Reply to: Waste of time interview

[BolshieBastard]

I just remembered one of my recent interview experiences..Started interview well..since I worked with most of companies my domain was n't surprised when they asked abt my experience with company X which I worked 5 years back...But when they started talking abt my PHD, I was sure something is wrong...I was forced to ask my interviewer to show the CV in his hand....As feared it wasn't mine..Schedule mix-up..That company asked my agency to arrange interview with Mr. PHD first then me but agency done the reverse...To be fair I got till last 2 after II level interview..

Jesus Christ! I hope you arent in testing with documentary skills as shown above!

[Lewis]

A guy I know interviewed this girl for 30 minutes before realising he'd picked up the wrong person from reception, he was interviewing for a developer role but she'd come for an interview in marketing. We laughed so loud - how did it last 30 minutes? The other girl was found still sitting nervously in reception.

[Mozart]

Dont know if anyone has had this blimmin experience. Agent sends me along for an interview knowing full well Im only interested in contracting and Im sitting in this interview for a big bank and Im thinking "damn, this sounds a lot like a permanent role". A couple of hours later the agent calls me up saying they want to offer me the job and finally comes clean that its permanent and begs me to take it. Sure Sunshine, Ill take a 40K paycut to cover your incompetence!

[Darren_Test]

I just remembered one of my recent interview experiences..Started interview well..since I worked with most of companies my domain was n't surprised when they asked abt my experience with company X which I worked 5 years back...But when they started talking abt my PHD, I was sure something is wrong...I was forced to ask my interviewer to show the CV in his hand....As feared it wasn't mine..Schedule mix-up..That company asked my agency to arrange interview with Mr. PHD first then me but agency done the reverse...To be fair I got till last 2 after II level interview..

[stingman123]

Just gone through the same experience from the other side, my role was being advertised after my intial 3 monther was up and my clientco insisted on interviewing again. i was assured however that the role was already mine.

Still felt a bit odd seeing the other contractors in the building and having my interview last. We still had an official Q&A session and was offered the role straight away.

It was weired experience and a real eye opener

[dang65]

Don't burn any bridges, there is always a chance that Mr Outstanding will take something else, not agree terms etc. and you need to be in pole position should he fall at the last hurdle.

Oh yeah, I did think that - if this guy's so outstanding then there's a reasonable chance he's going to jump the moment something more suited to his genius crops up. I always try and keep it good natured with clients and pimps in these sort of cases anyway. I can always come here to CUK to whine and make a fuss.

I've got a couple of possibilities coming up after Xmas anyway, with better rates - though that one was kind of convenient for home, it must be said.

[mobi]

What is the point of us going through the process, if they have other people in mind or internal candidates.

Often they pre-select (eg internal) a candidate already. However, to play by rules, they must establish they interviewed few other candidates but the internal one turned out to be best.

Unforutnately I don't know if there is any way to prevent this from happening over & over again.

[singhr]

Had an interview today. I matched the job description/requirements pretty much perfectly. Went along for a face-to-face, got on well with the people, didn't get stuck on any questions, was comfortable that I knew what I was talking about... but the whole way through I had this constant feeling that something was wrong. It just went way too smoothly. There was a technical guy in on the interview but he only asked one question and just nodded meekly at my answer. It soon became obvious that they were just going through the motions, but I had to keep up the concentration to the end, of course.

Final stupidity was that they gave me a written technical test (multiple choice) right at the end of the interview and told me to leave it with the HR lady when I'd finished and she would show me out! FFS.

I told the agent on the phone as soon as I came out that it was obvious they had someone else in mind already. But what a waste of four people's time - project manager, lead designer, lead developer and candidate, plus candidate's travel time etc.

Sure enough, couple of hours later the agent calls and says they had interviewed an "outstanding candidate" yesterday. Said I did well and came across strongly, but they had already decided on this other guy.

Well, it's all par for the course, I know, but I thought I'd have a moan on here anyway. I suppose I might have been an even more outstanding candidate and maybe they just wanted to be sure, but they were all rubbish actors, I can tell you that.

Don't burn any bridges, there is always a chance that Mr Outstanding will take something else, not agree terms etc. and you need to be in pole position should he fall at the last hurdle. I had the same situ two contracts ago where 'the client can't decide between the two of you'. I thought I was being softened up for a rate reduction but in the end it all came together as the other Mr Wonderful was just fishing himself. Good luck.

[icanbelieveitsnotbutter]

Went for an interview a couple of weeks ago and it went like this.

11am introduced to the IT Manager who offered me a coffee.
11:05 he arrived with the coffee, and said he was going to find the AS400 specialist.
11:10 could not find the specialist, asked me what I had done in my working career.
11:20 went to find the AS400 specialist.
11:30 could not find her, said he would ring me in the afternoon.

I travelled 3 hours for a 10 minute interview...

[wurzel]

Most demoralizing of all is going for a public sector inteview when you know that the vacancy has been filled internally. I had a lot of experience of this before I got into IT and I really do not see to whose advantage it is making it a legal obligation for all such jobs having to be advertised externally when they already have someone lined up.

[northernrampage]

It was complete waste of time, I've never met any of the pimps who have been getting me roles for years and never been asked for ID.

The 2 references are fishing, the passport is nonsense, if you are an employee of a limited then it would fall on your company responsibility to check that you as an employee are viable to work in the EU.

I will not give references to a pimp, if I do give references then it will be to the clientco who have given me a gig.
I work in a very small market, whereby if I have noddyed up one gig then word will get around.

Okay thanks. I kept thinking "surely they wouldn't go to all the trouble of meeting me just to fish". But the one who wants to meet me this week I didn't get a good feeling about, especially as her colleague up north then rung me to try and work out who I'd been interviewed by. I have met others before, two who sent me for jobs, but they never mentioned references.

I have to wise-up

[norrahe]

why don't you like that? Do you think it's a waste of time? Am just being curious, I had it happen before, got sent for one job, but in the last 3 weeks have had 2 agents ask me to meet. One wanted 2 references, and another person to vouch for me.

Both wanted me to bring my passport (guess that's just for immigration purposes?), along with references. Are they just fishing for references? I don't mind them fishing face to face if they are genuinely sending you for roles but not if it's a wasted journey.

It was complete waste of time, I've never met any of the pimps who have been getting me roles for years and never been asked for ID.

The 2 references are fishing, the passport is nonsense, if you are an employee of a limited then it would fall on your company responsibility to check that you as an employee are viable to work in the EU.

I will not give references to a pimp, if I do give references then it will be to the clientco who have given me a gig.
I work in a very small market, whereby if I have c*cked up one gig then word will get around.

[northernrampage]

or the other one is where the pimp insists on meeting you for a face to face , I fell for that once and never again.
.

why don't you like that? Do you think it's a waste of time? Am just being curious, I had it happen before, got sent for one job, but in the last 3 weeks have had 2 agents ask me to meet. One wanted 2 references, and another person to vouch for me.

Both wanted me to bring my passport (guess that's just for immigration purposes?), along with references. Are they just fishing for references? I don't mind them fishing face to face if they are genuinely sending you for roles but not if it's a wasted journey.

[norrahe]

I think we've all had instances whereby you sit in an interview and realise what a waste of time it is.

I think the worst is where they clearly haven't read your CV and then the feddback from the pimp is they were looking for someone with "insert skill here" which if they had read your CV they would have noticed that you didn't have said skillset required for the gig

or the other one is where the pimp insists on meeting you for a face to face , I fell for that once and never again.
i do get a lot in my market of going through the interview motions and finding out afterwards they've given the job directly or internally.

[NickFitz]

Biggest waste of time I had was back in 1999 when I turned up and they started asking me in-depth questions about stuff that I'd never claimed to have anything more than a passing acquaintance with. Turned out the agent had rewritten my CV to suit the role without telling me; because I'd admitted to said passing acquaintance with these technologies, he'd somehow assumed that I would just play his game and bulltulip my way in

The worthless **** then had the unmitigated cheek to start slagging me off for failing the interview, saying that the client had complained that I was a "very weak candidate" - hardly surprising given that he'd sold them a pack of lies, but in his warped little Weltschmerz it was all my fault

Ah well, I was just getting into contracting then; to quote Jerome K Jerome (see the final sentence of the chapter above the chapter that link leads to), I "learned experience, and they say that is always cheap at any price"