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My little rant but honestly...what ever happened to those who actually are willing to work hard for what they earn instead of being concerned about how much vacation time they get or the minimum amount of hours they need to put in.
I had an interview today for an engineer in our firm that's applying to work under me as an operations liaison, he's been here for about 8 years and he's a nice guy. Interview went pretty well, had a couple other candidates I was also going to interview but I thought this guy would be a pretty good fit for the job considering his skill set. Anyway towards the end of the interview, I ask him if he has any questions and he asks right off the bat "So how many more vacation hours would I receive and what's the minimum amount of hours I'd have to put it each week?". REALLY?!? WHY would you ask this for a job you don't even have, it puts a bad taste in my mouth. It sounds to me as if you really aren't committed to what you're doing but rather want to get more time off for a vacation and want to work the least hours possible.
By the way, people keep saying the employment contract is a "fair negotiation", why did it leave you with a bad taste that someone dare have the rocks to ask you what the company could do for him in exchange for his labor?
People don't work for free. This isn't about him volunteering himself to you or company's benefit. He wants to know what he is going to get out of the position. And I damn well support that.
Location: where people are either too stupid to leave or too stuck to move
3,982 posts, read 6,688,919 times
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you should be happy he asked, you could have hired then found out later..then again whats the big deal with him asking? he might want to make plans ahead of time to work it out
I think that is just poor interviewing skills. Maybe because he already worked there he felt comfortable enough to ask. I can't blame hime for wanting to know (most of us work because we have to not because we live what we do) but I think that's like rule #8 of things not to ask on an interview.
Guess he didn't check all the hundreds of articles on the subject scattered online.
My little rant but honestly...what ever happened to those who actually are willing to work hard for what they earn instead of being concerned about how much vacation time they get or the minimum amount of hours they need to put in.
I had an interview today for an engineer in our firm that's applying to work under me as an operations liaison, he's been here for about 8 years and he's a nice guy. Interview went pretty well, had a couple other candidates I was also going to interview but I thought this guy would be a pretty good fit for the job considering his skill set. Anyway towards the end of the interview, I ask him if he has any questions and he asks right off the bat "So how many more vacation hours would I receive and what's the minimum amount of hours I'd have to put it each week?". REALLY?!? WHY would you ask this for a job you don't even have, it puts a bad taste in my mouth. It sounds to me as if you really aren't committed to what you're doing but rather want to get more time off for a vacation and want to work the least hours possible.
Just had to vent.
What is the problem? I also asked this kind of questions. I have a family, and I would not agree to work 70-80 hours or nights. Another question that I ask is what would I learn from this position. Which skills it will give me.
Job interview is not one way street. When you are interviewing a professional with skills and experience, he is not going to lick your shoes.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,753,896 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ
My little rant but honestly...what ever happened to those who actually are willing to work hard for what they earn instead of being concerned about how much vacation time they get or the minimum amount of hours they need to put in.
I had an interview today for an engineer in our firm that's applying to work under me as an operations liaison, he's been here for about 8 years and he's a nice guy. Interview went pretty well, had a couple other candidates I was also going to interview but I thought this guy would be a pretty good fit for the job considering his skill set. Anyway towards the end of the interview, I ask him if he has any questions and he asks right off the bat "So how many more vacation hours would I receive and what's the minimum amount of hours I'd have to put it each week?". REALLY?!? WHY would you ask this for a job you don't even have, it puts a bad taste in my mouth. It sounds to me as if you really aren't committed to what you're doing but rather want to get more time off for a vacation and want to work the least hours possible.
Just had to vent.
So you have a problem with a potential candidate knowing exactly what they are getting into if he accepts another position different than the current one?
The interviewee is just following a life rule on wisdom. Before committing to anything, know everything you can about what you are getting into. Would it have made you feel better if he had taken the job and after the fact complained to high heaven about how many hours he had to work or vacation time he had lost?
To burst your bubble, this guy was not starving for a paycheck so you could not throw any benefits package at him and he would accept blindly. I hope you learn that employees are gonna wanna know about terms of employment before they take a job and they would be stupid not to do otherwise.
Many employers ask the candidates about their wage requirments, or if they have issues with travel, or if they have reasons they can;t work late when needed, or is they ....... and you balk if the candidate ask equally important questions to them of you in return??????
Bad form on his part. He should have asked you what a typical day was like for someone in that position. That would have been your cue to tell him what the hours were. If he was really smart, he'd simply do some digging and find out from other people in the company what it's like to work in your department. I mean, he's already there. I can't imagine applying for another position within a given organization without getting the scoop on the department, the boss, and the coworkers, but that's just me.
As for vacation, he should have saved that for when you made the offer, and even then, he should have couched it in more diplomatic terms. "I don't recall if we discussed whether there would be a change in benefits. Refresh my memory?"
I don't have a problem with people wanting to know such things, but I can see how the way he asked could have left a bad impression.
At my last job (I recently resigned as DH & I are relocating) I was the first tier in the interview and hiring process. I agree, it IS hard to find people who want to work.
I would guesstimate that out of every 10 interviews I conducted (we were forever hiring as it was in a very transient military town and employee retention was a nightmare) I maybe only got 1 or 2 candidates that I would recommend for the next stage of the hiring process.
It seemed that the only things people cared about were:
-Employee Perks (free/discounted hotel rooms for themselves and family)
-Paid Vacation time
-A lot of vacation time
Additionally, the number of people who would start requesting an excessive amount of time off before they were even hired, I found to be alarming. If you need 3 months off, starting next month, why bother getting a job right now?
Like I said though, this was in a military town. A lot of these girls (and guys) were military spouses or in some way affiliated with the military (child, sibling, significant other). The demographic seemed to go hand in hand with "lack of work ethic".
I'm not saying that ALL younger people nowadays have no work ethic (my husband and I are in our 20s and I would like to think that we were hard working, motivated individuals), but it doesn't seem as deeply instilled as it was in generations past.
I blame the parents and social media jk.
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WHY would you ask this for a job you don't even have, it puts a bad taste in my mouth. It sounds to me as if you really aren't committed to what you're doing but rather want to get more time off for a vacation and want to work the least hours possible. 
jk.
