Interviews & techniques

[Rossman]

We are looking for some new staff in my department at work. Computer technicians basically. And we have had 5 people come in for interviews and every one of them, had different quirks, traits and wouldn't have fitted into the current group.

One guy had never had a job before, turned up 15 minutes late and was wearing over ear headphones around his neck throughout the interview.

I don't expect a candidate to wear a full 3 piece suit. But another guy turned up wearing a sweatshirt with ET on the front of it.

One guy came in and the first thing he said was, he was really nervous and had not had a job interview in 6 months. He had been unemployed for 8 months. His parting words were asking me what the time was, when I gave it to him, he responded, he was off to the dr's to get his medication.

Another interviewee went through his whole list of failed job interviews and feedback, when he was asked what he had been doing whilst unemployed for the past year.

The problem we have encountered is, a lot of the candidates have the skills to do the job. But their personality and traits went against them. So it's a real struggle hiring someone based on that.

 

[SuperBacon]

I worked in IT recruitment for around 3 months. It was the most soul destroying time in my career as everyone I spoke to, was like pulling teeth. 

I'd come from sales recruitment where it was all about personality and fit, and they spoke at length about how great they were to people who on paper could do the job brief, but had nothing to say about themselves and just couldn't speak.

Even though every client said "As long as they can sit, do the tasks and then briefly liaise with the wider team when needed" I don't think I made a single placement while doing it because everyone I sent was exactly how you've described. 

[westlondonmist]

19 minutes ago, Rossman said:

We are looking for some new staff in my department at work. Computer technicians basically. And we have had 5 people come in for interviews and every one of them, had different quirks, traits and wouldn't have fitted into the current group.

One guy had never had a job before, turned up 15 minutes late and was wearing over ear headphones around his neck throughout the interview.

I don't expect a candidate to wear a full 3 piece suit. But another guy turned up wearing a sweatshirt with ET on the front of it.

One guy came in and the first thing he said was, he was really nervous and had not had a job interview in 6 months. He had been unemployed for 8 months. His parting words were asking me what the time was, when I gave it to him, he responded, he was off to the dr's to get his medication.

Another interviewee went through his whole list of failed job interviews and feedback, when he was asked what he had been doing whilst unemployed for the past year.

The problem we have encountered is, a lot of the candidates have the skills to do the job. But their personality and traits went against them. So it's a real struggle hiring someone based on that.

 

That sounds horrific, but I've spoken to loads of people who have at least 1 "wtf is this" candidate per recruitment process. I've received a job before because I turned up early and the other turned up late. Another because I was there and the other candidate had a breakdown mid interview. 

I've never shown up to an interview with less than shirt and tie. Id honestly expect a shirt and trousers at minimum. It's generally seen as a respect thing. This company has taken the time to see you, put some effort in. Even if you aren't expected in that for the job. 

Are you going back out or thought about inviting a couple back for a chat. Might be worth doing just to see if you can find out a bit more personally.

I've been off work for a year in the past due to medical reasons, and been judged on it. I think it can be tough to judge people on it. Fortunately 1 person gave me a shot and he promoted me twice within 13 months.

Edited November 18, 2023 by westlondonmist

[gmoney]

14 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I've never shown up to an interview with less than shirt and tie. Id honestly expect a shirt and trousers at minimum. It's generally seen as a respect thing. This company has taken the time to see you, put some effort in. Even if you aren't expected in that for the job. 

That's another thing I forgot to mention in my other post. I always wear a suit and tie if possible for any job interview, even for supermarket jobs and  warehouse jobs. Minimum is a smart shirt. It's extremely unlikely you'd be ruled out of a job for being overdressed (maybe if you wore a top hat) but people are ruled out for not being smart all the time. 

[Keith Houchen]

2 hours ago, gmoney said:

It's extremely unlikely you'd be ruled out of a job for being overdressed (maybe if you wore a top hat)

You say that, but when asked if I was enthusiastic about the job and company, I stood up to show a top hat balancing on my erection and exclaimed “Look ma, no hands” I wasn’t invited for a second interview. 

[Rossman]

8 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

Are you going back out or thought about inviting a couple back for a chat. Might be worth doing just to see if you can find out a bit more personally.

I think the job advert has been pulled, it's going to be tweaked and put back up.

Unfortunately not really up to me, I join in, in the interview as one of the heads of that department. Me and HR usually do a zoom chat to sniff out the weirdos. And the above were the ones who got through the interview stage. If the MD doesn't like them, I don't have much overrule 

One chap passed all the numeracy tests, so we wanted him to come for a paid week's trial. Then the finance manager said that was too complicated to process, so that got kiboshed.

We did have a guy who came for an interview a few years ago for the same job. He didn't say anything when being introduced to everyone. He sat down, pulled out an A4 pad and wrote down all of his answers on that. Turns out he was voluntary mute. Not much use on tech phone support.

 

[Fog Dude]

10 hours ago, Rossman said:

One guy had never had a job before, turned up 15 minutes late and was wearing over ear headphones around his neck throughout the interview.

I don't expect a candidate to wear a full 3 piece suit. But another guy turned up wearing a sweatshirt with ET on the front of it.

One guy came in and the first thing he said was, he was really nervous and had not had a job interview in 6 months. He had been unemployed for 8 months. His parting words were asking me what the time was, when I gave it to him, he responded, he was off to the dr's to get his medication.

Another interviewee went through his whole list of failed job interviews and feedback, when he was asked what he had been doing whilst unemployed for the past year.

How are the long-term unemployed ever meant to get back in the game – or into work for the first time later in life – if that very fact is a leading reason for the people doing the hiring to be utterly dismissive? 

You never know, those 'quirks' that supposedly made them unsuitable might have been them actually developing a personality while free from the rat race for a while. 

Unemployment shouldn't mean a complete loss of dignity and equally, having a job shouldn't mean you need to leave your humanity behind completely for 8 hours a day in the name of being 'professional'. 

Interviews are load of bollocks anyway. They cost companies time and money, clearly discriminate in favour of neurotypicals (as shown by your attitude towards a non-verbal candidate), are not fun for recruiters and even less so for interviewees. CVs ought to speak for themselves. If anyone lies on theirs they'll soon get found out, and it's technically illegal to do that so perhaps that law should actually be enforced more often.

[Keith Houchen]

6 minutes ago, Fog Dude said:

as shown by your attitude towards a non-verbal candidate

But he said he was mute by choice. If that’s the case, and it wasn’t selective / situational mutism, then he was right to reject him for a speaking role. 

[Fog Dude]

2 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

But he said he was mute by choice. If that’s the case, and it wasn’t selective / situational mutism, then he was right to reject him for a speaking role. 

Yeah, fair point if you could be sure it was voluntary, and maybe going for that particular role was taking the mick a bit, but the general perception of such people automatically being unsuitable for vacancies still reeks. 

[SuperBacon]

2 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

How are the long-term unemployed ever meant to get back in the game – or into work for the first time later in life – if that very fact is a leading reason for the people doing the hiring to be utterly dismissive? 

Having worked in employability for a long time, and currently working with apprentices, a lot of this is down to people not knowing how things "work"

One apprentice I'm working with got in trouble recently because he naively (but completely innocently) believed he had his birthday off without having to ask for leave. Perfectly reasonable to him. It's my birthday, why should I work he thought. Just small things we all take for granted, but how are people supposed to know if they're never told.

With young people especially we have to also take into account the nearly 3 years where their world (and everyone elses) was completely turned upside down, and the fact that we still don't know the consequences of all of this, and just how much it will effect people.

I'm dealing with countless young people who never got to take their GCSEs/A levels for a number of reasons. It's absolutely tragic.

Sorry went ranting there.

[Carbomb]

14 hours ago, Rossman said:

Another interviewee went through his whole list of failed job interviews and feedback, when he was asked what he had been doing whilst unemployed for the past year.

As regards this guy, maybe it's how my brain works, but I got the impression from this description that he was trying to make chicken soup out of chicken shit - he couldn't tell you he'd been working, so maybe he thought the next best thing he could do was show you how earnest he was in trying to get work, by describing how many interviews he'd had, and explaining how he'd learned from those failures to improve for next time.

[westlondonmist]

14 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

How are the long-term unemployed ever meant to get back in the game – or into work for the first time later in life – if that very fact is a leading reason for the people doing the hiring to be utterly dismissive? 

You never know, those 'quirks' that supposedly made them unsuitable might have been them actually developing a personality while free from the rat race for a while. 

Unemployment shouldn't mean a complete loss of dignity and equally, having a job shouldn't mean you need to leave your humanity behind completely for 8 hours a day in the name of being 'professional'. 

Interviews are load of bollocks anyway. They cost companies time and money, clearly discriminate in favour of neurotypicals (as shown by your attitude towards a non-verbal candidate), are not fun for recruiters and even less so for interviewees. CVs ought to speak for themselves. If anyone lies on theirs they'll soon get found out, and it's technically illegal to do that so perhaps that law should actually be enforced more often.

Disagree they are a load of bollocks. They often aren't done well but that's different. A CV is bullet points no longer than 2 sides of A4, how can a company confirm the right choice from that? There will always be things that people want to know that aren't on a CV. If people pulled in the best CV then chances are lots more people would fail their probation and it also gives a chance for the interviewee to help decide  whether they want to join that organisation.

edit

@SuperBacon why did they assume they would get their birthday off without saying out of curiosity? You didn't get a day off school for it. I've only ever had 1 job that does that but I still have to ask incase something big is happening that day, and so they know I won't be around. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by westlondonmist

[SuperBacon]

43 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

@SuperBacon why did they assume they would get their birthday off without saying out of curiosity? You didn't get a day off school for it. I've only ever had 1 job that does that but I still have to ask incase something big is happening that day, and so they know I won't be around. 

They're a 17 year old apprentice. He just assumed he would get his 18th off. 

[MungoChutney]

I once had an interview with a large local authority where the feedback in my rejection email was that I hadn't answered using their preferred interview technique, which was like STAR but with two extra steps.  Of course it would have been nice of them to let me know they used this technique in advance so I could have prepped accordingly. My current employer is public sector and uses a combination of STAR and an assessment centre when hiring. They tell everyone in advance what the competencies are too and it really helps get the best out of people. 

[westlondonmist]

45 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

They're a 17 year old apprentice. He just assumed he would get his 18th off. 

Well I suppose apprenticeships are to learn from, and here that is if your unsure about policy ask. 

I can't imagine management would hold that against someone in the long run, especially for a 17/18 year old. I wouldn't, I couldn't promise I wouldn't laugh at it though.

Edited November 19, 2023 by westlondonmist