Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The Desk..

[Omnius]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

My experience (and I work in IT, but I presume its no different in other areas of expertise) is that most companies use intermediate agencies that filter out the good from the bad candidates. They make sure that any candidates that are sent to a company for a job interview are not only technically qualified for the job, but also assess if a candidate fits in the company's working environment personality wise.
Of course a candidate can lie, but a good recruiter can pinch through those lies. While an intermediating recruitment agency might cost money, these job interviews the OP mentions cost money too.

 

[Plecostomus]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

We had an incident with an agency so our policy is to never use them again.


Company was set up to hire operators as needed for surges in demand. We were also set up to hire perm-workers through this same agency.

Agency gets paid per placement, meaning I need two workers I pay up front and the agency places two people here for a specified amount of time.

What happened is the agency paid someone to sit here at this company and rotate people in and out of here as rapidly as possible.... The "mole" here was getting a substantial kickback to provide this "service." The mole would bypass the normal "owner signs off all personnel decisions" routine and use his "authority" to dismiss temps in the name of the owner. Often times after only two-three days of work.

I was hired through the agency as a temp-to-perm-after-90-days. I ran afoul of the mole after solving an epic production snarl, and when the agency called me up and told me I was fired from my assignment, I took it up directly with the owner.

Things fell apart quickly, the long-time shop foreman was fired, the National Leading Temp Service got some unwanted attention and I got hired on directly.

Managed to solve a huge staffing nightmare, the owner couldn't figure out why he couldn't retain anyone at all.

So yeah. Services, agents, staffers.... not going to happen here. And as things move forward here I'm going to make DAMN sure nothing like that happens again.

 

[Sephiroth]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

yeah, I can do your work, hell, I can fix the machine if it breaks down, but you can't afford me, and I HATE New York in the winter

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Some people just need to be shot. I have been looking for work for seven months. I finally was lucky enough to get a job with the Census. $17 an hour but its temp and part-time. Our trainer told us six people didn't even bother showing up for the training. One guy called and asked if they were going to give him a ride to the class.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

We had an incident with an agency so our policy is to never use them again.

I was hired through the agency

Ohhhhh. I see.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Our trainer told us six people didn't even bother showing up for the training. One guy called and asked if they were going to give him a ride to the class.

In this economy?!!!????

 

[SeerSGB]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Let's see:

-- There was the boy, at the theater, who was forced (yes forced) to the apply and attend the interview by his girlfriend. Who also came to the interview and did all the talking during the interview.

-- At the bookstore there was the guy who broke into the employee cars before his interview then after the interview snatched the manager's purse off her desk.

 

[Colonel Green]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

^^ Keep tabs of that, and someday, when some news periodical is looking for interviewer stories you can send them a load of terrific fodder. I *love it* when job applicants issue demands in an interview.

Seems to me that if these people hadn't been older you'd be attributing their bad attitudes to "young people's sense of entitlement"

Ahh baby boomers, they wrote the book on entitlement.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

I had to go through quite a few interviews to get the job I have now, most of them involving technical recruiting agencies.

On the other side of the coin, I had people calling me who evidently had no idea what my skills were. Mind you, these people saw my resume, and I did put "VMS" in my Buzzword Compliance Table (TM), but that doesn't mean "10 years of experience administering VMS systems." Good lord. Yeah, I'm sure somebody could throw the manuals at me and I could learn it, but my God...

With one company, I went through four phone interviews with different people. One of them was a nice guy but he was supposed to test my technical competence and I'm not sure he exactly knew what he was trying to test me for. I didn't get that job.

Another one had me on a phone panel interview with three other people. I breezed all their questions and thought I made a great impression. I also dug into some of their problems and gave them a rundown of how my experience could fix their broken development department. Didn't get that one, either.

For the job I actually got, I had to fly out to New Jersey and meet them. Things went really well. I don't understand making demands at interview time--that's stuff you save for when you have a job offer. I asked for relocation and some special medical arrangements for my family, and took the offered salary since it was well within my target range.

It sounds like a lot of people go interviews thinking, "What can this company do for me?" Talk about a bad attitude. That's no way to get anywhere in life. Everybody likes to use jobs as stepping stones to better jobs, but you don't go into the interview acting like it.

 

[Shatmandu]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

I interviewed many people when I ran restaurants. Most people here in Indiana were very nice, but there were a few doozys.

The lowlights:

-- One well-qualified young man took a cell phone call in the middle of the interview. I sat calmly for a minute as he made his drinking plans for the night, but eventually I got up and did other things.

Once he hung up, he tracked me down and said we could continue the interview.

I said flatly, "We obviously won't be hiring you because of what you just did. Think about that at your next interview."

He tried to tell me that it was his mother, sick at the hospital, when I clearly heard him talking about which bars he wanted to hit that night. He was absolutely astonished and offended when I showed him the door. Said I was "being unprofessional."

-- One guy, three minutes into the interview, interrupted me, stood up, and said, "You gunna hire me or not, dude?"

-- Another guy didn't have the availability we needed. We had a nice talk, but after he left, his horrific wife came in and tried to scream at me because we wouldn't accomodate him needing weekends off due to their "religion." She got mouthy, so I had the scary Mexican cooks throw her cracker ass out.

-- One guy took a look around and said, "Nice place you got here. Not too many colored folks."

-- A pretty young woman wanted to be a bartender, but she didn't want to be held to a schedule "because my friends might call and stuff and want to go out." Again, astonished when I didn't hire her.

-- Another pretty young woman kept saying I looked like someone she used to date. Telling me that once would be creepy enough, but she kept going back to it over and over, twirling her hair.

-- The best was a guy who had a multi-year gap in his employment history. Turns out he had been in prison, which wouldn't necessarily have been a deal breaker. But then he said:

"They said I stabbed a guy sixteen times, but that was bullshit: I stabbed him eight times, I just had two knives in my hand. It was bullshit."

Joe, doubled up

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Oh my God, Shat. I can so believe those are the kinds of people you interviewed. God bless Indiana.

 

[FrontLine]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

To Plec and anyone else who hires: If you have a secretary / administrative assistant (and you trust him or her in that position and their judgment), have that individual do a preliminary vetting of the prospective candidates. They can do a great job of keeping the drecks from making it to your desk.

 

[Leroy]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Wow after reading some of those stories I suddenly don't feel so hopeless knowing I might have to compete against people like that. I've always had this erroneous belief that everyone else is superior in every aspect but this is clearly not the case. Here I thought I was bad with just being really nervous and everyone smelling my fear.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

It also depends on the job. Tech jobs are very competitive right now. Hundreds of applicants per position. Unless you have a niche skill, it's hard to get your foot in the door.

My knowledge of obscure databases languages and version control is what saved my bacon.

 

[Shatmandu]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

This thread reminded me of a few others:

-- One guy asked if he could have a Corona to calm his nerves.

-- One woman claimed to have decades of fine dining service experience but then didn't know red wine is served at room temperature. She thought it was served over ice, like a Sprite.

-- I was interviewing a general manager candidate (80-100k a year), and the poor bastard cut a fart. He would not stop apologizing, and more than once he explained how cabbage and milk causes his gassiness.

-- A woman kept using the wrong name when referring to our restaurant, even while gesturing to our menu.

-- One man referred to himself in the third person the entire interview. "John Baker does things right the first time and every time. John Baker knows who's in charge. John Baker looks for solutions rather than letting things slide."

John Baker can go fuck himself.

-- Another guy kept doing air quotes, or "sending up douchebag flares" as I call it, in every-other sentence.

Joe, memory-laned

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

This thread reminded me of a few others:

-- One guy asked if he could have a Corona to calm his nerves.

-- One woman claimed to have decades of fine dining service experience but then didn't know red wine is served at room temperature. She thought it was served over ice, like a Sprite.

-- I was interviewing a general manager candidate (80-100k a year), and the poor bastard cut a fart. He would not stop apologizing, and more than once he explained how cabbage and milk causes his gassiness.

-- A woman kept using the wrong name when referring to our restaurant, even while gesturing to our menu.

-- One man referred to himself in the third person the entire interview. "John Baker does things right the first time and every time. John Baker knows who's in charge. John Baker looks for solutions rather than letting things slide."

John Baker can go fuck himself.

-- Another guy kept doing air quotes, or "sending up douchebag flares" as I call it, in every-other sentence.

Joe, memory-laned

Why aren't you writing books of humorous anecdotes for a living? I'd pay $10 for 250 pages of this shit. Laughing my ass off...

 

[Shatmandu]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Wow after reading some of those stories I suddenly don't feel so hopeless knowing I might have to compete against people like that. I've always had this erroneous belief that everyone else is superior in every aspect but this is clearly not the case. Here I thought I was bad with just being really nervous and everyone smelling my fear.

Best advice is to listen and answer the questions that are asked.

I don't know how many times I've asked something and had the person give me a canned answer having no bearing on my question.

Joe, glad to have a job

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

And have questions prepared to ask the interviewer, or come up with some based on what you hear during the interview. Try not to ask a dumb, canned question, but something specific to the job that demonstrates your interest.

But don't say, "Nah, I think you covered everything." Doesn't display much interest in the job.

 

[JuanBolio]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

Wow - if this is my competition its no wonder I rock every job interview I get.

 

[sidious618]

Re: Job Interviews Of Fail: This Time I'm On The Other Side Of The De

To Plec and anyone else who hires: If you have a secretary / administrative assistant (and you trust him or her in that position and their judgment), have that individual do a preliminary vetting of the prospective candidates. They can do a great job of keeping the drecks from making it to your desk.

Why on God's Earth would you want to do that? If I was interviewing people I would only want to see idiots like these. I'd stay extra hours!