You can’t make this stuff up!
Posted on May 16th, 2006 by sherrilynne
Yuk Yuk Yuk….did you hear the one about the BBC research assistant that put a cabbie on air instead of the ’subject expert’? Apparently the cab driver was waiting in the reception to pick the expert up after his interview. Somehow the driver ended up on air giving his opinion on music downloading… Hat tip to Drew B for pointing this one out.
Update…I just found a clip on youtube.
Filed under: public relations
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Thanks for the mention. It is truly a bizarre video!
Apparently….it now turns out the guy who went on air wasn’t a cabbie, as earlier reports suggested, but someone who was at the Television Centre reception awaiting a job interview for an IT assistant role. The interviewee – a university graduate from the Congo who had absolutely no resemblance to expert who was supposed to comment – assumed that the makeup and microphone were all part of the job interview process (although he did wonder why the questions he was asksed seem to have little relevance to the job on offer). Well, at least it gives some ideas for a total new and novel approach to job interviews! And it shows that in desperation for an ‘expert’ interviewee, just grab someone off the street and let them get away with giving some vague responses!
Well, he wasn’t grabbed off the street.
He was in one waiting room, and the other “Guy”, was in another waiting room. Some newbie at the Beeb was told to grab the guy named Guy in the waiting room, and nobody bothered to explain the difference between the one she/he probably got interviewed in, and the room we call “The Green Room” over here in the U-S. And, well…I feel bad for the newbie. Talk about embarassing!
I did enjoy watching the replay, over-and-over-again, of the “wrong Guy” looking totally shocked and like “uh-oh, I’m in trouble now!”
What’s also fascinating to me is that the “wrong Guy” thought that the process of going to the “make-up” room is also part of a job interview process in England!
And, that indicates to lady Yank, over here, that y’all in the UK sure know how to make a guy feel comfortable before job interviews! It never occured to “Wrong Guy” that this was beyond normal!
Nicola..thanks for straightening out the facts… I despair at times. First the news media puts the wrong guy in front of the camera. Then they can’t get the story straight when reporting the event. How did they ever get French cab driver out of IT professional from the Congo?
Rita…the clip is too funny! I wonder if the guy got the job? He should get something after the embarrassment he’s suffered.
[...] Thanks to Strive Notes for posting this piece. Note: one link to YouTube was down when I went there - the BBC had pulled it for copyright reasons - but there were six other versions posted, so just search on “apple bbc” and you’ll find one! [...]