CMU School of Drama


Thursday, February 10, 2022

Woman bombs job interview in disastrous video snafu

nypost.com: Talk about making a job interview boo-boo. Without setting foot inside an office building, Chaylene Martinez unwittingly put her foot in her mouth by criticizing her would-be employer during a one-take, pre-recorded video interview.

3 comments:

Logan Donahue said...

I actually remember seeing this video on my tiktok feed a few days before I saw this article on News From the Real World. The “woman” stated that the video could only be recorded once and was saved immediately. This itself seems wrong to me. The company could have allowed for multiple chances to record to get the best take possible. After all, so many things can happen in the minute you have to record, or they interviewee may just get nervous being in front of a camera and need to get used to recording themselves. The Article title also does not sit well with me. I know they are made to grab peoples’ attention but it is phrased in a way that tries to make this woman a laughing stock. This whole situation doesn’t really sit well with me and I really feel bad for the person in the video, especially since they are at risk of losing their job.

Elly Lieu Wolhardt said...

This just seems like an unfortunate situation. A one-take video for an interview may sound like a reasonable idea, given that interviews are essentially 'one-take', but to expect an environment where one is recording a video at home versus an in-person interview, or even an online interview, to be the same is presumptuous. The idea of a one-take video is just not very practical. If the video recording is being done by a website, that does not account for technical difficulties, for instance, the website crashing, the browser crashing, the internet going out, and more. In addition to this, the video quality will greatly differ, especially if it is being recorded through a website, and while places claim that video quality does not impact employment, it probably results in bias against an otherwise excellent candidate. On the other hand, Chaylene Martinez herself is not entirely without fault. One should watch their words, particularly if she was actively applying for this job. In addition to this, It was certainly unwise of her to post it online, on Tiktok of all places, especially given that she has a following. That exacerbated the damage of what followed after with her second job. I personally think it is entirely fine that she does not like her employer, again, the whole situation was unfortunate for her and I hope it somehow resolves itself soon.

Hikari said...

This was such a funny video to watch, but after reading through the article it makes me feel so bad for Martinez. I don't think that posting this video was the right choice for her. I'm sure it was to make light of her situation and it is a very strong trait to be able to laugh at yourself. However, like Martinez said, she obviously did not get the job and now she is in jeopardy of losing her current one. I don't think there is really anything she can do to fix this. It was truly a mistake and these are its consequences. I personally, though I feel bad, don't feel any unfairness to this. I think that if her employer is able to see this video and take it as a mistake, and an expression of her goofiness and ability to take humility, that would be great. But if her employer decides to fire her over it, that is fair too. I actually disagree with Logan in that I think that it is totally fair for a company to do a one take interview. The purpose was probably so that her answer wouldn't be scripted. You can study for a test but it doesn't make sense to take it after you have the questions. Martinez should have been more careful at that part and understood how the interview process works. It is still very unfortunate and I'm sure this is a mistake that she won't make again haha.