POOP...

[radfringe]

First thanks to all who gave good wishes/thoughts for my partner's interview yesterday

she came home thinking she did well in the interview. this morning she calls the employment agent to find out what's up with the job - he tells her the interview DIDN'T go well...

Huh?

apparantly during the interview when they asked about how her skills/abilites applied to certain job duties - int he course of answering the question she gave EXAMPLES of how she did the same/similar at other jobs

someone at the interview interpreted it as "we asked about her qualifications and she told stories..."

idiots...

so now she's convinced she's unable to do well in an interview... poop

[Tyler Durden]

1. I can't tell you the number of assholes that have interviewed me in the past.

Although you should tell her that most interviewers HATE what they are doing, and if you act like a human sized and shaped Myna Bird, parroting all the correct answers, that's what they consider a "good" interview.

Interviews are like school. What happens in them seldom has anything to do with real life.

[Deep13]

2. idiots indeed

Anyone can make shit up. Past success proves it.

[MANative]

3. Her interviewers were utterly incompetent...

About half of my business is training people how to conduct interviews, and I've done more than 20 years of research and validation in this topic. What she did was EXACTLY the right thing, if she were dealing with an interviewer who had a quarter of a clue. It's called "Behavioralism" - the theory that what people do in the past is what they are likely to do again in the future. I train interviewers to ask questions that get people to "tell stories" about what they've done in the past, because it gives them solid, useful information about what they will do the next time. It is, without question, the MOST accurate way of determining whether a person is qualified to do the job.

Sadly, there are tens of thousands of interviewers who have never been trained in how to properly evaluate candidates, and go with "gut feelings" to determine whether they think someone can do the job - evidence be damned. Or worse, they ask the "What would you do...?" question, which is utterly and completely worthless.

Your partner is WAY ahead of the curve by going with that instinct to give examples. She will link up with an enlightened and educated interviewer who will recognize and appreciate her skills - and be much better off for not taking a job with a company that clearly doesn't believe in training and developing its people.

I wish her great success - and have her PM me if she wants some encouragement :)

[radfringe]

8. check your PM

[formerrepuke]

4. Getting through the labyrinth of asshole-interviewers is the most difficult part...

[radfringe]

5. that's basically what I told her

nothing wrong with her interview skills - it's the interviewER that needs better skills...

although I can tell you I've been on several interviews this past year - and several began with meeting the HR person... there must have been some kind of mass training session for HR interviewing because they all asked the same questions in the same manner and just about the same order.. by the 3rd interview I had my banter down pat... lol

[MANative]

7. Sadly, some of the stuff that passes for

interviewer training out there is worse than no training at all. Makes me shudder. Oh, and whenever possible, don't interview with the HR people. Their only purpose is to weed people out, and the "criteria" they use is suspect at best, because unless it's a job in HR, they don't really know all that much about what's truly required to do the job. Find out who the "hiring manager" is - the person to whom the job actually reports - and make direct contact, best case scenario is through a mutual acquaintance or other connection. Bureaucratic companies will make that more difficult, but they also tend to be crappy to work for, too.

BTW, it's a good thing to have a consistent banter ready - as long as it's really responsive to what they want to know. Gives you a solid base on which to build and expand when they're rightly impressed by your accomplishments!

[radfringe]

6. I sent her a link to read this thread -- be nice

[Callalily]

9. How disheartening for your

partner. Please remind her (as stated above) that she did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, there are far too many people out there who do not know how to interview, and sadly, it affects talented people like your partner.

I'm confident something will come up that suits her needs and skills.

:hug: