interviews and well-prepared, hiring managers are painting a different picture. In Vault’s

just-released Interview Etiquette Survey, 59% of hiring managers say that job candidates’

manners have deteriorated in recent years.

Vault’s Interview Etiquette Survey of 105 hiring managers and 1647 employees across

the country took place in March of this year.

Hiring managers have had to deal with a plethora of bad behavior in interviews, from the

43% who say a candidate has used profanity, to the 19% who say an applicant has

brought a child to an interview. Emergency babysitting services are obviously crucial

when job hunting.

Some hiring managers (26%) have even seen a job candidate pick up a cell phone call

right in the middle of an interview; 68% would disqualify the person immediately for

such behavior. The offense most often seen, however, is badly chosen attire; 87% of

hiring managers say that interviewees have dressed inappropriately for the occasion.

Other examples of poor interview etiquette employers have seen: bringing lunch and

eating it during the conversation, crying, picking one’s nose and showing up drunk.

While job seekers may need to adjust their interview behavior, hiring managers should

become aware of their own etiquette shortcomings as well. Many employees (56%) say

interviewers have interrupted proceedings to take calls, and 71% say they’ve been

rejected for jobs by not ever hearing from the employer after the interview; 11% of hiring

managers admit to blowing off candidates rather than sending rejection letters.

Vault is the leading media company focused on careers. Vault offers over 100 online and

features thousands of company and university profiles, information on hundreds of

occupations and industries, articles on a multitude of workplace topics, a network of

message boards for professionals with over 2,200,000 posts and jobs-related video, blogs

and research tools. Its clients include nearly 1,000 advertisers and recruiters, over 900

universities and graduate schools, and over 7,000,000 consumers worldwide.

Maintaining offices in New York, London, Mumbai, and Hong Kong, Vault was founded

in 1996 by Hussam Hamadeh, Samer Hamadeh, and Mark Oldman and recently received

a majority investment from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a $5 billion private-equity firm

focused on media and communications.