Promptness of Second Interview

Cotta

I was approached by their recruitment section regarding the role, the interview arrived quite soon afterwards and the second interview very soon.


The problem is I had to book a half day off work for the first and the second is being allocated two hours, which means getting to and from along with the interview will take three hours. I also was asked about peak times during the month for me at the interview and I specified the first half which entails me being based at different offices so dropping everything is not always an option.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I had an interview on the Thursday, phone call on Friday to ask me to go for a second interview the following Monday. I really wanted the job so said yes.

PS - they offered me the job on the spot at the second interview and I started a couple of weeks later.

However you play it, good luck

bod1467

Is this why you need to know about MS Access?

Valli

kaflinkle wrote: »

If someone invited me for a second interview, I would try to go on the date they suggest and work around it.

If I interviewed someone and then invited them for a second interview and they stated that they can't make it for 2 weeks, I'd be thinking about a second candidate.

Just my opinion though and I suppose it may depend on the role as well.

This, unfortunately.

robatwork

kaflinkle wrote: »

I got asked once 'what would you have written on your head stone when you die?' It was a job in IT.

The answer being "Had a great life, and so glad he didn't work at ABC corp" where ABC Corp = IT company in question.

I hate ambush questions, they smack of the interviewer reading "10 questions to really put your interviewee on the spot".

I once got asked how I would deal with the troubles in Northern Ireland in the early 90s. Was for a shop assistant role. He didn't get the job of being my manager.

DKLS

robatwork wrote: »

The answer being "Had a great life, and so glad he didn't work at ABC corp" where ABC Corp = IT company in question.

I hate ambush questions, they smack of the interviewer reading "10 questions to really put your interviewee on the spot".

I once got asked how I would deal with the troubles in Northern Ireland in the early 90s. Was for a shop assistant role. He didn't get the job of being my manager.

Or the latest incarnation "10 Questions they ask at Google"

Takeaway_Addict

robatwork wrote: »

The answer being "Had a great life, and so glad he didn't work at ABC corp" where ABC Corp = IT company in question.

I hate ambush questions, they smack of the interviewer reading "10 questions to really put your interviewee on the spot".

I once got asked how I would deal with the troubles in Northern Ireland in the early 90s. Was for a shop assistant role. He didn't get the job of being my manager.

Why do you hate them if they keep coming up...have you not prepared standard answers that can fit most of the questions?

If not...perhaps its an idea to do so?

Takeaway_Addict

AJXX wrote: »

Depends how much you want the job really.

Personally, unless this was a fairly high paying role then I'd think being asked to attend a second interview at such short notice, without this even being mentioned as a possibility in the first interview a bit of a p!ss take.

For some people a single interview is bad enough, those with anxiety etc... If OP does intend the 2nd interview I'd be interested to know exactly what was said/what else they wanted.

Personally, I think interviews are more often than not a huge waste of time and a pointless formality from the dark ages - especially with most employers basing interviews on "competency" based questions rather than the candidates actual skills and or practical tests or work trials.

As an example, say we have two candidates - A and B.

Candidate A has previous experience of your job, all the required skills and knowledge but gives an 'unsatisfactory' answer to your competency based questions.

Candidate B has the bare minimum experience to do the job, but lacks most of the skills and knowledge needed. Yet because they answered the competency based question 'better' are employed over person A.

I find the above happens in most cases and the entire interview process is fundamentally flawed. Person A is the better candidate, but person B gets the job because they can answer some silly questions better - a few months down the line they turn out to be completely rubbish at the job.

What other options are there? Employers have to make a judgement call on what is a snapshot of a person and ultimately it isn't going to be right everytime but on the whole it works.

hcb42

AJXX wrote: »

As an example, say we have two candidates - A and B.

Candidate A has previous experience of your job, all the required skills and knowledge but gives an 'unsatisfactory' answer to your competency based questions.

Candidate B has the bare minimum experience to do the job, but lacks most of the skills and knowledge needed. Yet because they answered the competency based question 'better' are employed over person A.

I find the above happens in most cases and the entire interview process is fundamentally flawed. Person A is the better candidate, but person B gets the job because they can answer some silly questions better - a few months down the line they turn out to be completely rubbish at the job.

A CV (assuming it is truthful) gives the bare bones about skills and experience. It's fair to assume that the shortlist criteria drew up a number of candidates who might fit the role on paper.

Competency based questions require the interviewee to give specific examples of experience about a given competency. This is drawn from their experience, and most organisations can ask the correct probing questions to validate this.

If candidate A couldn't be bothered to work up some examples of the typical competency based questions they could expect, that they can call upon during the interview, then they don't deserve the role, no matter what their skills and experience is. They either haven't prepared, don't care or cannot communicate this past experience well enough.