bad mannered job interviewer

andrewjf

tinkerbell_2k12 wrote: »

This threads been an interesting read. Its shocking how many companies think its acceptable to verbally abuse, insult and be plain rude to people theyve invited in for interviews, its unacceptabke behaviour

It's not companies, it's down to people. Some individuals are just plain ignorant. And we all have off days occasionally. However this isn't an excuse for such behaviour in a situation where the interviewer has all the power.

aileth

I went for an interview for a simple office admin role and there were 4 interviewers!!!! 3 just sat and stared at me while the other made me feel like I was in guantanemo.

I didn't get the job as apparently someone else who interviewed worse than me had basically offered to do it for free for 'experience.'

starrybee

I've had one. The interview was with two people, one was perfectly nice and the other sat there rolling her eyes at everything I said, didn't bother saying hello/goodbye, shake my hand, I said 'nice to meet you' at the end of the interview and she looked at me like I was a piece of dirt under her shoe.

They never even called me back after the interview to say I didn't get it, but all I thought was good riddance! I got a much nicer job a few weeks later.

saxonrosecliff

I had an interview at a training company that trained car mechanics so it was basically run like a garage with the apprentices supervised by a qualified mechanic working on customer's cars.

The interviewer sat with his feet on the desk all the way through, hadn't prepared any questions which meant I led the interview basically talking about myself and when I talked about my IT skills (it was an admin/reception post) he didn't know what I was talking about. He then obviously got bored and started playing with his mobile phone, possibly texting. It was obvious he wasn't listening to me. Eventually I couldn't think of anything else to say and he escorted me out of the building.

He did mention on the way out that he was the head mechanic and didn't know anything about IT. I thought at the time that it was a bit bizarre that a mechanic was interviewing for an office job and wasn't confident that it was a well run company.

I didn't get the job (they never contacted me - I had to ring them to find out) but around three months after the interview it was in the local paper that the training company had gone into administration and had closed down (despite a large amount of government funding). If I had have got the job I'd have managed a maximum of 7 weeks of employment!

z1a

Not a bad mannered interview as such, just strange.
When I was looking for an apprenticeship whilst in my last year at school in 1974 a local alarm manufacturer were advertising for electronics apprentices. I applied and passed the intake exam and was invited to an interview.
The first question I was asked was "How good are you with computers?" My answer "never used one" not many people had back then, don't even think there were any at school - LED calculators were still a novelty.
End of interview "You'll be no good for us then!"

Alpha58

tinkerbell_2k12 wrote: »

the person doing the interview didnt bother shaking my hand on the way in or out and didnt say the usual " hi come on in nuce to meet you" or "thanks for coming in" and for the entire time of the interview they sat chewing gum and were playing with the gum in the front of their teeth. I thought it was really bad manners and really unprofessional.

I work in a hyper-multi-cultural environment and I interview a lot of prospective candidates. There are many pitfalls, some of which I have found out the hard way:

1. You can't enquire about health (this could be intrusive)

2. You can't enquire about personal life (this could be discriminatory)

3. You can't offer to shake hands (this could be culturally insenstive or you could be accused of sneaking in a masonic handshake)

4. You can't ask questions which are hard to answer (this could embarrass the candidate).

I kid you not. This is the reality and this is what the namby-pamby yoghurt-knitting excuses for politicians over the last 20 years have allowed, nay encouraged, to ensure that we are in an inclusive society. Don't get me wrong, I am 150% in favour of being inclusive, I just think we have lost sight of the goal.

And an interviewer, chewing gum during an interview! Not on my planet!

This_Year

Think the worst interview I went to was when I was 16. I had a letter inviting me to interview, but it was at the same time as an O level exam. So I went along to the shop to rearrange the time, and was told they would see me right away.

I was shown into their tea-room, not even the manager's office! Door sign moved to "room in use" and the interview began, then the door opened and half the staff waltzed in, began making tea and laughing and chatting with each other, then suddenly realised that an interview was in progress and so sat down quietly so I then had 15 pairs of eyes watching me.

Weirdly enough, my interviewer tried to continue with the interview but I had enough and jumped up and said, "got to go, I'll miss my train." And ran out of the shop, never to return!

zkw29

I once turned up 10 minutes early for an interview at 2pm and the receptionist rudely told me my interview was an hour ago. I explained that I'd definitely been told 2pm and I even showed her the confirmation email I had printed but when she still didn't believe me! She marched me through to the managers office and proceeded to tell him "This is zkw29, he's verrrrrry late because he got the times mixed up". It just went downhill from there.

Actually, over the next 30 minutes I got the impression the manager would be worse to work with than the receptionist. It was one of the very few interviews I've had where I would have turned down the job if I'd been offered it. It was a pretty big international company as well and I still see adverts from them from time to time and just scroll on past.

andrewjf

Alpha58 wrote: »

4. You can't ask questions which are hard to answer (this could embarrass the candidate).

Seriously!? As if it wasn't hard enough for the interviewer even without that sort of constraint.

MrsPBikerChick

Hubby had an interview for a contracting job last week only to find that the interviewer was off sick and all the office staff thought someone else has called hubby to let him know (no-one had obviously). Hubby is not one to suffer fools gladly or be messed around so he asked if there was anyone else who could do it as he wasnt coming back. They scrabbled around for a bit and found someone - who turned out to be a former team leader he'd gotten on rather well with during his apprenticeship! This guy took one look at hubby, remembered him and said "jobs yours, fancy a look around?" So all in all a little bit of incompetence on their part worked out in his favour

I once had an interviewer spend most of an interview trying to look down my shirt (I'm pretty flat chested so not sure what he was hoping to find lol) and once was asked questions like which mobile phone provider I was with and where I did my weekly shopping. I declined to answer as it wasnt in the least bit to do with the job or the company I was applying for - I got the impression the interviewer was looking for shopping tips rather than a new admin bod!

Now, however, I am a manager and will be having my first go at being the interviewer soon so I will bare all you experiences in mind!