Interview stitch-up

Poppy9

vivera01 wrote: »

He told us on the same day we were invited to apply for the role.

are you sure he's not just playing mind games with you. I have had people try to put me off going for jobs etc. if they have felt it's "their" job. I still apply and I've got the job sometimes!!

vivera01

anamenottaken wrote: »

So it might actually be the case that they told him they had to include all three of you in the pool to apply for the new job - even though he was the preferred candidate.

If he is appointed to the new role you will have to be considered for the then new vacancy.

More interesting is the pool from which redundancies were to be made. If fundamentally all three of you (and perhaps more) could do the work, what criteria were used to decide who should form the pool? (Redundancy is about a reduced requirement for work of a particular kind to be done.)

He told them they would have to ask us to apply. They fought against it as definitely want him in the role. That's been backed up by other managers.

The selection criteria is vague - something we are testing them on now. We know for a fact one of the directors wants us out His business indiscretions are building up into a good case for unfair dismissal. Just need to give him enough rope .....

MoneySaverLog

Poppy9 wrote: »

if someone had the cheek to rattle off the key words with no embellishment they should get a mark.

I think if someone rattled off the list of keywords, then I'd be asking for examples. Anyone can just rattle of a list of buzzwords.

getmore4less

They didn't have to offer you the interview as it would have been easy to avoid the situation, by making the role not a suitable alternative or dealing with the situation seperately without "creating" new role or other options there are loads...

BUT since they have you may have a case, have a read of this

http://www.steenandco.co.uk/tribunal-success-over-redundancy-process--_53/

particularly this bit
The Tribunal also said "If there was a question as to the capability of either person at risk of redundancy to undertake this role, then it should have been established that neither was suitable before opening the new role to further applicants."

You need to find that case and get a solicitor that knows what they are doing

edit:

Another comment on a case
http://www.thepersonneldept.co.uk/case-law-redundancy-subjective-selection-process-for-alternative-roles-is-ok/

Poppy9

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

I think if someone rattled off the list of keywords, then I'd be asking for examples. Anyone can just rattle of a list of buzzwords.

but in a structured or standard interview you are not allowed to question further, you are simply supposed to read out the question and mark their answer as this makes it fair (apparently) to all applicants.

I've been on the training and aside from greeting them with good morning/afternoon that is to be the extent of your interaction from them aside from the questions. You are not allowed to ask if they found the place okay etc. as that could be construed as you scoring them on their ability to travel to the workplace!

Some interviewers are stricter than others in their application of the rules of the structured interview though. I know some people who've been interviewed and said that they the interviewers didn't look at them through out they were just marking their score charts.

Oh and I did once interview someone who at the end of the interview literally threw in the key words as he remembered them! It was so random as it was the last "is there anything you like to ask us" question - he didn't get the job. Not because of the last random bit but because another applicant was simply better.

One of my friends interviewed a man for another job and asked one of the questions and the applicant said "I'd prefer not to answer that". Not a trick or difficult question and no reason given!

smala01

Poppy9 wrote: »

but in a structured or standard interview you are not allowed to question further, you are simply supposed to read out the question and mark their answer as this makes it fair (apparently) to all applicants.

I've been on the training and aside from greeting them with good morning/afternoon that is to be the extent of your interaction from them aside from the questions. You are not allowed to ask if they found the place okay etc. as that could be construed as you scoring them on their ability to travel to the workplace!

Some interviewers are stricter than others in their application of the rules of the structured interview though. I know some people who've been interviewed and said that they the interviewers didn't look at them through out they were just marking their score charts.

Oh and I did once interview someone who at the end of the interview literally threw in the key words as he remembered them! It was so random as it was the last "is there anything you like to ask us" question - he didn't get the job. Not because of the last random bit but because another applicant was simply better.

One of my friends interviewed a man for another job and asked one of the questions and the applicant said "I'd prefer not to answer that". Not a trick or difficult question and no reason given!

...did you say you worked for the public sector?

marybelle01

smala01 wrote: »

...did you say you worked for the public sector?

Not in any bit I've ever seen. Conducting an interview in that fashion is designed for appointing a computer system, not a person.

Sambucus_Nigra

Poppy9 wrote: »

but in a structured or standard interview you are not allowed to question further, you are simply supposed to read out the question and mark their answer as this makes it fair (apparently) to all applicants.

I've been on the training

Then either the training was wrong or you misunderstood it!

Poppy9

smala01 wrote: »

...did you say you worked for the public sector?

yep

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Then either the training was wrong or you misunderstood it!

I did not misunderstand http://www.sociology.org.uk/methsi.pdf this gives some insight into the pros and cons.

marybelle01 wrote: »

Not in any bit I've ever seen. Conducting an interview in that fashion is designed for appointing a computer system, not a person.

We don't appoint Computer systems, we put those out to tender!!

As I said, some interviewers apply the method more strictly than others.

Last interview I had I was asked 5 questions, same as each other applicant but as I was answering they were extending the question to stretch me. I spoke to one of the other candidates and this happened to them too, whereas the trainer tells you that you should have well considered your question so that you don't need to ask further.

Some interviewers will give you pre-sight of the questions a short time before the interview. At much higher level jobs you will be given a topic to consider and prepare a short presentation on but will still have a structured interview.

One of the challenges of structured interviews is finding 5 or 6 questions that are fair to internal/external applicants and then coming up with a model answer. It's not so easy to answer your own questions!!

One of my work colleagues was interviewing a while ago and I knew many of the candidates and they all complained how tough the questions were so I asked him to show me! They were "LOL, I can't believe you asked them that" questions and I also disagreed with 2 of the model answers.

wymondham

The company will employ the person they want, and would have 'moulded' the questions etc to ensure this. It's not nice, but it happens very frequently!!