"We don't care about your skills, we just want the right personality"

NeilCr

If you could explain in words of one syllable (for this thicko) what I’m missing I’d be happy to have another go at responding to your OP

Thank you

tealady

NeilCr wrote: »

If you could explain in words of one syllable (for this thicko) what I’m missing I’d be happy to have another go at responding to your OP

Thank you

+1

Perhaps that is the way these businesses work, could be a case of not wanting to recruit a round peg for a square hole (or visa versa)?

Fireflyaway

I think personality is important, we spend so much time with colleagues and depending on your role, you could be representing the company or leading a team. Nobody wants an arrogant manager or someone dull with no enthusiasm for delivering a good service.
If I had to chose, I'd pick the person with a good personality and teach them any missing skills.
If the questions got too personal I'd be a bit wary. You don't want them to discriminate against you. Stuff like are you planning to have kids etc.

FBaby

As a manager who has recruited many employees, I so wish we could employ based on personality than experience because it's definitely personality that will determine better how good a person is likely to do a job.

The person with the right personality and I would add intelligence will learn very quickly and earnestly. The person with experience might be bored, blaze, and just never been very good at it anyway regardless if they've done the job for 20 years.

Of course it depends on the job, I would rather than experience and training tromp over personality when it comes to recruiting pilots and air traffic controllers!

shortcrust

It's naive and elitist to think that skills and experience should be so far above personal factors in an employer’s mind.

It's easier to teach someone new job based skills than it is to teach them how to fit in with a team, how to build rapport with customers etc etc etc. They don't care about hobbies and interests, but rather how you cope in a situation where you're asked to talk with other people about yourselves.

I've been involved in lots of recruitment. Usually you get down to a group who all have the skills and experience to do the job. It then comes down to who you think you might be able to tolerate sitting near for the next x number of years. You often know within two minutes who that person is. You often know within a few seconds who that person isn't!

You can and should work on the personal stuff. It's important.

seashore22

I'm assuming that there was something in the op's second post that demonstrated exactly why their personality may be an issue.

GothicStirling

Skills can be taught, personality no so much. In the NHS Trust I work for, personality is a huge factor in employment. The last thing you want to be greeted by at reception, after being told your Mum is critical, is a face-ache who can't be bothered, and just grunts directions to CCU.

getmore4less

seashore22 wrote: »

I'm assuming that there was something in the op's second post that demonstrated exactly why their personality may be an issue.

there was nothing that required MSE intervention.

moneyistooshorttomention

Swings and roundabouts a bit maybe? according to what type of job or career it is.

My father got told he was appointed for a job (teacher) over a total obvious genius type - because he so obviously likes children (which wasnt true of the other one). Though he is also intelligent and was good at teaching and so was suitable for the job as regards qualifications etc as well.

On the other hand - I got taken on for a secretarial job at one point - because I quite obviously had the best qualifications and the person-who-normally would have been the one selecting for that job was thoroughly annoyed I was told - because they didnt want somebody with the highest qualifications for that post (not a personality thing - but because a higher-qualified person could do their job and they didnt want a potential rival:rotfl:).

So there are personality reasons for taking someone less qualified. On the other hand - there are people too insecure to take on the best person and that will deliberately not do so if they get the chance to take on a worse person (ie that wouldnt be able to do their job).:cool:

robatwork

worldsending wrote: »

even where I lived exactly which seemed a little intrusive.

And from the other side of the table..... we had someone in for interview recently. He said he lived in TownA. Interview the next week with other people he said he lived in TownB.

Not only is it important where you live so the employer can determine if you will get quickly hacked off with the commute (which happens despite employees swearing at interview they don't mind an hour drive), it's also at best confusing, at worst lying. He hadn't moved in that week as we asked, and he couldn't explain about the TownA answer, he just denied he said it.

He didn't get further...just hope he got home OK