Are Job Interviews Becoming a Circus Event.

[rsmith6621]

Went to an interview this morning with a hometown business. So I walk in and sign the guest log,get a badge,fill out a questionnaire,have a seat with 12 other candidates there for the same position and wait as a group to be escorted to a meeting room. I sit there for 10 minutes and the recruiter comes in the room with the last 7 candidates.

Minutes later we are welcomed and entertained for the next 90 minutes with an overview of the company's history,the company's benefit package, and an overview of the job expectation and training agenda if hired.

That was completed and they divided us up into 2 groups and take 1 group to to another room. In both rooms the hiring manager lays out a deck of cards on the table. We sat in a semi circle and where instructed one by one when called to come forward take a card introduce ourselves and answer the situation question on the card in front of every one....this was repeated 2 more times and then the recruiter and hiring manager left the room with these score sheets they kept to have their American Idol moment to see who would move on to a 1 on 1 interview. 20 minutes later an HR manager came into the room and called 2 people and told the rest to leave and thank them for their interest.

What was interesting about this whole experience was they said that this was the smallest amount of applications received ever for this classification all 19 of us there were the only ones who applied and out of that they only picked two to move to the general interview..one of the recruiters said they planned on hiring 10 today and we were the only session today.

5 Years ago they would have screened your APP did a HR/Duty manager interview and if they liked you they would have offered you a job. To me today's process was nothing more than an execution style circus of humiliation in front of your peers.


If this a new hiring game that corporations are going to play when hiring then my fellow DUers,we will be not much further ahead in 10 years with regards to getting people back to work.

[Systematic Chaos]

1. I feel you.

My wife is looking for work, but her skill set doesn't go much beyond simple retail, fast food or call center.

It turns out now that a good number of companies in those fields won't even handle paper applications anymore. They want you to go onto their website and answer probably twice the number of questions which used to be on a standard application, and then they also want you to complete an aptitude test (which is fine), and one of those ridiculous "psych evaluation" quizzes which is supposed to show whether you're outgoing and peachy or a scum sucking thief...I guess.

So, after looking all over the neighborhood for anywhere which was hiring and coming up empty, she filled out an online application for a cell phone provider. After a couple of days she got called by the manager of a store here in town and was asked to come in for a first round interview. This store is about 6 miles away, in what is probably an 85% Hispanic area of town, mind you.

It turns out that she wasted the price of a one-day bus pass ($5 is a big deal to us, believe me), because they never would have hired her in the first place as she doesn't know Spanish.

All this bullshit for nothing, when language questions were on the application to begin with, and all they had to do was ask her about that before wasting a day of her time and $5.

It's just gotten fucking ridiculous at this stage.

[rsmith6621]

2. Aptitude Test Should Be Outlawed...

...They are skewed and can be changed day by day and hour by hour...HELL let one person cut you off on the road heading to the grocery store can affect the outcome....

[Brigid]

5. I had a similar experience years ago.

I filled out an application at a restaurant (a chain that is now defunct, I believe). A few days later, they called me for an interview. I trekked all the way out there on the bus (again) for that, only to have them tell me they were not going to hire me because I had no waitressing experience. What, restaurant managers don't have to know how to read? :banghead:

This was actually something of an epiphany for me: I realized that most hiring managers are morons. I don't know why it took so long for me to figure to figure that out.

[coyote]

3. I had the most interesting interview 3 weeks ago....

instead of speed dating it was speed interviewing. There were 12 candidates and we had to interview with 4 project managers.

The group of candidates was split into 3 smaller groups of four. When it was time to interview, one project manager yelled "start!"....I was asked 1 question, and in the middle of answering that question, I heard a "Ding!"....then we had to rotate to the next project manager in the room. We literally had 3 minutes with each project manager.

I was literally there for 3 hours and had a 12 minute interview with 4 project managers.

I was one of the lucky 5 that got offered a job. I turned it down because 1) it was a freelance job and 2) if this is how much respect they have for my 10 years in the industry (a 3 minute speed interview), well I figure it be just a matter of time they toss me out the door anyway once they don't need me.

Thankfully, I was offered a full time permanent position just 2 weeks later with another firm.

[rsmith6621]

4. Yep Playing the game with SPIT as the prize.

...I hate games that are played these days.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

6. yes, this is absolutely real and happening.

About a month ago, I went on an interview for an receptionist position. There were about 30 candidates and maybe 3 managers who spoke to each candidate, in an assembly line fashion. I had less then 3 mins face time with each manager. We were specifically told they had received over 300 resumes for this position that that we should be grateful that we were among the blessed to actually get an invitation to interview, if you could call this an interview.

At the end, we were told that 5 would be invited back for a second interview, and if we were among the lucky five, we would be getting a phone call that afternoon. It was extremely humiliating, and you could see the pain and disappointment in the other candidates eyes. They, like me, probably thought they were actually interviewing for a job they had a real shot for, and it would be a real interview.

I didn't get a call.

This was for a weekend receptionist job at $10 an hour. Saturday and Sunday, 16 hours a week.

It is beyond ridiculous out there.

[Kat45]

7. Yes, they even put you through all this shit for no-big-deal jobs that used to be easy to get

Being an employer's market, they can do whatever they want. Sucks for us.

[wickerwoman]

8. Sounds like my interview with FedEx

for seasonal work a few Christmases ago. They advertised the position as full-time at $11.50 an hour. When I got there, there were at least 50 people for 2 positions. They got us all in the cafeteria and told us that actually the job paid $8.00 an hour, would be part-time for the first two weeks and full-time the second two and that we had to pay union dues of $40 a week regardless of how many hours we worked. So it was probable that for the first two weeks we would be working 10 hours and only getting paid for 5.

Then they said anyone who wanted to leave could. Nobody did. We each got 2 minutes with an interviewer. It was first come, first served, so I had to sit there for an hour (on top of an hour each way travel time) for a 2 minute interview for a completely bullshit job that was dishonestly advertised.

And BTW, this is why undereducated people hate unions. They see half their paycheck disappearing for a part-time, seasonal job with no health benefits, no overtime pay, no job security and minimum wage. It's easy for employers to paint unions as the bad guys when the disenfranchised only see their money being taken away and don't reap any of the benefits.

[rsmith6621]

9. Sounds like a bad union to begin with...

....to allow management to hire people under those conditions...sounds like the union is just a money sucking collection pit and is there for its own best interest.

[raccoon]

11. Thanks for your post. What assholes--doing that bait-and-switch routine on you guys.

"They advertised the position as full-time at $11.50 an hour. When I got there, there were at least 50 people for 2 positions. They got us all in the cafeteria and told us that actually the job paid $8.00 an hour,"

[hedgehog]

10. I think most people have no idea how to hire employees.

Example - an engineering job that requires a lot of hands-on, in the field, seat of the pants equipment modification and adjustment. HR keeps interviewing applicants with a 4.0 from prestigious schools who want to spend all their time at a desk with a computer. My son finally convinced them to interview students who had a 3.0, but who had spent their college years also working as a machinist or had joined a design and build club; in other words, people with a solid engineering background who also liked hands-on work and had hands-on experience. Not to knock the people with the 4.0 average, but the skill set has to match the job requirements.


The only real solution to the games is to get the economy moving again. the games will stop when potential employees have the ability to turn down a job offer!

[hifiguy]

12. So you think you're actually entitled to human dignity or

basic respect from our corporate overlords? Shame on you.

:sarcasm:

My experience of hiring/HR people is that they are below the bottom of the barrel. I've met one in 25 years in the workplace that was worth a pinch of shit (she was helpful, nice and extremely competent) and she bailed a few months after I started working for that firm. She was replaced by a she-devil with a Dr. Sardonicus smile who enjoyed nothing more than helping the more psycho partners knife junior associates.