If These Résumés Could Talk is a new Wall Street Journal feature in which recruiters, headhunters and hiring managers share their wildest and most interesting stories. Previous installments of the series are here. 

Q: What’s an instance where a job candidate made an unusual dress-code blunder?

Prescription for disaster

I sent a candidate into a major food manufacturer for a maintenance manager position, and I happened to take their director of HR to lunch that day at the exact time as his interview.