Intern Interviews: Is This The Standard? (I hope not!)

On a Yahoo Group I’m on I saw this really intriguing email from Greg Brooks, a business owner who has done a fair amount of hiring.  Greg always has interesting feedback for job seekers, from an interviewer/owner perspective.

From Greg (with permission):

I’ve talked to three intern candidates in the last couple of days — well,
two intern candidates and one guy who wanted a job, but acted like an
intern.

Common elements across all three:

* All three acted like goofballs. I don’t mean being unprepared — although
they were *manifestly* unprepared — for the discussion. I mean not being
able to talk without giggling or going off on rabbit trails or saying things
that indicated they had done zero research. I don’t need you to be a
stone-cold serious interview zombie (sidebar: Interview Zombie is an awesome
band name!), but I do need you to stay on topic.

* All three did some variant of “Well, I’d like to get paid but really this
project is so interesting I’d work for free.”
Newsflash: You don’t get to
ride the fence on that — either come to the interview expecting to get paid
or don’t, but if you try to do both all you end up with is some guy (me)
sitting there thinking: “Huh… that’s funny. She doesn’t think her time is
worth anything.”

* All three had questionable life skills. If your objective is to find an
internship that will not pay your rent and groceries, and you don’t have
money saved up, then I’m going to question your mad planning skillz.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant. Don’t be like this when you’re
looking for jobs and/or internships.

Greg said to sign him off as:

Greg Brooks, principal, West Third Group — a marketing and PR firm that probably doesn’t want to work with you, either.

Personally, I think Greg is a brilliant thinker (I’ve followed him for years).  He is candid and, honestly, I’d love to work with him… what you see is what you get.

What do you think?  Are you doing any of the three things Greg is listing?  Those aren’t flaws that just interns can have…