Once I did a phone interview with a candidate for a travel agent position. This candidate had a flat Midwestern accent, which is pretty common here in Milwaukee.
The candidate answered all the questions reasonably well, and there were no red flags, and she seemed qualified, so I scheduled her for an in-person interview.
When she came in, she had a very strong Russian accent … because she was not the same person. She’d had someone else do the phone interview for her.
Her explanation and the conclusion are funny and worth reading.
The travel agent is a rather outlandish example of faking out the interview, but it isn’t uncommon to have a spouse or friend “polish” your resume or fill out an online job application. There’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t be caught off guard if the interviewer asks you to explain your time in the Carter Administration or says, “I thought Muddy Waters wrote that song.”