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As someone who does a lot of hiring for a living, I am continually amazed at the horrible interview skills I see every day. Even from people who have had solid jobs (career paths) and are highly educated with several advanced degrees.
Here's some tips on what NOT to say or do during a preliminary job interview. Ever.
1. Showing up late to the interview. Dealbreaker. In my company, if you are not 15 minutes early, you are late. If you are 15 minutes late (I see this a lot), you are a waste of my time because there's no way you are getting hired.
2. Saying you want a 9-5 job. No full-time job is ever 9-5 in my company.
3. Saying you need to be able to take your kids to school, pick up your kids from school, and take them to after-school activities every work day. Sorry, this is what nannies are for.
4. Saying you need a month off every year for your annual family vacation to XYZ country.
5. Checking your text messages on your phone during the interview.
6. Saying that that only reason you applied for the job is so you can get health insurance.
7. Showing up to the interview with an unsightly appearance.
8. Talking about politics during the interview and how much you "would really like to leave the country due to Donald Trump."
9. Saying you are getting married and will need a month off for your wedding and honeymoon right after you start.
10. Saying the only reason you applied for this job is so you can work from home.
I think these are all common sense tips but sometimes people need common sense advice.
I noticed the OP stated "what not to say during a preliminary job interview. I take that to mean an interview by someone in human resources. My experience as both someone who hired people directly and as someone interviewing for jobs is that interviews with HR people is a checklist type of interview. They want to check off that you have the right education, years of experience, can carry on a conversation, and have not recently got out of prison. They would screen people out who I considered potential hires and send me people who I wasn't interested in hiring. Therefor, it is critical that you do all the right things as listed above, use proper grammar, smile, ask a couple of good acceptable questions, and have good rehearsed answers to canned questions, etc.
As someone who does a lot of hiring for a living, I am continually amazed at the horrible interview skills I see every day. Even from people who have had solid jobs (career paths) and are highly educated with several advanced degrees.
Here's some tips on what NOT to say or do during a preliminary job interview. Ever.
1. Showing up late to the interview. Dealbreaker. In my company, if you are not 15 minutes early, you are late. If you are 15 minutes late (I see this a lot), you are a waste of my time because there's no way you are getting hired.
2. Saying you want a 9-5 job. No full-time job is ever 9-5 in my company.
3. Saying you need to be able to take your kids to school, pick up your kids from school, and take them to after-school activities every work day. Sorry, this is what nannies are for.
4. Saying you need a month off every year for your annual family vacation to XYZ country.
5. Checking your text messages on your phone during the interview.
6. Saying that that only reason you applied for the job is so you can get health insurance.
7. Showing up to the interview with an unsightly appearance.
8. Talking about politics during the interview and how much you "would really like to leave the country due to Donald Trump."
9. Saying you are getting married and will need a month off for your wedding and honeymoon right after you start.
10. Saying the only reason you applied for this job is so you can work from home.
Saying you want a 9-5 job. No full-time job is ever 9-5 in my company.
Actually, that would be the definition of a full-time job.
If you're saying that your company likes to run understaffed, that's of course your company's prerogative.
Seems obvious to me that a discussion on working hours should be part of the interview process. I've never been in a job where 9-5 could be counted upon, and the nature of my job means nights and weekends. But I sure as all out expect a manager to at least try to keep the workweeks averaging at around 40 hours.
And if that's anathema for the company you're hiring for, thank you for your time, but I will put my skills to use elsewhere. (Unless I really need the job, in which case I'll keep my head down, get the job done, and get the hell out of Dodge.)
I've never been in a job where 9-5 could be counted upon, and the nature of my job means nights and weekends. But I sure as all out expect a manager to at least try to keep the workweeks averaging at around 40 hours.
And that's exactly how my company operates.
As an aside, clearly the majority of you in this thread could never work in Washington DC, where the 60 hour workweek is the norm and you are pretty much on call 24/7. Try telling a congressman or a Cabinet secretary or a magazine publisher or a thinktank that you only want to work 9-5 (no phone calls, texts or emails either thank you). None of those people are working 9-5. Neither is anyone who works in the offices of Amazon, Apple, Google or Instacart.
Pretty much 99.9% of the people I know who work in the business world reply to my emails on nights and weekends.
The job description includes "night and weekend work required," which I already explained in a prior post if you had bothered to read it. Employees have to travel occasionally nights and weekends every few months and the time is credited back as PTO.
Think about the insanity of what you are saying. THIS IS A WORK FROM HOME POSITION. Do you think if I was THAT controlling, that "hellish", that I would allow anyone to work from home?
Bottom line: There are certain things you should never mention during an interview: politics, mandatory vacation time, child care problems are just some of them.
Bossy and condescending...just how I like my coworkers. Again, you're clearly not doing a good enough job vetting candidates if you're getting those kinds of comments in interviews. Never in my job history in five countries have I ever encountered people who behaved this way, with the exception of one or two late arrivals over the years and one no-show.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sinatras
And that's exactly how my company operates.
As an aside, clearly the majority of you in this thread could never work in Washington DC, where the 60 hour workweek is the norm and you are pretty much on call 24/7. Try telling a congressman or a Cabinet secretary or a magazine publisher or a thinktank that you only want to work 9-5 (no phone calls, texts or emails either thank you). None of those people are working 9-5. Neither is anyone who works in the offices of Amazon, Apple, Google or Instacart.
Pretty much 99.9% of the people I know who work in the business world reply to my emails on nights and weekends.
Given that you seem to live and work in Tampa (according to your user profile), it looks like you don't crave the DC life either. Most people don't. That's why we don't choose it.
I get the occasional call out of hours and have to work the odd long day to take care of an issue in production. Usually someone else made the mess...sometimes it was me...but I'm always the one who has to clean it up. That's the nature of my job title and it would be the same anywhere you go. However, expecting me to be at someone's beck and call 24/7/365 because they refuse to staff up adequately is ludicrous. I'll work where my work-life balance is more respected, thank you very much.
This one's a difficult one not to be guilty of as I have. The only reason I checked my phone was because it was my mom and she was telling me where she'd be. I probably could have checked it later but I was worried it was even more important. I forgot it was even on. I did apologize. The interviewer said he didn't even hear it because he hears so many noises all day anyway. I think he was lying as an attempt to be polite because after I didn't get the call back that must have been a factor.
We all make mistakes, so don't beat yourself up about it... but for future reference (to anyone here saying "but I have to answer/respond!"), it's pretty simple to just not bring your phone into the interview. When I'm attending an interview, I literally only have my keys and maybe some breath mints in my pocket. That is IT. I'll leave everything else in my purse, and then lock it in the trunk of my car. And if there's some big emergency during those 30-60 minutes, it can be dealt with when I'm done. Unless you're a brain surgeon on call or something, there is no other reason the people calling/texting can't wait that long! People have just become so impatient these days, and seem to forget we all managed without cell phones until 20ish years ago. My mother raised three kids without one, and we're all still alive and well.
*Disclaimer: If you have an all-day interview situation and/or don't drive, this might not apply.
As someone who does a lot of hiring for a living, I am continually amazed at the horrible interview skills I see every day. Even from people who have had solid jobs (career paths) and are highly educated with several advanced degrees.
Here's some tips on what NOT to say or do during a preliminary job interview. Ever.
1. Showing up late to the interview. Dealbreaker. In my company, if you are not 15 minutes early, you are late. If you are 15 minutes late (I see this a lot), you are a waste of my time because there's no way you are getting hired.
2. Saying you want a 9-5 job. No full-time job is ever 9-5 in my company.
3. Saying you need to be able to take your kids to school, pick up your kids from school, and take them to after-school activities every work day. Sorry, this is what nannies are for.
4. Saying you need a month off every year for your annual family vacation to XYZ country.
5. Checking your text messages on your phone during the interview.
6. Saying that that only reason you applied for the job is so you can get health insurance.
7. Showing up to the interview with an unsightly appearance.
8. Talking about politics during the interview and how much you "would really like to leave the country due to Donald Trump."
9. Saying you are getting married and will need a month off for your wedding and honeymoon right after you start.
10. Saying the only reason you applied for this job is so you can work from home.
I also interview people very frequently as a hiring manager and have interviewed many in the past during the 10 years I spent as an HR manager.
1. I agree that it's generally a bad idea to show up late for the interview if it is something that you have control over such as just leaving the house late. However, **** happens and I've had candidates come late because they got lost, had traffic snarls, got stopped by the police, etc. I don't automatically discount people because they were late.
2. I don't think that anything is wrong with employees who want a healthy work-life balance. I would prefer that to having people who don't know how to be productive at work while maintaining a full life outside of work. I also don't have a problem with people who mention the hours they want but also will be upfront with them if overtime is likely.
3. People have kids/elderly parents they have to care for sometimes. Not all employees have a big support system that they can rely on and not all of them can afford a nanny. In your area maybe they can afford nannies; here it is only the wealthy who have nannies.
4. I would rather know about time off planned up front.
5. Agree with this. There is NO excuse to have your phone out in an interview, EVER. The interview is over with me if you pull your phone out.
6. Ha ha, at least they are being honest. The entire recruiting process is so dishonest the way it is set up. Everyone puts on their best behavior facade. The company representative talks only about the rainbow and unicorn farts aspects of the company and the candidate gives noble reasons why they wanna work there like the 'company culture' and such. Such a load of BS...people work to live. I work to go on fun vacations, pay my rent, etc. I also do work for the benefits but I'm not going to say that in the interview because I know what answer is wanted.
7. People should make an effort to look decent and should be clean. I've had people come in for managerial level jobs who had not showered/greasy hair. Yuck.
8. Agree that politics should stay out of it but I personally wouldn't hold it against a candidate if s/he said something political even if I personally disagreed. I did hire a person wearing a Trump pin and I am a hardcore liberal
9. I wouldn't have an issue w/ this, either. If the person is otherwise a good candidate I've hired them in the past. People get married/have kids/miss work at one time or another.
10. Work from home? That one's pretty funny Have not had that happen to me yet so I am not sure how I would react. I suppose I would just smile and tell them that the role is definitely more of a bricks and mortar role than a virtual one...
The number of times I've had interviewers who turned up late, were in a bad state, looked stressed, had to take calls, leave the room during the interview, even complained about the company, and so on...
Sure, set those perfect high standards to everything around you if you're a high-flyer, a narcissist, or related to the boss. But the rest of us the only real red flag is being a jerk. So says the Lord. Amen.
Twenty something female, slightly chubby, lifts up her shirt exposing her abdomen. She then squeezes her abdomen together and says "Look, I can make a butt with my stomach!". Not kidding. Not hired either.
OTOH we had another twenty something male get hired. There is a two week orientation and at the end of the first week he says he can't attend next week. Why? "I have to see my recruiter. I am going into the military." Worse, HR refuses to release the position and holds it for him for six months "In case he comes back". This was for a part time entry level job. Never saw him again.
The entire recruiting process is so dishonest the way it is set up. Everyone puts on their best behavior facade. The company representative talks only about the rainbow and unicorn farts aspects of the company and the candidate gives noble reasons why they wanna work there like the 'company culture' and such. Such a load of BS...people work to live. I work to go on fun vacations, pay my rent, etc. I also do work for the benefits but I'm not going to say that in the interview because I know what answer is wanted.
Heh. I cracked an interviewer up with that one - he asked the "So why do you want for XYZ?" and I decided to go for honesty:"Because in my experience, the rent comes due once per month and I like a roof over my head." He laughed, said something along the lines that it was an unusual answer, but very fair - and we got down to brass tacks about skills and background and whatnot. Yep, got the job.
The entire dynamic of a job interview as an exam that the applicant should be willing to go to extreme lengths to pass is unhealthy. It's a two-way street. You like to work your employees 60 hours per week? Either your company is cheap, your managers suck at planning, or you have some weird competition dynamic going, but the answer is No if I have a choice. If I don't, I will of course profess my heartfelt desire to be allowed to work 70 hours, please? - and get my resume in front of other employers as soon as possible.
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Again, you're clearly not doing a good enough job vetting candidates if you're getting those kinds of comments in interviews. Never in my job history in five countries have I ever encountered people who behaved this way, with the exception of one or two late arrivals over the years and one no-show.
Have not had that happen to me yet so I am not sure how I would react. I suppose I would just smile and tell them that the role is definitely more of a bricks and mortar role than a virtual one...
