Perfection: Jim Harbaugh Reportedly Started An Interview For The KU Job By Putting In A Massive Dip To Show Them 'The Real Jim Harbaugh'
[Athletic] - “Guys, do you mind if I loosen up my tie or take my tie off?” Harbaugh said, according to a person in the room. “I’m not really a shirt-and-tie kind of guy. Can I take my jacket off?”
This was December 2009. Harbaugh, then in his third season at Stanford, was meeting with members of Kansas’ athletic department, including athletic director Lew Perkins. Days earlier, Kansas coach Mark Mangino had resigned after accusations about his mistreatment of players.
Harbaugh walked over to the bar and asked if anyone wanted a drink. Then he emptied a can of Coke, put in a rather sizable dip of chewing tobacco and used the can as a spittoon.
“I just want to be Jim Harbaugh for you all to see who I am,” he told the room.
This is how all interviews should be done. That's what I want to talk about here so I'm going to talk about it. I've gone through my fair share of interviews. I've interviewed for journalism jobs, sales jobs, purchasing jobs and even with Dave. Dave was the only person to ask me who the hell I actually was. That's how it should be. None of this 'proficient in Excel' when you basically know how to hit the formula button and keep it organized. I would say 99% of the time during interviews someone lies about who they are and what they can do.
Not Jim Harbaugh. He's not a suit and tie guy. Good, same here. I prefer to wear basketball shorts and a t-shirt as much as possible. He didn't want to take a jacket off so he wasn't going to. Even better was him asking people if they wanted a drink just so he could empty out a Coke can and use it as a spitter.
That's who Harbaugh is. Take it or leave it. I don't care if you're interviewing for a college football head coaching job or an inside sales job it should go both ways. The person doing the interview always lies. They lie about how great the company is, all these benefits and pros to the company. You never hear the cons. Basically just let Jim Harbaugh do every interview.
Oh and imagine if Kansas hired Harbaugh. Even if they just had him for two years before he left for the Niners, you're talking about avoiding an all-time disaster. Kansas went 3-9 and 2-10 in the two years with Turner Gill there. Pretty sure Harbaugh wouldn't have done that.
Either way this is how you do an interview. Makes me wonder if Harbaugh and Jake Marsh are the same though when it comes to dipping: