Job Offer - No Interview

Grumpy_chap

Hi,

My wife is currently looking for a new job so has her CV on the online job-boards.  She received a call yesterday from an agency about a role that was perfect for her, so she said she was interested.  The agency came back this morning to say the job is hers and start next week.  It is a temporary role, 3 months contract.

No interview, not even a telephone / zoom interview, other than the chat with the agency.

My wife is pleased to have the offer and the end-client is a very large construction company, so the worst she could lose is to turn up and be told it was a mistake as large companies don't tend to mess people around.  

Obviously, she needs to provide the compliance information, but the agency seem established, although we never heard of them previously.

It just seemed odd that the offer landed without any kind of interview.  As it is a temporary contract, do they offer the job to just start, and then treat the first week as a trial / interview?

[Deleted User]

Is it a remote job? I got offered to start work next day from home at 3pm one day back in April with 'no interview necessary' "someone has backed out last minute" situation from a specialised recruitment consultant for a household name of a company, I got the feeling I was nothing more then being pushed onto the client in the end, their IT department had other ideas too thankfully, I gave it 3 hours doing nothing before I decided I would do the 2 face to face interviews I had planned for the day this so called work was meant to start! so I was glad I changed my mind in the end and it made my realise home working wasn't me going forward - I do remember the agency paperwork had terms that they could let you go in 24 hours if I recall correctly.

Though it worked well in the past when times where different, back in 2015 a 4 week job offered without interview, start next day at 4pm afternoon before, lasted 17 weeks. Plus there was the courier company that saved me literally in a December, called out of the blue on a Friday to start Monday as the temp (even after a couple of months had passed since I interviewed for the perm position and hadn't been successful). Though now appreciate, I was extremely blessed with the colleagues at the time. So sometimes yes it can work out.

Grumpy_chap

Thanks - so it is not entirely unusual and everything should be all OK.  My wife liked this role as it is a "proper" attend the office job rather than "remote" WFH.  I guess it is, as you say, 1 day notice so they can treat the first few days as the trial / interview.

I was just surprised as I do contract work, usually with people I know, and even that still has a meet and chat before starting.

Nowt to be concerned about.

MovingForwards

All my experiences of agency work used to be 'here's the job, turn up on Monday'. It's only been the last two temp jobs where I was 'interviewed' for the roles.

Grumpy_chap

Thanks.  It's obviously quite standard then but I was not aware.

Sandtree

It depends on the nature of the role.

In the past I've known high volume/high turnover of staff roles to delegate candidate selection to an agency but in those cases they struggled to get applicants rather than struggling to select who to offer to and so as long as you passed basic checks the job was yours but you may not want it for very long.

Where candidates start outweighing roles significantly then fewer companies outsource the selection process.

Grumpy_chap

Sandtree said:

In the past I've known high volume/high turnover of staff roles to delegate candidate selection to an agency but in those cases they struggled to get applicants rather than struggling to select who to offer to and so as long as you passed basic checks the job was yours but you may not want it for very long.

Let's hope it's not this.
The end Client is a large employer with a contract for a Local Authority, so hopefully some reasonable level of personnel management.

Sandtree

Grumpy_chap said:
Let's hope it's not this.

The end Client is a large employer with a contract for a Local Authority, so hopefully some reasonable level of personnel management.

I saw it in telesales and directory enquiries (before BT's monopoly was ended)... wasnt generally that people were being sacked/let go its just the nature of role. Phoning up customers and trying to flog extended warranties or book appointments for double glazing etc. Managers trying to encourage sales in positive ways but at the same time having to criticize when KPIs weren't being hit (of which some were exceptionally tough to get to).

Personally, those sorts of jobs in principle werent bad other than mind numbingly boring and you get the weeks where you see your call lists are people that bought just a couple of weeks ago so you just know the conversations are going to be negative and sales low.

Grumpy_chap

Thank you.

I can understand that some jobs will never have people staying and the employer simply wants whoever will do the job that day.  Delivering flyers for the local pizza take away is one such task that comes to mind.

Outside of that type of role, if there is high turnover of staff, defaulting to "we'll take whoever will turn up" probably simply puts the whole thing into a vicious downward spiral and there would likely be benefit in the employer reviewing matters to improve things to everyone's benefit.

Still, my wife starts the new role on Wednesday, so just hoping that she gets a better experience than a "we'll take whoever turns up until they stop turning up" role. 

Sandtree

Grumpy_chap said:

Outside of that type of role, if there is high turnover of staff, defaulting to "we'll take whoever will turn up" probably simply puts the whole thing into a vicious downward spiral and there would likely be benefit in the employer reviewing matters to improve things to everyone's benefit.

Having run such a project it can be difficult especially if one of your options isnt to increase salaries. We did interview (though we changed how that was done) and the overall turnover wasn't so bad but it was poor for new recruits. In first year 70% left, in 2nd year of employment its more like 15%. 

Not helped by the fact that next door was a rival (and certainly a rival rather than competitor) who paid 25% more and would at times stand outside our office handing staff job ads or tell people to get a job with us to do their training and then come to them for their real job. Plus it was large student town so many wanting term time work then leaving for the summer holidays etc.

Anyway, good luck to the wife for the new job and hopefully she doesn't find it so bad.

Grumpy_chap

Thanks for everyone's comments and thoughts.

My wife did her first day at the new job today and it went suitably well, so far as anyone can ever tell in a first day.  Apparently the last short-term person to have the role my wife now has just took on a permanent role in the business, so it can't be all bad