual harrasment/and just plain old, unspoken standards of corporate professionalism. Don't screw up. Asking her out for a burrito at the end of an interview is bad form.

Talk to her on a professional level in your office, and if or when when the intervew is over, such as outside the building and clearly after the interview, then talk to her on a personal level. Be clear and say something like "Now that the intervew is over..."

And of course post pictures.

**MarsB** · 10-13-2006, 06:28 AM

Damn you both and your logic!

Alright, no burrittos.

**cinnepa** · 10-13-2006, 06:48 AM

Originally Posted by MarsB

Damn you both and your logic!

Alright, no burrittos.

then i guess a blow-job is completely out of the question?

**Affix Snow** · 10-13-2006, 07:05 AM

Make a copy of the resume, so if she turns down the job, you can at least get in touch.....

And if she takes the job, well......interns are awesome!

**lemon boy** · 10-13-2006, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Affix Snow

Make a copy of the resume, so if she turns down the job, you can at least get in touch.....

Ding ding ding.

Otherwise, danger will robinson, danger.

I've been on alcohol and expense account fueled recruiting outtings before and those are blurily dangerous as well.

**Tippster** · 10-13-2006, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by Nobody Famous

Talk to her on a professional level in your office, and if or when when the intervew is over, such as outside the building and clearly after the interview, then talk to her on a personal level. Be clear and say something like "Now that the intervew is over..."

Do NOT do this, under any circumstance!! It will look like you're offering "extra Credit." You're pooch is screwed with this gal unless she doesn't take the job on her own. Anything else and HR can bust your ass for various shit.

Sometimes the good ones get away. Plenty of other fish still to be caught, mon frere.

**4matic** · 10-13-2006, 07:20 AM

No fishing off the company pier.. Especially if you are management. In fact, most corporations will have a policy on that.

**The Dad** · 10-13-2006, 07:45 AM

Power changes everything, my friend.

And here, as an interviewer, you have power, real or perceived.

Put it this way: If you ask her out and she declines, and coincidentally she doesn't get the job, you could easily have a lawsuit on your hands. It will help that your review says to hire her, unconditionally. But (a) you'll only get to that point after the lawsuit has been filed and it has cost your company a lot of time and you your reputation within it, and (b) it's still not dispositive, because they may be entitled to discover whether you secretly badmouthed her but papered your trail.

Of course, you say, she's the most qualified candidate, so why shouldn't she get the job? News flash: hiring decisions are not always rational, no company is a complete meritocracy, and your gonads might be influencing your evaluation of her credentials.

Make a good impression on her at the interview, for the company's sake and your own. Then, your best case scenario is that she gets offered the job and declines it so she can ask you out. In any event, if she does decline the offer, email her and say how disappointed you are and you'd been looking forward to working with her, and see how it plays from there. If she accepts, keep it in your pants until the internship ends, then give it a shot.

**schindlerpiste** · 10-13-2006, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by bklyntrayc

If she complains you could easily get fired.

And sued ...LAD!

BLOOD SWEAT STEEL · 10-13-2006, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by alpinedad

Make a good impression on her at the interview, for the company's sake and your own. Then, your best case scenario is that she gets offered the job and declines it so she can ask you out. In any event, if she does decline the offer, email her and say how disappointed you are and you'd been looking forward to working with her, and see how it plays from there. If she accepts, keep it in your pants until the internship ends, then give it a shot.

This is a smart guy right here. ^

**smmokan** · 10-13-2006, 09:07 AM

Wait til she gets the job, then ask her out.

If she doesn't get the job, do what someone else said and make a copy of her resume and ask her out afterwards.

**Der Poopenhausen** · 10-13-2006, 09:09 AM

You know what I think you should do.

**Affix Snow** · 10-13-2006, 09:12 AM

Originally Posted by alpinedad

keep it in your pants until the internship ends, then give it a shot.

Easier said than done!!!! Didnt work for me....

Im marrying MY intern.....

**The Dad** · 10-13-2006, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Affix Snow

Im marrying MY intern.....

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

**soylent green** · 10-13-2006, 11:04 AM

You could remove yourself from the interview process on the grounds that you would like to get to know her better. If your co-workers don't give her the job or she declines you still have her phone #. This would be the ethical thing to do anyway.

**TheDingleberry** · 10-13-2006, 11:06 AM

Here's the answer...Don't offer her the job...tell her you were amazed by her her school/background and that you feel that she would be overqualified for the position...Then ask her out and showcase your pimpness. Problem solved.

**stash** · 10-13-2006, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by 4matic

No fishing off the company pier.. Especially if you are management. In fact, most corporations will have a policy on that.

Actually, they won't have a policy on that, at least in this country and in this century.

The fishing close to home may not always be the best fishing, but it's generally the most convenient. Just be careful when releasing them.

In this case though, I'd stay away until she either accepts or declines. Whatever her choice, you're good to go after she's made that decision -- actually you're probably good to go after the company decides whether or not to make her an offer. Just don't be an idiot about it.

**pechelman** · 10-13-2006, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by Der Poopenhausen

You know what I think you should do.

no, what?

seriously though, good advice up there. dont get yourself fired.

**Nobody Famous** · 10-13-2006, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by Tippster

Originally Posted by Nobody Famous

Talk to her on a professional level in your office, and if or when when the interview is over, such as outside the building and clearly after the interview, then talk to her on a personal level. Be clear and say something like "Now that the interview is over..."

Do NOT do this, under any circumstance!! It will look like you're offering "extra Credit." You're pooch is screwed with this gal unless she doesn't take the job on her own. Anything else and HR can bust your ass for various shit.

Sometimes the good ones get away. Plenty of other fish still to be caught, mon frere.

In hindsight good advice. The regs governing workplace harassment say that it's only harassment if it's unwelcome by the receiving party. But organization policies, for those orgs that know what they're doing, make it verboten whether welcome or not.

But still it would be an interesting TR/conversation that you could report back on here:
You: You're a hot chickada. Do you rip on skis?
Her: Yes.
You: Hey, what's this sudden bulge in my pants?

**Superstar Punani** · 10-13-2006, 11:31 AM

DANGER! DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!!!!!

As much we'd all like to trade a b-job for a job with a hottie, to do so would be career suicide.

I've been in a similar situation when my prior company sent me to a bunch of SoCal campuses for MBA career fair recruiting. Damn those were a hotbed of hot chicks with big brainy tits!!!! Sadly, like the pizza guy and gyenecologist, I got to smell the goods but couldn't eat them. I did pick up a shit ton of phone numbers though

**bio-smear** · 10-13-2006, 11:41 AM

In this case you have to make sure she DOESN'T get the job. Check the prior felony box or whatever you have to do. That is the only way she'll remain in season.

The two of you will laugh about it years from now as you work the breast pump for her.

**4matic** · 10-13-2006, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by stash

Actually, they won't have a policy on that, at least in this country and in this century.
.

Not true. There are no federal or state laws but companies can have dating rules and they can be very strict. Most managers are discouraged or prohibited from dating subordinates.

Most companies do not have office policies addressing dating in the workplace, and those that do tend to discourage it rather than ban it outright, according to survey data published last month.

Only a minority of organizations -- about 25% -- have a written or verbal policy addressing dating in the office, according to the survey of 493 human-resources staffers and 408 other employees conducted jointly by the Society for Human Resource Management and CareerJournal.com. That's up only slightly from the 20% that had policies in place as of 2001, the last time SHRM surveyed organizations about workplace dating.

That might be because companies are wary of writing policies governing their employee's romantic liaisons, SHRM survey research specialist Michael Parks concluded.

"Organizational policies governing interoffice dating can be a touchy subject, and this might be the reason that most organizations do not have such policies," Parks wrote.

Only 9% of the surveyed HR staffers said dating among employees at their companies was prohibited, while 66% said interoffice dating was "permitted but discouraged."
Even though only 9% of HR employees said their workplaces banned interoffice dating, far more rank-and-file employees -- 31% -- said that dating was not allowed by their companies. That, Parks said, may be because workers are misinterpreting the open discouragement as a ban.

**mnflyfish** · 10-13-2006, 12:02 PM

As your friendly executive recruiter from the Mid-west, I strongly caution you from following through with asking this gal out!!!!!!!

If you must, wait until the hiring process is over, then when she is either hired and reporting to someone else, or she turns down the offer, then you could ask her out. But keep your shit together. NO CHICK is worth loosing your job, or getting sued for!

Sorry pal, it does suck.

Jay