New Job Interview Stuff

INTERVIEW DAY

I had a recent job interview last week to be exact and I thought I would share the experience. It was first thing in the morning at 9 which may have been a mistake. It was a very hot day and given that the business was a 20 minute plus walk from the train station with little shade by the time I got in to the reception area I felt somewhat unpleasant.

I thankfully had some time to freshen up a bit but not really long enough to stop sweating but I was happy enough having spent the day before getting familiar with the role. This interview came with the dreaded task before the actual interview.

THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW

It was a Word and Excel assignment the former being a Mail Merge and the latter a Chart builder. With lots of mistakes and changes to be made such as add this line, make that a fancy table it is way too easy to burn through the precious, precious time. Look below for my rant on interview tasks.

Personally I have a lot of problems with the task based interviews as it is not something that you can adequately prepare for unless you're super lucky. I do office work so my tasks are generally if not 99% of the time Word and Excel stuff. You almost never get enough time and the assignment is broken down in a way which is the most counter-intuitive possible.

The way that instructions are listed in those tasks generally ensure that they take up as much time as possible. You could rearrange them and have them done in half the time. Perhaps that's the point but what does that have to do with a job situation where you've got training on how the company you work for likes to do things. To me it makes no damn sense.

Enough of my ranting about job interviews though don't want to talk myself out of future ones.

Some Thoughts About Interviews

So things have settled down in the house of Shaft. Over the last few months even though it hasn't really ever felt like it I have been pretty lucky with getting job interviews but for those of us in the know getting the interview isn't even anywhere near half the job. If you ask my SEETEC advisor you can smile your way straight into a job and for some people with an easy smile and charisma (Han Solo people like that) but it is not that easy for the rest of us. I'm a serious person and I don't think that is something that should be a negative in the job market (unless you're a professional clown I suppose) but the only feedback that my SEETEC advisor is willing to offer is smile more and that I am too serious.

She says that I don't smile enough when I am at SEETEC and I can confirm that is true. Is it because the Work Programme is demeaning and that in the past while at SEETEC I was bullied by the manager and had no redress. That could be it, but then could it be because of that time when SEETEC tried to get me sanctioned (where the DWP withhold your Job Seekers Allowance because you failed to properly look for work) because I informed them I could not attend an appointment because I had got myself a job interview? Could it have been the many times where they refused to help with the cost of attending interviews which is in clear violation to the rules and regulations?

Really in the end who knows why I look so grumpy while attending appointments at SEETEC but that is beside the point as I like most sensible people try to put my best self forward at job interviews, due to that whole chance of them paying you money to work for them after the fact. For some reason which if you were to ask me I would say is down to the fact that the advisors have a very limited view of the job market and jobseekers and as I don't fit into that narrow band. I've gotten off topic this is about interviews which to me have always seemed a strange way of getting work.

In an interview you answer questions and it is all about how you come across to the perspective employer or their representatives. Fine in theory but taking a closer look is that really the best way to choose workers? In some feedback I have got back from prospective employers from administrative/receptionist roles is that they didn't think I came across as friendly, one even said that I did not seem enthused about working in an SU HE environment, they couldn't be more wrong in their assessment of me and that is the rub. On one side we are always told not to judge people by our preconceived notions but I can't help but feel judged by these interview panels as a non-traditional prospective employee. I have the experience I have the skills so when I read some of the feedback I can't help but laugh in that sort of way that contains no warmth or hope at all.

Anyway enough of this I need to go study for my next interview.