The Good, Bad & Ugly of Using Humor in an Interview Setting

Submitted by Sheila deG Moeller

DATE: SPRING 1975
LOCATION: MIT Satellite Facility
Both my college friend and I (then attending Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH), answered an ad for administrative support positions at a satellite facility (?) of MIT somewhere in Massachusetts. The specific details of 30+ years ago are fuzzy...but I clearly recall a military-issue desk in the waiting area with a uniformed man jabbing at an electric typewriter doing the ol' 'hunt and peck' thang. With an extreme case of 'first interview' jitters, (not to mention the sugar-high from ingesting almost an entire box of TIC-TACs just prior), unfortunately I thought that using my (sometimes inappropriate) sense of humor would ease my nerves. So I ask this man "So where did you get your TYPING CERTIFICATE from, the FIVE & DIME STORE? Upon which he smiled, held up BOTH of his hands, revealing a TOTAL of only about one and a half fingers (!?!)...and said "KOREA." Needless to say, I almost 'lost my lunch'...and have literally blacked-out the interview itself (IF they even let me in to talk to somebody!).