I’ve got one tomorrow. It’s my second in 5 weeks and my third in the last year, all essentially for promotions. Do you love them? Hate them? Have a good trick or two to share? Any horror stories of interviews gone wrong?

I typically love a job interview it’s an excuse to brag about yourself for an hour, but I’m a little antsy about tomorrow’s. The interviewers have to write down everything you say so you don’t get any body language to respond to because they’re looking down and there’s a long pause between questions. Plus we’ve been asked to do a five minute presentation that I’m good but not great with yet.

I’ve gotten offered every job I’ve interviewed for so no big horror stories, but I got stumped on a question once and we had dead air for what felt like twenty minutes.

Jul 27, 2018 0:49:24 GMT mikec said:

The interviewers have to write down everything you say so you don’t get any body language to respond to because they’re looking down and there’s a long pause between questions.

This sounds bizarre and surely only creates a false atmosphere. If they really want to record everything (which seems unnecessary) surely videotaping would make things less awkward?

In general I have a low opinion of anyone connected with HR. External recruiters are completely useless in my experiences, and I've only ever had one interaction with an interviewer where they actually did something that made me think that they were taking steps to get the right person for the job. 

I interview people quite regularly, at this point, HR has screened the candidates over the phone and reviewed any credentials. Fortunately, by the time, they're speaking to me, I'm more up for a chat to get to know the individual. Especially in entry level roles, I'm looking for attitude and personality over skill set. You can teach skills, you can't always teach attitude.

As for the awkward pauses. A few years back, I sat in front of a panel of three interviews for a role I got. One would ask a question, I'd answer, then all three would take notes. It felt like this 30 minute interview went for 4 hours.

The trick is to try to control the conversation. Sure, they're asking the questions, but you're controlling the answers, the pace of the conversation.

I wish my field of work did more interviews for the job. They don’t. They ask for a certification and put you in training (which is a guaranteed pass because every company needs employees). However, for big promotions, you’re basically fucked unless you’re of the same religion as your boss. Fucking New York.

Jul 27, 2018 2:02:51 GMT KING KID said:

I wish my field of work did more interviews for the job. They don’t. They ask for a certification and put you in training (which is a guaranteed pass because every company needs employees). However, for big promotions, you’re basically fucked unless you’re of the same religion as your boss. Fucking New York.

What religion is your boss?

Also, I feel like there has never been a more appropriate thread than this for @admin and find it ironic that he hates HR.

To contribute a little something, I haven't interviewed for anything in quite a while, but something I learned was this: interview first at places you don't really care about working. Helps you work out the kinks BEFORE you go to interview at the places you do care about working. Learned this the hard way.

Jul 27, 2018 6:00:55 GMT 🤯 said:

Also, I feel like there has never been a more appropriate thread than this for @admin and find it ironic that he hates HR.

If I had been old enough to know the uselessness that awaited I would have never assumed this username! 

Interview went okay. Turns out the head down thing wasn’t as significant a problem for the people that are from another office doing the hiring. Every question had about five parts so that became frustrating but it went okay.

They're awful. I'm looking for programming work, so technical tests are mandatory, and I'm bad at them. For such challenges I work most effectively when I have time to process the information alone. When someone is watching me in a high pressure situation my brain switches off, and I can only do the most basic of tasks, usually a lot slower than I'd be able to do them in a more relaxed environment. I get it, that's the system, but I think technical tests in an interview setting are a poor test of coding ability for those reasons.

On the plus side, I consider myself to be pretty good at the softer side of interviews. I don't think it's particularly challenging. Show enthusiasm. Show you know the company and what they're looking for. The majority of the work can be done before you even enter the interview room. I think for entry-level jobs it's more important to be someone people like to work with than to be a highly-skilled wizard. Fortunately I happen to be a very agreeable and likeable and (moderately) confident person so that all comes naturally to me. Although it did take a small amount of practice for me to really find my stride in an interview setting.

Jul 27, 2018 0:49:24 GMT mikec said:

I got stumped on a question once and we had dead air for what felt like twenty minutes.

That happened in my last interview. It was painful. It was a coding interview. I got the first task correct but it took me longer than it should have. The second task was basically impossible to me, and my interviewer was implacable, wouldn't give me the slighest hint. Fortunately we were near the end of our hour session so I stared vacantly and mumbled some bullshit until the guy called it a day.

I have an interview next Tuesday which appears to be less intense than my average interview has been, and it's with a company whose values I really respect.

I assume I was horrible at interviews, I probably had at least 20+ before I found my first proper job. They just told me how breaks worked, and they hired me..so I can’t say anything to my interview ability there. They wrote me an amazing reference, for my current job, so I feel like I could have said anything and still got the job.
Been there over 6 years now, so still pretty inexperienced with successful interviews.

I’d say I’d probably do a lot better now I’ve been in so many different situations at work, that were way more awkward than an interview.

Should wages still be negotiable? If two people with the same qualifications apply for the same positions but one negotiates a higher wage should they be paid more?

Jul 31, 2018 18:36:22 GMT theend said:

Should wages still be negotiable? If two people with the same qualifications apply for the same positions but one negotiates a higher wage should they be paid more?

Doesn't it depend on supply and demand?

If there are fewer jobs than applicants, I would think that the ratio favors employers and thus they could set a take-it-or-leave-it pay range for an open role.

But if the market is flipped and an employer has to attract an applicant to fill a role with their company (vs. another) then doesn't the company have to pay whatever the employee will find enticing?

Companies are probably safer from patterns of systematic discrimination by giving a pay range and making a structure under which more can be negotiated. I know my previous employer had a point scale for resumes and the scale determined pay so I was brought in at same time as a woman who had similar experience but she got $1500 per year less. I didn’t negotiate, I was just given what I was given, and I’ve always a little bit wondered if I was the beneficiary of sexism because our work history is so similar. I think “negotiating” leaves too much room for sexism, racism, or nepotism to seep into the hiring practice. My current employer starts everyone at the minimum and then a separate group has to review any requests to hire above the minimum.

pi is also obviously correct about supply of workers though, but I think a company should be changing payment policy universally governed by scarcity of workforce.

Jul 27, 2018 1:00:35 GMT @admin said:

Jul 27, 2018 0:49:24 GMT mikec said:

The interviewers have to write down everything you say so you don’t get any body language to respond to because they’re looking down and there’s a long pause between questions.

This sounds bizarre and surely only creates a false atmosphere. If they really want to record everything (which seems unnecessary) surely videotaping would make things less awkward?

In general I have a low opinion of anyone connected with HR. External recruiters are completely useless in my experiences, and I've only ever had one interaction with an interviewer where they actually did something that made me think that they were taking steps to get the right person for the job. 

This is where hiring will be going in the future.  Interviewers will be transcriptionists and a computer will take the transcription and make decisions.  This is related to what I do (protocol analysis).  

I love technical interviews but hate general ones with people who are not familiar at all with what I do.  Generally I have a very strong ethical reservation to use what I learn from studying the psych of persuasion, but it goes out the window when I am being asked bullshit questions that basically just want corporate lingo thrown back.  I also hate that now you end up doing two to three interviews often with two hours of basic work thrown in to even apply for a job.  Outside of the technical interview, most of the stuff is utterly unrelated to the stuff I do, and even the technical interviews are getting more and more irrelevant.