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A few years ago I was interviewing for a job and the lady who interviewed me closed her notebook after about 15 minutes and looked at me with a serious expression and said: "I have to be honest with you, your interviewing skills are very weak." Then went on and told me all the mistakes I was making and told me about a number of non verbal ticks I was doing that drove her crazy.
Of course I got defensive and told her off. My mistake! In the next few days I calmed down and did a lot of thinking about what she said and made an effort to improve. I did some training in public speaking and communication and hired someone to do mock interviews, which helped me a lot.
Would you want someone interviewing you to be really honest with you, or would you reject their advice, thinking that was THEIR OPINION ONLY?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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When calling to give them the bad news, HR may make suggestions to help the person, but as a hiring manager I would never make such a comment, or show any sign of my opinion, positive or negative in front of the interviewee.
It's not only unprofessional but I don't like to play with people by giving them false hope nor to ruin their hopes prematurely.
I had a company tell me that I was weak in specific skills that they were looking for. I never went on the defensive, but acknowledged the fact. I then offered, during the interview, to take time to learn the specific skills deficiency if they brought me on board. I did get the offer!
I got told once that I was "weak on paper" and they knew that, but brought me in for an interview anyway. I was kind of pissed, since I'd taken the afternoon off my contract job and wasn't getting paid and wasted my gas and time. The commute would have been crappy too. I stood up, thanked the guy for his time, and left.
A few years ago I was interviewing for a job and the lady who interviewed me closed her notebook after about 15 minutes and looked at me with a serious expression and said: "I have to be honest with you, your interviewing skills are very weak." Then went on and told me all the mistakes I was making and told me about a number of non verbal ticks I was doing that drove her crazy.
Of course I got defensive and told her off.
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Don't you think she was doing you a favor by being honest? Because clearly, your interviewing skills were not just weak, they were abysmal. Especially for a man in his 60s.
I work in the legal field and it's all about how you handle yourself under pressure. I was SCRUTINIZED in my last interview. The executive director and lead attorney just nailed me on all the things she thought were wrong or questionable and as it stands, it was all a test in how I would handle it.
She admitted to me on the day she called and made the offer that I had the job before I left the office that day.
However yes, in theory, I would LOVE for someone to tell me about ways I can improve my interviewing technique so that I could nail the next position. Honestly? She had me going home to rewrite my resume tailored to a criminal defense firm because it really was prosecution heavy.
We dealt with this recently at where I work. We require all candidates to pass a test and get a minimum score of 75% correct. The guy who came in got none of the questions right. An email from the hiring manager went out to the local team saying the interview was going badly and that they would just say myself and the other two people who were set to interview were busy with production issues. Friendly guy, but obviously a weak candidate.
Somewhat close to the OP, I was told by an interviewer they felt my skill set would be better used in "X" field. I really didn't want to hear that, but I thanked him for his observation and his time. In thinking more carefully about it and in networking with a couple others, they felt he was likely accurate. So I pressed forward to another area and ultimately secured a good position.
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