Giving feedback to the interviewers

Savvy_Sue

dpassmore wrote: »

I would have thought by virtue of giving a poor interview - you really have answered your own question and as Oldernotwiser has hinted at, perhaps the answer to that particular question was at best unwise.

No, that's a really stupid question, surely! What does an interview panel EXPECT to get out of such a question?

Soubrette wrote: »

That is exactly how I saw that question, there is an honest answer and a dishonest one - why would a company want someone who was dishonest (or at least less than truthful) as an employee?

Well, perhaps a 'considered' answer and an 'unconsidered' answer (and you've been given some very good ones), but I still maintain that it's a daft question!

Soubrette wrote: »

The hours also attracted me to this job - "20-25 and perhaps more", but in the event turned out that that meant that they had no idea how many hours would be needed and the successful applicant was just supposed to accept what was offered perhaps even dropping hours next year, I had thought they might have ideas of the job expanding. Another less emotive reason that I didn't want to accept it.

I think you've had a lucky escape ...

Soubrette

To be fair Sue, the types of interviewers in my employment area are all going to be small business people with little knowledge of HR and interviewing.

I'm a mediocre interviewee but I know I'm really good at my job once I have a foot in the door. I tend to be quite forgiving of poor interviewers because they may well be good at their actual job too. It seemed a pretty duff question to me but now I have an insight into turning duff questions to my advantage then it might give me more of an edge in future interviews.

The demeanour of the awful interviewer put me off - if he's like that in interviews, is he like that IRL and the vagueness (is that a word) of the position also put me off as well as the expectation that I was to be flexible but they would not be. Poor interview questions I feel are part of my task as the interviewee to cope with and hopefully put on a positive spin.

In the end I just sent a note to the good interviewer (who had sent the rejection letter) thanking her for the courtesy of the letter and wishing her and the business good luck for the future. I did not ask for feedback. I wanted to acknowledge the letter as our paths will almost certainly cross in the future and I didn't want her to think there were any hard feelings.

I have some more interview experience under my belt, some useful hints from here and the knowledge not to bother trying for any other jobs at that place because we would not be a good fit so definitely not a waste of time even if a job didn't come out of it.

Mands

Soubrette wrote: »

I'm a mediocre interviewee but I know I'm really good at my job once I have a foot in the door.

In what way? What actual examples do you have at your fingertips to use in interviews?

A candidate that says that they are good at admin and don't mind filing sounds uninspiring and unmotivated; a candidate that says that in their last job they overhauled the filing system to make it more streamlined and efficient saving the entire department xx hours time a week sounds great.

If as part of that they undertook the project at their own initiative, sold the idea to management and the rest of the team and carried out a training programme to get the rest of the department up to speed then that sounds fantastic.

If they were then to observe, with all honesty, that they love that sort of project: being able to identity and fix a problem that no one has spotted giving the department an ongoing benefit in return for a one-time hit of extra effort, well, they may well get offered the job on the spot :-)

It sounds like you have that sort of experience already so are you making the most of them in interviews? From an interviewers perspective it's awful frustrating suspecting that a candidate has more to give but not being able to get them to mention them.

From what you've said about this role it sounds like a lucky escape. The poor interviewer isn't so much of an issue; it may well be company policy that they always have a board of three and Sally who normally is one of that board called in sick so Grumpy John was press-ganged at the last minute. The flip-flop over the hours and the sense that they didn't really know what they wanted is more of a concern so I'd chalk this up to experience and move on. No interview is a waste of time; if you don't get the job then you've practiced and honed your interview skills for the next one.

Mands

Soubrette

Well, I can only give examples from past interviews where hopefully I've learned things already so for example one interview had had a complicated application form where you had to fill many details about past jobs and write an essay as to why you wanted this job.

In the interview I was asked what skills I would bring to the job. I assumed that they must mean in addition to the skills I had written about so came up with some minor additional skills (it was actually a proof reading course I had done that had a minor relevance to the job). In retrospect and in discussion with others, it seems I should have perhaps picked three of the skills I'd already mentioned in the application form and reiterated them but as I said, it seemed to me at the time that they would already know this so why would they want to hear it again?

That's why I'm mediocre (but hopefully improving), I don't seem to have a skill at knowing what the interviewer wants when they ask the difficult questions (and poor or inexperienced interviewers are much more likely to ask these types of question imo), hopefully it is a skill that can be learned

I did get that job but only because the chosen candidate lasted half a morning.

She said obviously said the right things at interview but as it's a small area I happened to have worked with her before, she was going to juggle three small children and another part time job with shifts, the nature of the shifts being variable with the one she was interviewing for. Anyone interviewing should have realised the inherent difficulties of these before she spoke a word but she was so good at interview that they chose her over about 20 candidates.

I want to be that good , I know I'm that good at written questions where I have time to consider (and for some reason applications forms seem much more straight forward), it's the snap decision making at interview where I think I'm weak so pre-preparing makes sense to try and mitigate this.

Soubrette

Sorry mands - I thought you were asking in what way was I mediocre.

The nature of the job I do means that there is not much in the way of innovation, it is fairly menial. Although interestingly enough I did overhaul the filing system in one of my old jobs . I think I'm going to have to think hard about being proactive in this job and at least note down suggestions I've made even if they are not taken up.

In this interview I was asked about improvements I had made in my current job which I why I was talking about new technology. The whole area is moving away from paper and onto computers and so I made a few comments about how I had made suggestions to continue that trend in my current role ie using excel sheets, using the computer to a greater capacity than we do now and gave some examples.

Obviously grumpy John either didn't gel with me personally or has a bugbear about new technology so in this instance that didn't seem to earn me any brownie points at all.

dickydonkin

No, that's a really stupid question, surely! What does an interview panel EXPECT to get out of such a question?

Until we know what the interviewer was hoping to extract from the interviewee, we will not know whether it was a stupid question or otherwise. On the face of it, of course it seems a stupid question, however, a seemingly stupid question does not need a reciprocal answer and that is what the OP regrets.

Yockie

Soubrette, I was wondering do you ask for feedback even for the jobs you don’t get an interview for (I think that’s about 5%, reading all your posts)?

I always wonder are employers obligated to give feedback to applicants (who aren’t invited for an interview) and unsuccessful interviewees…

Soubrette

Yockie wrote: »

Soubrette, I was wondering do you ask for feedback even for the jobs you don’t get an interview for (I think that’s about 5%, reading all your posts)?

I always wonder are employers obligated to give feedback to applicants (who aren’t invited for an interview) and unsuccessful interviewees…

No I don't as a matter of course, generally speaking, the couple of jobs that I haven't had interviews for are jobs where I'm not really qualified but I've taken a bit of a punt.

I feel that any interviewer would be inundated with application forms and so probably wouldn't be able to pinpoint problems with mine, however interviews should be a lot less.

I did ask one person why I hadn't been shortlisted for interview as it was a job that she had already said the application form looked good. Turned out there was a misunderstanding, the application form asked if you had a car (I ticked yes) and if you could use if for business use (I ticked no), apparently this was enough to not get me an interview but I had ticked no because I didn't have business insurance at that time.

I don't think employers are obliged to give any feedback, at any point - it's just a courtesy - and tbh the usefulness of the feedback seems to be very much curtailed because of fears of being sued.

dickydonkin

Yockie wrote: »

Soubrette, I was wondering do you ask for feedback even for the jobs you don’t get an interview for (I think that’s about 5%, reading all your posts)?

I always wonder are employers obligated to give feedback to applicants (who aren’t invited for an interview) and unsuccessful interviewees…

I would imagine that HR staff would be overwhelmed if they had to respond to every job applicant who requested feedback having not reached the interview stage - especially in the current jobs market.

For many employers, obtaining feedback from interviews - let alone failed applications- can be troublesome.

I have had two instances where I had been asked to return for a second interview and on both occasions it was down to two candidates.

Nobody came back with the outcome of either interview - never mind getting feedback.

Seems to be the way things work for many companies now unfortunately.

Savvy_Sue

Soubrette wrote: »

In the interview I was asked what skills I would bring to the job. I assumed that they must mean in addition to the skills I had written about so came up with some minor additional skills (it was actually a proof reading course I had done that had a minor relevance to the job). In retrospect and in discussion with others, it seems I should have perhaps picked three of the skills I'd already mentioned in the application form and reiterated them but as I said, it seemed to me at the time that they would already know this so why would they want to hear it again?

That's why I'm mediocre (but hopefully improving), I don't seem to have a skill at knowing what the interviewer wants when they ask the difficult questions (and poor or inexperienced interviewers are much more likely to ask these types of question imo), hopefully it is a skill that can be learned

One piece of advice you might find useful is "Never underestimate the stupidity of the interviewer." It's adapted from exam advice we gave DS1, who struggled with his mock GCSEs, because he didn't know what to write in English, for example. Why ask that question when the answer is either blindingly obvious, or the examiner should know it already? I mean, if you're an English teacher, why ask HIM, a mathematically minded 15 yo, about the niceties of Shakespeare?

Soubrette wrote: »

She said obviously said the right things at interview but as it's a small area I happened to have worked with her before, she was going to juggle three small children and another part time job with shifts, the nature of the shifts being variable with the one she was interviewing for. Anyone interviewing should have realised the inherent difficulties of these before she spoke a word but she was so good at interview that they chose her over about 20 candidates.

Ah, but they couldn't ask about her domestic arrangements at interview: the best you can do is say something like "the job involves shifts, which may be irregular, is that something you can manage?"

Yockie wrote: »

Soubrette, I was wondering do you ask for feedback even for the jobs you don’t get an interview for (I think that’s about 5%, reading all your posts)?

I always wonder are employers obligated to give feedback to applicants (who aren’t invited for an interview) and unsuccessful interviewees…

No, employers are NOT obligated to give feedback, and even if they do it may be so general as to be useless. We had about 20 applications for our last job, and for once we DID give feedback, which I know was appreciated, but it was along the lines of 'not enough experience / not enough relevant experience / stronger applicants". Although there was one where one of the shortlisting team had just written "Nice try!" - where a recent graduate with no employment history thought they might be right for Director of a charity with turnover of about half a million ... And see below!

Soubrette wrote: »

I did ask one person why I hadn't been shortlisted for interview as it was a job that she had already said the application form looked good. Turned out there was a misunderstanding, the application form asked if you had a car (I ticked yes) and if you could use if for business use (I ticked no), apparently this was enough to not get me an interview but I had ticked no because I didn't have business insurance at that time.

Gosh, you really DO take things literally, don't you! Best thing on that occasion would have been to write something like "I do not currently have business insurance but would add this to my cover if required." You gave the impression that you had a car, but that it wasn't available to you: for example I have a car, but I share it with DH and he often needs it during the day, whereas I only occasionally need it during the day. And we work close to each other.

If I was applying for a job which asked that question, I'd say something like "I have use of our family car by arrangement, but would be prepared to buy another car if I needed it on a daily basis."

Soubrette wrote: »

I don't think employers are obliged to give any feedback, at any point - it's just a courtesy - and tbh the usefulness of the feedback seems to be very much curtailed because of fears of being sued.

Not just that, we've had people be quite rude to us if they disagree with our feedback: and it can take a lot of time. Bottom line is, if you don't get an interview, your application in some way didn't meet the criteria, OR there were others who met them better. If an employer really is discriminating against you because you're the wrong gender / the wrong age / the wrong ethnicity / pregnant / disabled, they WILL find another reason.