Interviewing Awkwardness

I've been in contact with an experienced actuary (i.e., graduated college over a year ago) that has applied for an actuarial position with our company. I was asked to conduct an initial phone screen to determine whether we should bring this individual in for a home office interview.

After a day of back and forth e-mails, we settled on 9AM Thursday (tomorrow) as a good time for me to call to conduct a phone interview. This morning, I sent an e-mail to confirm our 9AM time slot, mainly because the candidate is located in the Central time zone. Here was the response e-mail I received:

"Hi Mr. _______,

Yes, that number is correct. I'm looking forward to our call. Also, I want to apologize for my presumption in prior emails--I did not intend to be too familiar by using your first name. I would be very disappointed it this small error were to jeopardize my chance for a position with _____, as I believe I could be a real asset to your company. I can assure you that I will be more cognizant of the proper formalities of the interview process going forward."

Definitely the most hilarious recruiting related e-mail I have received. This response was completely unprovoked. I made no reference or comment to her addressing me as "Gary" in her other e-mails. I'm guessing that she was worried because I didn't put my first name at the bottom of the e-mail I sent her this morning.

Since this is a very promising candidate, I e-mailed back to say that when I hear someone say "Mr. _____", I assume they are talking to my father. No need worrying her prior to our discussion in the morning.

I'll wait to make fun of this person for that e-mail until they receive an offer and accept (if that even happens). And no, I did not point out that her sentence about small errors had a small error in it. :)