What's it like having and earning loads of money??

Iamdebtfree

Based on what I've read and experienced, most interviewers decide whether you're a yes or a no in the space of less than a minute from first laying eyes on you  and it has nothing to do with your stellar presentation of yourself professionally or your CV. It's a mix of biology and psychology. 

I got my first job in England many years ago because my then boss had a thing for a long -dark -haired exotic size 8 look /happy cheeky bubbly smiley demeanor- both of which I possessed at the time. The woman he hired after I left could have been my double. 

This isn't necessarily always the matter of physical attraction. It could be the tone of voice, the smell of perfume/aftershave, a person's laugh, their walk, their gestures, their entire self. 

Ten people with equal qualifications and experience. Only one gets the job because the main man/woman just. .likes them best.

robatwork

Iamdebtfree said:

Based on what I've read and experienced, most interviewers decide whether you're a yes or a no in the space of less than a minute from first laying eyes on you  and it has nothing to do with your stellar presentation of yourself professionally or your CV. It's a mix of biology and psychology. 

Having sat a lot more on the interviewing side of the desk than the interviewee, I'm inclined to agree.

I'd liken it to a house purchase. You can tell in the first minute if it's a yes/possible.  I've interviewed people who seem like a yes but then say more than one daft thing and rule themselves out. But more often than not by the time they've answered "how was your journey?" my first impression is also my final impression.

Similarly I've done interviews where you know it's a no, but feel the need to go through the motions anyway. In a way I wish I was less "well-mannered English" and just said I don't think you're right for us so let's not waste your time any further. 

You did say something interesting about smell - my visceral reaction to one interviewee who had BO as soon as they walked in meant that even if they were incredibly well suited to the job, they wouldn't be getting it.

AskAsk

robatwork said:

Iamdebtfree said:

Based on what I've read and experienced, most interviewers decide whether you're a yes or a no in the space of less than a minute from first laying eyes on you  and it has nothing to do with your stellar presentation of yourself professionally or your CV. It's a mix of biology and psychology. 

Having sat a lot more on the interviewing side of the desk than the interviewee, I'm inclined to agree.

I'd liken it to a house purchase. You can tell in the first minute if it's a yes/possible.  I've interviewed people who seem like a yes but then say more than one daft thing and rule themselves out. But more often than not by the time they've answered "how was your journey?" my first impression is also my final impression.

Similarly I've done interviews where you know it's a no, but feel the need to go through the motions anyway. In a way I wish I was less "well-mannered English" and just said I don't think you're right for us so let's not waste your time any further. 

You did say something interesting about smell - my visceral reaction to one interviewee who had BO as soon as they walked in meant that even if they were incredibly well suited to the job, they wouldn't be getting it.

people naturally recruit people they like as they would think that person would fit well into the organisation and the team.  the CV is important however, particularly for professional jobs as it demonstrates how competent and experienced the candidate is.  i am not sure the layout of the CV will have an enormous impact, unless it was very messy and puts the recruiter off.

when it comes to the interview itself, the candidates invited to interview would have already established on their CV that they have the ability and experience to do the job.  the interview is therefore a test of the facts stated on the CV as people are known to lie and exagerate their CV.  it is also a test of whether they are the best candidate to the others who have also been invited to interview. 

for technical professional roles, assessment of their ability will be done during the interview, whether formally in a question related to their job or informally in a question to test their skills that may not be directly related to their job.  so how they perform during interview is also important.

Gavin83

robatwork said:

Iamdebtfree said:

Based on what I've read and experienced, most interviewers decide whether you're a yes or a no in the space of less than a minute from first laying eyes on you  and it has nothing to do with your stellar presentation of yourself professionally or your CV. It's a mix of biology and psychology. 

Having sat a lot more on the interviewing side of the desk than the interviewee, I'm inclined to agree.

I'd liken it to a house purchase. You can tell in the first minute if it's a yes/possible.  I've interviewed people who seem like a yes but then say more than one daft thing and rule themselves out. But more often than not by the time they've answered "how was your journey?" my first impression is also my final impression.

Similarly I've done interviews where you know it's a no, but feel the need to go through the motions anyway. In a way I wish I was less "well-mannered English" and just said I don't think you're right for us so let's not waste your time any further. 

You did say something interesting about smell - my visceral reaction to one interviewee who had BO as soon as they walked in meant that even if they were incredibly well suited to the job, they wouldn't be getting it.

If you’re deciding in the first minute whether you want to employ someone or not I’m guessing it isn’t based on ability but more just a feel. Has there been a situation where you’ve thought “no” in that first minute, they’ve gone on to give a great interview and you’ve reconsidered your opinion?

amandacat

I interview frequently. Personally I don’t make a decision within the first couple of minutes. I have had people that I’ve thought ‘probably’ aren’t right in the first few minutes but as they relax in the interview they’ve changed my mind. 
The biggest reasons I don’t progress candidates are:
Not prepared for the interview eg don’t have the documents they were asked to bring.
Bad mouthing their current employer. 
Being quite flat or unenthusiastic.
Waffling in their answers but not giving any substance eg. Not giving examples from their experiences to back up their answers. 
I have taken on people with weaker cvs in terms of qualifications and experience who are more positive with better interview answers. The way I see it is I can train someone with gaps if they have the commitment and right attitude. This approach has always worked for me over the years. What I can’t do is train someone who is naturally negative, confrontational or disorganised to change their attitude or behaviours, no matter how good their experiences. I’ve dealt with enough client complaints in my time due to staff behaviour to know this. 
My biggest tips are to be positive, don’t bad mouth or be negative at any point. Have some notes prepared of experiences you could use as examples (particularly useful on video interviews). 
Also remember that you are interviewing the company as well, you need to make sure the role and company ethic is right for you so don’t be afraid to ask questions.  I’m always very open when I interview, I talk through the reality of the role, the KPIs, the key challenges and the positives. I’ve sat in with colleagues as note taker where they’ve sold the candidate a dream job, they’ve not asked many questions and then the candidate has left shortly after starting with us because it wasn’t the amazing job they were sold. 

MovingForwards

I've interviewed people for quite a few jobs, professional roles, and two which always stick in my mind:
1. Great CV, on paper perfect for the position, he couldn't explain anything about previous jobs nor answer questions / use examples of prior experience relating to what was asked.
2. Turned up looking like she was about to go clubbing, see through blouse, tight fitting short skirt to name a couple of items. Also didn't interview well and needed questions repeated a few times.

People who were offered the positions turned up in a full suit, answered the questions with examples and sufficient detail, even if it wasn't in a similar job as it demonstrated transferable skills, chatted with ease and asked their own questions at the end.

MattMattMattUK

It depends, costs and expenditure rises accordingly. For the last few years until Covid I earned around £120k pa, after tax that is around £7.5k pcm. I put £2.5k pcm into my pension, I overpaid my mortgage so I was paying £2k pcm on that, bills, food, petrol etc. came to around £550 pcm, I put around £1k a month into savings and spend the rest on going out, to music gigs, football, social etc. 

I had a comfortable life, I did not feel financial pressure, but I am not flash in any way, I wear a Fitbit not an expensive watch, I drive a ten year old VW Golf, I do not wear designer brands, or go to flash bars and restaurants. My friends and family had a reasonable idea what I earned, but if you met me in a pub or at football you would not be able to tell how much I earned. Similarly this year I will probably only earn £18k, I can still pay my mortgage,  but not over pay. Social has all dropped to beers in the local pub when it is open, but that is the same for everyone and there are no gigs or sport so expenditure is down a lot and I will not pay into my pension this year apart from Jan and Feb. I have savings that could tide me over for a year to 18 months if I needed them to, but again I am not broke either.

The main difference for me is that I am secure enough to not worry, I can feed and house myself without having to think about how to pay the bills, but I am also very financially prudent, others may get different mileage. 

robatwork

Gavin83 said:

If you’re deciding in the first minute whether you want to employ someone or not I’m guessing it isn’t based on ability but more just a feel. Has there been a situation where you’ve thought “no” in that first minute, they’ve gone on to give a great interview and you’ve reconsidered your opinion?

That's a good question Gavin. Sort of - we had a candidate that I got a "bad feeling" about but it was a 2 person interview so we ran through it. My colleague loved his experience and answers but also had a niggly feeling. So he was brought back in for 2 further interviews with other colleagues. He seemed more confident and personable and we debated for quite a while about whether to offer. The truth is he was better than the only other candidate but we should have continued interviewing. We gave him the job.

Turned out to be disastrous. He had a million problems that exhibited within a few weeks. My little voice turned out to be a better judge than we were. 

Sandtree

Iamdebtfree said:

Based on what I've read and experienced, most interviewers decide whether you're a yes or a no in the space of less than a minute from first laying eyes on you  and it has nothing to do with your stellar presentation of yourself professionally or your CV. It's a mix of biology and psychology. 

I got my first job in England many years ago because my then boss had a thing for a long -dark -haired exotic size 8 look /happy cheeky bubbly smiley demeanor- both of which I possessed at the time. The woman he hired after I left could have been my double. 

This isn't necessarily always the matter of physical attraction. It could be the tone of voice, the smell of perfume/aftershave, a person's laugh, their walk, their gestures, their entire self. 

Ten people with equal qualifications and experience. Only one gets the job because the main man/woman just. .likes them best.

I would like to think that in the professional world people are not hired based on their looks and having worked with many clients I would say the rooms are typically filled with many shapes, colours and ages (though typically male biased).

However there is a significant amount about simply liking the candidate... after all you are potentially going to be working closely with this person for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week potentially for a few years. If someone grates on your nerves after 10 minutes of interview hows it going to be after months of working with them every day.

Occasionally you don’t get much choice; more than once its been a case of getting the least worst and some have turned out to be good hires and one of them I couldn’t fire quick enough and would have been better off just doing the work myself. 

Gavin83

Mr_Maths said:

In my line of work (data) very few people are attractive. It is true to say some industries do have a disproportionately high number of attractive people in them. Whilst it would be naive to think nobody uses looks as their criteria I think it's also partly to do with what people studied. 

I had friends at uni who studied Drama and I met lots of people from their course and there was definitely a lot of attractive people on there. On my Maths course though I only remember one female I found attractive and she dropped out in the first year. 

I work in data (more from the IT side) and I'm gorgeous. 

In all seriousness it'll depend on what industry you're in. If you work with data looks are entirely irrelevant. However if you're in a role that involves charming people or winning them over (think customer facing roles, sales roles, acting as mentioned above) looks become an extremely important part of your overall package. Some might consider this wrong but regardless this type of looks discrimination definitely exists.