Interview nervousness

[ajdown]

We'll see, obviously I don't want to give away too much personal information for reasons I'm sure you can understand. But I'll try and paraphrase what I can.

 

[marty21]

Apparently there are 8 positions, and 50 people interviewed. But they haven't all been interviewed yet, only 5 (including me).

Somehow I didn't meet their 'criteria' which seems rather odd because they had my form/cv beforehand to know that I would have met the criteria, otherwise they wouldn't have called me for interview.

Be very interesting to see what 'feedback' I get as justification for not meeting whatever criteria they had.

you can meet the criteria on paper, but fail at the interview stage by not demonstrating that you do meet the criteria, I've interviewed dozens of Housing Officers who on their CVs and application forms, say they have done various things which are what we were looking for, but when we asked fairly standard questions about housing management, they didn't have a clue

 

[ajdown]

There wasn't anything like that, just two hypothetical "what would you do in those situations" questions which frankly I thought were silly, because presumably you'd be following company policy regardless of your own thoughts, and you couldn't possibly know what company policy was before you started working for them.

If they didn't get the answers they wanted, then perhaps it's their fault for not asking the right questions? Clearly if they aren't telling you what they want to hear to fill their tickboxes, it's a complete gamble as to whether you say the right things by chance.

 

[marty21]

There wasn't anything like that, just two hypothetical "what would you do in those situations" questions which frankly I thought were silly, because presumably you'd be following company policy regardless of your own thoughts, and you couldn't possibly know what company policy was before you started working for them.

If they didn't get the answers they wanted, then perhaps it's their fault for not asking the right questions? Clearly if they aren't telling you what they want to hear to fill their tickboxes, it's a complete gamble as to whether you say the right things by chance.

if you came across as thinking their questions were silly (even if they were) that might have been one of the reasons they didn't appoint you, they are the one's appointing, so they ask the questions they want to ask, it's not got you to reason as to why they have asked a particular question, you just need to answer it in a way that meets their criteria

 

[futha]

Well, they're not all exactly the same - there are different exercises depending on the type of position and skills/competences required.

The invitation to the assessment centre usually sets out what the format will be, and whether or not there will be psychometric tests and/or personality questionnaires. Plus whether or not there will also be a one to one interview (although sometimes those are done on different dates).

Usually all the candidates are in one room with a number of observers around the edge. The number of observers will depend on the number of candidates and the complexity of the exercises. To start with, there's usually a short briefing, introducing everyone and a quick run through of what to expect.

Then there's a number of exercises during which the observers score the candidates according to the criteria that they have. The exercises are timed.

There's often an in-tray exercise which is designed to test a candidate's ability to take in information under time pressure, then prioritise and delegate where appropriate. The in-tray itself might consist of a wadge of letters/papers/memos and emails to sort through ... often with an urgent one 2/3 of the way down the pile. So the trick is to quickly scan each document sorting them into piles as you go 'urgent' important' 'not important' sort of thing. Then deciding on what takes priority and who is going to do it. You get the idea.

So ... a variety of exercises like that. Some are designed to test problem analysis and solving, some to test team work etc etc.

Thanks cesare, useful stuff

 

[cesare]

Thanks cesare, useful stuff

NP

 

[Dillinger4]

I have an interview tomorrow. I am a bit nervous as it gets closer.

 

[cesare]

Good luck Dilli. Make sure you have breakfast.

 

[ajdown]

Ok I finally got the feedback from the guy that interviewed me.

As expected, there were three 'weak areas' that they identified through the questions they asked, but if they'd actually worded the questions better they would have discovered that I had plenty of relevant experience that would have been sufficient to have scored enough 'points' to have gone through to the next stage.

I dunno, maybe it's just me, maybe it's just that with so many people chasing so few jobs they can afford to be less bothered about it, but if it was me on the panel and the person in front of me clearly had the potential (as he said I did, as well as being knowledgeable, professional, well presented etc) then I'd try asking an extra question or two to see if I could get the person to tell me what I needed to know to tick the box.

Unfortunately, as I'm sure many of you know, that it's not always the best candidates for the job that come out of how you perform during a short, rigid, interview that doesn't actually allow you to demonstrate what you want them to know, instead of what they think they want to hear.

He encouraged me to 'try again' and said that if I 'expanded on' those three areas during another interview, things should work out for me.

 

[quimcunx]

Well then, there you go. It was worth calling and finding out, and trying again if you wish.

 

[ajdown]

Oh I do wish, it's something I've wanted to do for many years, but opportunities are few and far between. Hopefully they'll be advertising again in the next few months, especially if some of the other candidates I saw at the open day perform as well in the aptitude tests as they looked like they would - but simply through 'knowing the right people in the first place' knew the right things to say before the interview.

I overheard one guy at the open day desperately namedropping all these people he knew, in the hope that it would speed up the application process. Mind you, this is the same guy that also went visibly pale when they mentioned the 'zero tolerance drugs policy' and random testing, so I don't expect he got far.

 

[Eva Luna]

I would send them the scrapings from the bottom of your shoe and get a different job with their competitor.