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I know, right. Asking people to tell you about your past experience and articulate previous times that you successfully dealt with the situations and problems you will encounter in the job you are interviewing for is complete psychobabble.
Expecting them to give truthful, unspun nor idealized anwsers is just painfully naive.
Describe a time you had a conflict with a coworker?I cursed and screamed at him and pitched an erlenmeyer flask at him. Describe your ideal manager?Pope Francis IWhat is your greatest weakness?I like to come in late, drink early, am prone to violent outbursts, use foul language...
Well, they'd better reconsider next time the opportunity comes up. Because most companies these days don't even do one-on-one interviews anymore. They're all done by a group of people.
My close friend's father, who's in his late 60s, has been unemployed for nearly 3 years. He was about at the end of his rope and he had 2 interviews left, then nothing else scheduled.
We had him come in for lunch one day and we spent about 90 minutes with him reviewing the questions they had asked him when he interviewed with the same people for a slightly different job a few months prior. We went through every question, wrote down SPECIFIC answers and examples of things like, "tell us about a time you worked as part of a team to do XYZ."
We helped him change some of the answers he'd been giving to these questions before, inadvertently shooting himself in the foot. We helped him find a positive and honest spin for the challenges usually posed to older applicants and in fact had him write down some things that make an older person BETTER for the job.
And we told him yes, it was TOTALLY ok to go in with notes, it shows you care enough to be prepared!
I could tell he was scared and flustered, but it worked like a charm. He followed our advice and beat out 900 - yes, 900 other applicants for the job. I nearly cried the day my friend called to tell me he was hired. Not just the self-worth that comes with a full-time job and the salary it brings, but great benefits and $600 a month back in his pocket that he won't have to spend on healthcare.
It can be done. But you have to want to do it. You want to. You will succeed. My hat is off to you.
I once had the opportunity to hire or not hire a woman who wanted the job. Well, supposedly she did. She was to accompany me as I kept appointments with the people who had been injured on the job. My job was to see what could be done so they could return to work. I followed the directions of the owner of the company I worked for and dressed very casually. Nothing fancy, just slacks and blouse or sweater. plain jewelry. I'd told the possible employee specifically not to dress up, but, she ignored me. Heels, nylons, skirt, suit jacket, etc., everything but a hat. She said, she felt so much better wearing what she had on. I wanted to tell her she may as well stay home, because she wasn't going to get the job, but, I didn't say it.
Interesting. Not enough info to know why they did not participate but some commenters came up wit some theories. My thought was maybe the group did not like or feel the person who brought up the idea was valid. They don;t respect that person for some reason, right or wrong so they don't want to participate. Was the person bossy, stupid, nerdy? Maybe if some other person had brought the idea up they would have done it for them? Or maybe the group feels it is more a support, social group and want to commiserate?
This, is a likely option, as well as people just not wanting to be apart of it due to the anxiety. Now if these mock interviews are private, perhaps it would be more easily accepted.
Expecting them to give truthful, unspun nor idealized anwsers is just painfully naive.
Describe a time you had a conflict with a coworker?I cursed and screamed at him and pitched an erlenmeyer flask at him. Describe your ideal manager?Pope Francis IWhat is your greatest weakness?I like to come in late, drink early, am prone to violent outbursts, use foul language...
Do you think the majority of people that are poor at working with others really scream and curse at their co-workers? I don't think I have ever seen that happen. It's more likely that people who do have good experience dealing with conflict would have a few great examples of the scenario and how they handled it and people that weren't successful would have pretty poor and vague responses. andI wouldn't consider the second question a good interview question in the first place, it's irrelevant and most companies are starting to see that.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ImtheBrilliantest
I can kind of understand why people wouldn't volunteer. I'd hate to be the center of attention in a class of strangers, where people were trying to see if I messed up somewhere, even if it's to help me improve. It may help, but it's definitely nerve-wracking.
Better to mess up in front of strangers in a class than in front of strangers making hiring decisions. That is much more nerve wracking.
Better to mess up in front of strangers in a class than in front of strangers making hiring decisions. That is much more nerve wracking.
That is true but the nature of things is when you have public speaking, some people in the school setting will make dumb jokes about comments. These lowest common denominators people could make many people think twice.
That is true but the nature of things is when you have public speaking, some people in the school setting will make dumb jokes about comments. These lowest common denominators people could make many people think twice.
Some of the students, all in their 30s to 50s, snickered when I gave a funny answer to a question and another told me that I really looked silly up there. I am sure this is exactly why lots of the students were afraid to stick their neck out and do the mock interview.
Last edited by I'm Retired Now; 10-30-2013 at 05:46 AM..
Some of the students snickered when I gave a funny answer to a question and another told me that I really looked silly up there. I am sure this is exactly why lots of the students were afraid to stick their neck out and do the mock interview.
Are these adults or high school kids?
Anywho, I wouldn't spend time or energy even thinking about them. Your goal is to get a job. So do what you think it will take to help with that goal.
Good for you for getting up and doing it even if you waited to see if someone else would do it first. The thing is you did it.
When was preparing for my most recent interview I had a friend who would role play with me and it really was a big help. She got me thinking of things I never thought of and when it came down to the day whenever I got into a sticky moment the things I learned from he helped me through them. My interview was in front of eight different people in four sessions and I was interviewing for a job field for which I had no experience or education. I am a very introverted person so this was no small challenge.
I got the job.
If it were not for stepping out of my comfort zone and being willing to practice despite being uncomfortable by being put on the spot, I probably would not have gotten it. I always tell people if you want something badly enough you find a way to get it. Sometimes that way includes doing things that you would normally shy away from.
OP Good luck in your job hunt. You seem to have a good attitude and that will hep you where other will just fail.
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