What has been your experience interviewing job candidates?

i read it again and im smiling on my face as well.

you literally made my day.

Hello Dear,

Actually, I thought I did just fine on the 3-manager interview. I've had a lot of interviews in my long career (I'm 48 now), and can usually tell within the first 2 minutes whether I'm likely to get a job offer... or not. This interview indicated to me I would, in fact, receive an offer.

Here's where I think this bank really failed: I asked my interviewers specifically when I could expect to hear about the position... either way. They assured me that ALL applicants interviewed would be notified by that Friday. (Not.)

They also failed in a large way by NOT hiring ANY of the applicants they interviewed for this position. They re-posted the same job at the same branch (same hours and pay) a month later.

What, did they really think the applicant pool had changed so much in a month? I think that's really why they wasted their time and money: Not because they didn't hire ME, but because they didn't hire anyone they interviewed!

That simple fact would cause me to close my account, had I ever had an account at that bank.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my earlier post, I asked all 3 interviewers for their business cards at the end of the interview. Only one of them had a card, and gave it to me.

I sent a hand-written thank-you note (US mail) to all 3 of them, since I was able to find out on the internet who they were, with their respective bank-branch addresses.

One thing I did NOT mention: The manager of the bank where I would have actually worked was NOT present at the interview. She had some kind of, I dunno, snafu that day, and could not attend.

Another thing: I had declared bankruptcy 9.9 years before this interview. I had the interview in February of this year, and the bankruptcy was removed from my credit report in March of this year. Bankruptcy for tellers might be against bank policy, I don't know.

Whether the "missing manager" or my credit report had any bearing on my status, of course I don't know.

Anyhow, let me say again how much I appreciate your feedback here! If only others would act on your advice...

how sad, thats the first time ive ever felt appreciated and you meant the opposite. it matters not.

quick story.

i had to walk 10 miles to and from work in rain and heavy wind, sick as ****, (seriously sick, i was barely concious walking there) only to get sent home because my coworkers they said i was hungover behind my back.
(part of the drama and politics associated with being social i never really cared about, but now wish i did)

i thought it odd they would send the only ******* dishwasher home even though i kept reassuring them i was fine. then i thought she was cutting me a break because i worked so hard. so i was like huh! aint that some ****? they got my back for sure! how awesome of her! (my supervisor) i even thanked her when i got to work the next day. when they called me into the office i suddenly felt an odd vibe...

signing that write up was one of the worst moments in my life, i tried explaining and they kept telling me we dont care what your excuse is.. and i explained anyway. i almost broke down in tears.

then they asked me why i didnt have a doctors note if i was sick?, i asked why i needed a doctors note if i wanted to keep working..

my hands still tremble remembering the incident.

bygones be bygones i suppose.

the worst part is gonna be having shoulder surgery and trying to keep my rent paid while i recover, and trying to keep my job at that as well.

aint.life.a.bitch?

for some reason though, im so happy lately. haha!

carry on good fellows.

They enjoy interviewing people BK. It's a power kick. It causes some of them to drool. And it avoids the work they should be doing. They love it.

well said

makes me wanna go out and employ someone

It's not unrelated to you being hired by anyone. I am a potential employer to you. I've thought about trying to find a way to teach you some of the work I do online and/or hire you dozens of times but the work generally tends to have adult writing as a requirement and I can't entice you to care.

I'm dead serious about this, if you'd like to learn marketing or web development I would be happy to teach you (and if you get good enough at it you can just work for yourself, not depending on the hiring whims of anyone else). And I am hiring an online marketer right now. It will likely be someone in Costa Rica who can write better than you (in English as their second language) and who is willing to work for less and you do yourself a disservice by making yourself so unmarketable. Others aren't so lazy and will get the jobs first.

You should dress for the job you want, write for the job you want, and act like the job you want. Don't act like a 'tard all day long and expect a job to land in your lap when you get around to looking for one.

You once said you can't handle retail jobs, can't do the military, and wanted an office-job. Well in an office you must present yourself on paper better than you do here, and if you want that kind of job you should act like it all the time.



Because a big source of jobs is networking, this is networking (there are potential employers, or people who could recommend you for jobs reading you) and you are putting nonsense forward instead of your best foot. I have thought long and hard about how to help you find a job/career but can't get you to even be bothered trying, that means I can't hire you myself (not a big deal, just one opportunity lost) but also that I can't recommend you for any job I hear about with good conscience (more opportunities lost). Multiply this by how many people may have been interested/able to help you and you are closing a lot of doors, and for what? Writing like a 'tard isn't worth all that.

Put your best foot forward all the time, and you'll find more doors open for you. Being coherent isn't something you are supposed to turn on and off and it has many benefits other than job hunting.

People I have been involved in interviewing have been pretty well prepared because we screened out those who did not meet criteria on written application.

I don't know how much knowledge of your company you think they ought to have and what is available on your website but I find, here, that someone who is already working in a place can beat a much better candidate because of the knowledge they have of the minutiae of the job.

This is often so even when the out of agency candidate has done the best they can to find out about the place they are applying for. I once got gazumped because the person I was directed to discuss the job with didn't know anything about it, and told me me completely wrong things about the job's focus...you couldn't tell this from the very general job and person specification.)

I find this very frustrating, both as interviewer and interviewee.

I guess I am saying that a knowledge of the stuff you have to do in a job can trump how much someone knows about the minutiae of your company...but I don't work in your sort of area, so I may be up the gazoo on this.

I remember from when I first graduated in my profession that jobs were way hard to find.

The agency that mostly hired new grads at that time used to have about fifteen people on their panels!! I have no idea why on earth.

2 hour interviews with fifteen people. For a bunch of new grads who didn't really know their arse from a hole in the ground, unless they'd been canny enough to do their second practicum in this agency!

when I was first interviewed in child-welfare, the panel that interviewed me were that 3 top administrators of the agency. Later I became a close personal friend of one of the administrators. He told me privately that I had over-answered every question essentially frightening and panel. I ended up being hired for a position that I was not qualified for.

Interesting tale. When I graduated from college in 1969, I looked for work to tie me over while I looked for work. In the process, I applied for a position as a bank teller.

I should open this by saying that I have a rather formal habit of dress now (more often a skirt than trousers; blazer or a sweater/twin set, unless the temp is very warm) and I did then.

In those days, there were almost no HR departments. Bank managers interviewed tellers. I went into a branch office of a local bank and asked whether the bank was hiring. I was immediately ushered into the manager's office. He told me that the bank would never hire a college graduate as a teller because the work was boring and college grads seldom lasted a year. I, of course, just wanted a temporary post. I thanked him and went on my way.

A decade later, I had become friendly with a teller at my local bank who quit because banking was changing. I ran into her at the supermarket and she told me how "kids" with barely any work experience were being asked to make instantaneous decisions about checks and documents.

When my high school teaching job ended . . . two teachers from each dept were laid off . . . I applied for two bank openings. Each at a small independent bank. I was given a math test and, as I had been teaching SPED math to 9th graders, I scored 100%. I did not get hired because my availability and the beginning of the job did not match.

I never heard from the other bank although I have an account there despite having applied for three different positions, all part time.

I have to say that there are things that do not need to be taught. THere are different learning styles and some people learn better if they research and teach themselves.

I worked for welfare . . . more properly Aid to Families with Dependent CHildren . . . and some of my mothers bitterly complained about being funneled into training program after training program, sometimes for jobs that do not exist.

You should "waste time checking gramamr (sic)" to, as others have told you, practice and to make yourself credible. On the basis of your posts here, your statements about being educated and intelligent are not credible. YEs, we all make mistakes. I have looked back at posts with embarrassment but your posts are far too casual.

Your story about the bank reminds me of an experience with a low level administrative position at a local college. The work order was for someone with an associate's degree or more who was skilled at writing. I should say that this is in the "five college" area of Massachusetts where many professional writers live. After the search, all of the applicants were notified . . . I knew two other people who applied . . . that the search was to be re-instituted and that no one who applied should re-apply.

Now, I was told by a higher official at a different college that:

1.) There probably was no job. That a position had been vacated and that there was a legal need to advertise said post but that there was no money to fill it. I should add that this was in early 2008.

2.) That people with real communication's experience and with higher degrees than associate's degrees are always thought to want more money. (The truth is the opposite: that many of these people are willing to accept a $20K/annum job that they can add a little retail work to in order to support themselves.)

I felt that the college should have stated that it will not accept a candidate with more than an associate's degree.

That's interesting, "There was no job..."

It's exactly what my husband told me about this (bank teller) job. Quite possibly true. I suppose I'll never know.

The troubling thing is these people meet the criteria. The level of education/experience, etc. This is not an entry level job - it is for some one with a 4 year college degree with a couple of years related job experience. The related experience is somewhat vague - but it does require some knowledge of accounting and preferred mutual fund experience.

If some one already is working in mutual funds, it would be scary that the did not understand the basics of the job. We have a full job description where the applicant must post his/her resume as well as answer several questions within the application itself. There is information about the company of course right where you must apply on-line. All of these individuals applied on-line.

I would expect they have read the job description so when I ask some one what interests them about the position and they say it involves lots of writing and graphs and yet there is very little if any of that, I would say they are unprepared. And this was an internal candidate!

If they call the company a bank and no where in the company's website or any where in the world there is an indication that we are a bank, I'd say they were unprepared.

I am not asking minutiae aspects at all - for instance, I ask if they have ever looked at one of our financial statements. These are available to anyone on line and if you worked in a mutual fund company prior (one of our preferred requirements) they should know this.

For the interviewer side of things - if I am unfamilar with their company they presently work for, I look them up and see what sort of financials they have. It takes all of 15 minutes to look through a few and to read about their company.

I have been observing that most of the fresher candidates are not well prepared for tricky interview questions .

But the people who have given couple of interviews and those who have job experience know the basic questions which are mostly asked by recruiters. I wonder then why don't they prepare for answers. That is a sign of sheer negligence.

If you want to get yourself hired, you should atleast prepare for questions related to company, job profile and common interview questions.