New way to interview? Have the final four applicants interview in front of each other, attend a social together, etc

[Leo99]

I would never do an interview like that. Very unprofessional.

Rather collect welfare first and pick up nickel cans.

I worked in a place that sounded like that once. The manager would berate the help and chew them out in front of other employees.
Take me into the office, close the door and chew away. I can handle that.

One day, the manager made a mistake of doing it in front of a customer. Big guy, probably 6'6" and 250 LBS. Built like an ox!
He turned the tables and treated the manager in the same way, in front of all the workers. It was pretty funny to watch him with nothing to say. Big guy would have kicked his butt too. He said go into an office and close the door. Now you get back some of your own medicine in front of all these people!

There is an HR principle about reprimand in private, praise in public. We take time to give praise to other at the start of our department meetings.

We had a toxic bully boss that another guy and I reported to. The other guy was fairly large. Quite a bit larger than the bully boss. The bully boss started in on him and they took it the boss's office. A short time later the door opened and my colleague walked out. He said that he enjoyed working with me and he expected to be fired. He said that he grabbed the bully boss by his collar and threw him against a wall. Strangely enough, nothing happened to him. Nothing from HR and the bully boss calmed down for a few weeks.

 

[Leo99]

I can't imagine a social setting interview for an interview unless the job requires social setting skills. Like some type of James Bond undercover work

 

[KJSmith]

I went on an interview for a small savings and loan about 25yrs ago.
After we had filled out the application and test that they had. (honesty/trustworthy/psychological)
There were 6-8 of us in a conference room being group interviewed by 3 people from the bank.

It was really weird. On the plus side, it was easy to tell I was a top candidate.

I turned down the second interview.

 

[Pablo]

Which one of you is wearing a mic?

I hate to sound sexist..........but why would I think a woman thought of this process? Ok OK just some arse with too much time on their hands.

Frigging just retire already, Heck with this garbage.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Funny story years ago I interviewed at Philips for a Sr QE job. Went smooth, nailed the questions. HR called me, they decided to go internal, train someone up, no worries - but this gal said the oddest stuff to me.............like how bad she and the team wanted to hire me, like really bad and went on and on, how she liked me etc............I wonder how long she stayed in HR.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Years ago while trying to get into the white-collar workforce, I went to an interview for a entry-level IT job at a very small company. I walked in and found about 12 young, well-dressed people sitting around a conference room table with the owner sitting at the head wearing casual clothes and a demeanor that he loved having so many people 'need' what he was offering. He had no intention of actually interviewing anyone beyond 'let's go around the room and tell everyone about yourselves', he just wanted to to see which of the girls were pretty and who would suck up to him the most. It was a huge waste of time. I felt duped.

I fear the day if I ever lose my job of 18 years and need to interview for a new one.

 

[PandaBear]

I can't imagine a social setting interview for an interview unless the job requires social setting skills. Like some type of James Bond undercover work

I have no problem in social setting, but I won't do it for interview with other candidates (only with other interviewers). What is the point of playing candidates against each other? Other than to see how you can sabotage each other or how you turn the table against another candidate, I don't see the point.

The surviving candidate would be toxic employee who would turn a peaceful workplace toxic, not worth the stress.

 

[Pablo]

Years ago while trying to get into the white-collar workforce, I went to an interview for a entry-level IT job at a very small company. I walked in and found about 12 young, well-dressed people sitting around a conference room table with the owner sitting at the head wearing casual clothes and a demeanor that he loved having so many people 'need' what he was offering. He had no intention of actually interviewing anyone beyond 'let's go around the room and tell everyone about yourselves', he just wanted to to see which of the girls were pretty and who would suck up to him the most. It was a huge waste of time. I felt duped.

I fear the day if I ever lose my job of 18 years and need to interview for a new one.

I drove a LONGGARSE way for an interview at FLIR in OR - the guy who was doing the interview was out or some nonsense. The guy I spoke to told me there is no QE opening..................WTAH????

 

[Dave Hess]

I have no problem in social setting, but I won't do it for interview with other candidates (only with other interviewers). What is the point of playing candidates against each other? Other than to see how you can sabotage each other or how you turn the table against another candidate, I don't see the point.

The surviving candidate would be toxic employee who would turn a peaceful workplace toxic, not worth the stress.

I agree.

This seems very unprofessional and HR crap / Survivor TV show drama….

When we interview it’s one on one and no bull or wasting your time.

 

[Passport1]

My most interesting and longest lasting job began with a quick physical, background check and an ASVAB test. Didn't have to dress up or answer too many tricky questions.

 

[methusaleh]

I can't imagine a social setting interview for an interview unless the job requires social setting skills. Like some type of James Bond undercover work

You’re actually quite correct. Myself from the federal side and my wife the state side of law enforcement/intel, candidates were discussed among administrators based on how we observed them interacting with others long before we got to the stage of whom we would approach for selection.

 

[Pew]

My most interesting and longest lasting job began with a quick physical, background check and an ASVAB test. Didn't have to dress up or answer too many tricky questions.

But they definitely made you dress down for the duck walk

 

[KJSmith]

The surviving candidate would be toxic employee who would turn a peaceful workplace toxic, not worth the stress.

Not if the interviewers were doing their job.

 

[Dave Hess]

I drove a LONGGARSE way for an interview at FLIR in OR - the guy who was doing the interview was out or some nonsense. The guy I spoke to told me there is no QE opening..................WTAH????

Very uncool to waste someone’s time like that.

I think lots of HR posting fake jobs just to keep busy.

 

[hemioiler]

Years ago while trying to get into the white-collar workforce, I went to an interview for a entry-level IT job at a very small company. I walked in and found about 12 young, well-dressed people sitting around a conference room table with the owner sitting at the head wearing casual clothes and a demeanor that he loved having so many people 'need' what he was offering. He had no intention of actually interviewing anyone beyond 'let's go around the room and tell everyone about yourselves', he just wanted to to see which of the girls were pretty and who would suck up to him the most. It was a huge waste of time. I felt duped.

I fear the day if I ever lose my job of 18 years and need to interview for a new one.

I've been looking for a new job as a senior software engineer for a while now and it's a pretty terrible experience. All the way from HR staff that don't recognize skills/talent and just check off keywords that jump out in a resume, to every other company wanting you to create an account to login and apply for that specific opening, to poorly automated systems rejecting resumes or parsing them half incorrectly.

Guys with 2 years of experience getting positions that they have no business getting while guys like me who to just want to write software get passed on because "At your age, why aren't you in management yet? This looks like a red flag".

Anyone in the field writing code (or close to it) should be able to look at my resume and judge the quality of the candidate; I've done some pretty unique and (what I consider anyway) impressive things, but you have to get through the HR employee and the automated system and they don't see "tech-skill-of-the-month" on it whereas this guy over here with 2 years experience has it so we'll just hire them instead. Doesn't matter that you've demonstrated the ability to learn whatever you need to (or that every software engineer is always learning new tech skills anyway).

Its not even a wage thing. I've tried purposely keeping the wage numbers low-ish vs my experience, they don't care. I can work from home cheaply as I've done that for 20 years now and can stay motivated and productive, so I'm not worried primarily about wage, but it's all about checking those tech-skill boxes apparently.

And since I have no linked in profile or git hub history, you may as well not exist either.

Jobs posted 2 days ago on linked in: "see how you compare to 100+ candidates". Oh really, guess I'll just not waste my time with that one then.

The whole thing is beyond depressing.

 

[Pablo]

Very uncool to waste someone’s time like that.

I think lots of HR posting fake jobs just to keep busy.

Another time a guy interviewed me took me to breakfast and everything. Found out later they were not really hiring but this was his gig. FPS in Portland. Long gone

 

[PontiacHO]

I have been searching for a "new chapter" job, as I am retiring in AUG 2024. I have applied for over 250 positions, have had five zoom interviews, and a e-mail inquiring if I was still interested in the position, of which I quickly replied and that was the last I heard from the employer.

I applied for a position in Colorado, that was being filled by a headhunter/ placement agency. I interviewed for one hour on zoom with the placement agency, which was recorded. The placement agency then sent the video to the employer. I received notice I was one of four finalist, and the interview would take place over two days. For me, it would be four days and I need a day of travel each way.

What caught me by surprise was the final four interview process. The final four candidates interview with the employer, with the other three candidates in the room during each interview. That evening there would be a social with the employer and the candidates. The next day they would make an offer to a candidate, if that candidate didn't accept the offer, they would move to the next candidate.

This is a process I have never heard of before. Not saying it is good/bad, just a different approach. I decided to not participate in the process. Not because of the "public interview", but I wasn't easily able to give up four days to interview for the job.

Yes these “new” interview methods feels like a setup for an ambush. Interviewed for a Fleet Director position about 10 years ago. Set in front of a panel of 12 people peppering questions and presenting scenarios. After that I was dropped off at the Fleet Management campus (police, fire, and medic) and there were about 40 techs sitting in the conference room and I got closed up in there with all of them and the interrogation was taped/recorded. They actually were given a certain percentage of the decision on who was going to be hired. The Count manager’s called me back a week later and requested a one on one with me. At that meeting I discovered that the Fleet techs called for the dismissal of the previous Fleet Director. I declined that job offer. That’s the crazies running the nut house…

 

[CKN]

I've been looking for a new job as a senior software engineer for a while now and it's a pretty terrible experience. All the way from HR staff that don't recognize skills/talent and just check off keywords that jump out in a resume, to every other company wanting you to create an account to login and apply for that specific opening, to poorly automated systems rejecting resumes or parsing them half incorrectly.

Guys with 2 years of experience getting positions that they have no business getting while guys like me who to just want to write software get passed on because "At your age, why aren't you in management yet? This looks like a red flag".

Anyone in the field writing code (or close to it) should be able to look at my resume and judge the quality of the candidate; I've done some pretty unique and (what I consider anyway) impressive things, but you have to get through the HR employee and the automated system and they don't see "tech-skill-of-the-month" on it whereas this guy over here with 2 years experience has it so we'll just hire them instead. Doesn't matter that you've demonstrated the ability to learn whatever you need to (or that every software engineer is always learning new tech skills anyway).

Its not even a wage thing. I've tried purposely keeping the wage numbers low-ish vs my experience, they don't care. I can work from home cheaply as I've done that for 20 years now and can stay motivated and productive, so I'm not worried primarily about wage, but it's all about checking those tech-skill boxes apparently.

And since I have no linked in profile or git hub history, you may as well not exist either.

Jobs posted 2 days ago on linked in: "see how you compare to 100+ candidates". Oh really, guess I'll just not waste my time with that one then.

The whole thing is beyond depressing.

What is your age? Over 50? That's the problem......

 

[hemioiler]

What is your age? Over 50? That's the problem......

I'm a little ways away from that yet, but it shouldn't matter. Is nobody interested in developers who have decades of experience and skills?

When I look for a mechanic I'm not taking it to the guy just got his certificate. The last 2 shops I frequented were chosen in large part due to the 40+ year olds there getting their hands dirty.

 

[bbhero]

What is your age? Over 50? That's the problem......

CKN…your medication has run out yet again… Get a hard script faxed to your pharmacy ASAP….

 

[PandaBear]

Not if the interviewers were doing their job.

You assume the interviewer(s) are not embracing this.