Unfair interview questions

[GrumpyGregry]

I think you have recourse legally if people are deliberately excluding candidates with nonsense like this.

On the basis of what....? Surely legal discrimination in recruitment practise is entirely normal?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

... and you've been Grumpy ever since?

Nah. I've been Grumpy nearly all my adult life.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Nah. I've been Grumpy nearly all my adult life.

me too ,happy people are so annoying

 

[markharry66]

I always hired mates from my local and circle of friends.
They dont seem to cause agro when you drink with them..
and they know they will be paid Friday..as they need to get a round in

i had an interview last year ,first in 30 yr just too see ...bit tic box and no real intrest in the person i thought,and that was at the Coop undertakers..
i was asked how i felt about being with the deceased..i said Fine..as long as they dont sudenly chase me

i didnt get the job

Good job to its not a safe job to have to much stiff competition.

 

[Drago]

A bit like working as a Viagra salesman.

 

[nickyboy]

I'll not forget the HR interview where I walked in, put my handout to shake hands and was ignored.

I actually hate self-gratification artists like that. They've read some book or other that you need to get the candidate on the back foot to see how he reacts in a stressful situation etc etc

For reasonably senior appointments I interview hard and put the candidate under some pressure to see how they cope. But there's no need for that bollox

 

[mybike]

Tht's outrageous from a HR interviewer..
ive gone to do quotes for jobs and had that..or the weakest wet fish handshake..
it puts me off straight away..but a interview must start with a handshake and a hello..as sd any business meeting .

I actually hate self-gratification artists like that. They've read some book or other that you need to get the candidate on the back foot to see how he reacts in a stressful situation etc etc

For reasonably senior appointments I interview hard and put the candidate under some pressure to see how they cope. But there's no need for that bollox

Of course what may have upset my interviewers was that I was doing the job well already, and I continued to do it after the interview.

 

[Electric_Andy]

"We know who's getting it but we have to advertise to satisfy the union/directors/trustees" is pretty common. I cannot complain to much because I have benefited from it myself.

Too true. I've experienced this myself in the NHS. They know who they want to give the job to, but legally they have to advertise it and end up wasting peoples' time.

 

[simon the viking]

I went for an interview once where the interviewer put you into retail role-play situations (before it became common) and it was clear that it was like the 'Kobayashi Maru' exercise in Star Trek Wrath of Khan... whatever you answered was wrong and he played the situation according to what you said.....

I kept calm and at the end I admitted he'd got me after I'd dug myself into a big hole... Apparently the trick was not giving the right answers but staying clam with his reponses.....

I got the Job and he later admitted that he only played that game with strong candiates and just went through 'we will be in touch if succesful' motions with others but occasionaly read the person wrong and had people storm out of interviews declaring "I don't need this S**t....."

25 years on we don't work together now but keep in touch... I've worked with with him in several companys since and he is the best area manager I've ever known. He's dropped the Role play technique and now hands interviewees his watch and says 'sell it to me...' I've warned him he will get it nicked one day.............

That 30 minute interview still remains the most intense one in 30 years of employment... Including full day corporate type assesment centres

 

[Brains]

I once went to an interview set up by an agency where the prospective role was to be a Project Manager "guiding part of the business through a series of changes" sounds fun doesn't it and I boned up on all the stock change management answers. In the interview it was made clear that the job was to move an entire production line from Coventry to Poland and sack over 100 people. This was to happen over twelve months and my final act on succesful completion of the task was to make myself redundant.
During the interview, where I clearly was more experienced and savvy than he MBA manchild interviewing me, I thought perhaps not and just went on to make him look silly as I felt free to do

I had a mate who, initially accidentally, made a very successful career out of doing this sort of a job.

He was first employed by a local council in the accounts department, where no sooner had he joined than the department was cut, so he had to 'encourage' people to leave, in waves, with each group getting a higher redundancy than the last. He finally made himself redundant with the biggest payout of all and had enough money to buy his own house aged 24 with only about 18 months of work behind him.

He then went on to work for a large number of companies, mostly in the FTSE 500, where he would go in for between six and twenty months, make lots of people redundant, until finally he made himself redundant for an exorbitant fee, and then move to the next company.

I used to ask my stockbroker to sell any shares I had in companies that he was employed by, and he finally realised I had a pattern, he never figured out what it was, but I noticed that my occasional calls were obviously being acted upon as the fund would quietly dispose of not only my shares but all shares they held in said company.

After 20 years of hard graft and being made redundant about 30 times in that period, he had no further need to work.

 

[cisamcgu]

How would you know what funds your stockbroker held ?

 

[TVC]

I had a mate who, initially accidentally, made a very successful career out of doing this sort of a job.

He was first employed by a local council in the accounts department, where no sooner had he joined than the department was cut, so he had to 'encourage' people to leave, in waves, with each group getting a higher redundancy than the last. He finally made himself redundant with the biggest payout of all and had enough money to buy his own house aged 24 with only about 18 months of work behind him.

He then went on to work for a large number of companies, mostly in the FTSE 500, where he would go in for between six and twenty months, make lots of people redundant, until finally he made himself redundant for an exorbitant fee, and then move to the next company.

I used to ask my stockbroker to sell any shares I had in companies that he was employed by, and he finally realised I had a pattern, he never figured out what it was, but I noticed that my occasional calls were obviously being acted upon as the fund would quietly dispose of not only my shares but all shares they held in said company.

After 20 years of hard graft and being made redundant about 30 times in that period, he had no further need to work.

I guess that's fine if all you want is money and you don't care about people. I go to work to do something positive and improve the business. The couple of times I have been involved in making people redundant I found it entirely draining and felt awful, I'm happy if I never have to do it again.

 

[Brains]

How would you know what funds your stockbroker held ?

You will get a detailed breakdown at least once a year with exactly what is held where, you need to have this for HRMC.

You can also see what companies a Fund invests in, as they are all listed.
If they end up owning over 3% of any company they have to sell, unless there is a stated indication to buy significant percentages for a reason, such as to get on the board.

Any PLC where one person/fund/family own over 1% of the shares must be declared

 

[jonny jeez]

Was it a private or public employer? I once turned up for an IT job where they put me in a room and said I needed to do a test first, then left the room. I sat there and thought what if yours is a company I didn't want to work for, a bit of a chat and a few questions first would have been nice. I got up, left the room and told them on the way out that I didn't want to work for a company like them.

I would have assumed that a candidate attending an interview would have already done enough research to know if mine was a company that they were happy to join. Otherwise the candidate will have been wasting my time in accepting an interview and their time by turning up.

 

[Brains]

I guess that's fine if all you want is money and you don't care about people. I go to work to do something positive and improve the business. The couple of times I have been involved in making people redundant I found it entirely draining and felt awful, I'm happy if I never have to do it again.

There is an end to the story, he died very suddenly, decades before he should have.