Interviewer that grills
Interviewed with a company and was tested, profiled and grilled for 5.5hours and it felt more like an interrogation thaninterview. Get the feeling the company is a little overzealous and might be difficult to satisfy. And it was for abusiness desk type job, not a job of any security, military, etc. nature Any commentsabout a company that grills it's candidates ? Grill 'um right back. There's always the old, "are you still beating your wife as much as you used to?"
While it's possible that they may be over zealous and difficult to satisfy should you get the job, it may just be that they have had a bad string of hires for that particular position and are trying remedy that by being tougher in the interview process. In similar interviews where I'd been feeling particularly grilled, I found that turning the tables gave me a fair bit of breathing room. Try to get details on why the position is available, how long it has remained unfilled, specific qualifications and qualities they're looking for in a candidate, details about the company and working environment, etc. But who knows. Could just be a hardcore, gung-#### recruiter.
Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I was thinking the same- that the grill might be the result of some bad hires. Butalso got some vibes that the interviewer was a bit over zealous andmaybe takes job to extreme and might be a little difficult to workfor.
5.5 hours? I sure hope there was a bathroom break.
The whole thing reminded me of when I worked for a few nit pickers (dot the i's and cross the t's ) - they seemed to be just making theirjobs bigger and they came across as very insecure people - those wholiked to complain to mgmt about everything just to elevate themselves.
My inquisition lasted only a half-hour shy of yours. I had not interviewed in quite some time. As this was going on, I thought to myself that these people are really trying to "crack" me. Later I found out the reason. The guy they hired for the position worked 7 or 8 weeks and flew the coop. So now the management is treating the new candidates like Archie Bunker use to treat his Son in law!
Yes, I got the same - they gave some indications that some had packedup and quit. Maybe they should look into ways to improveemployee retention instead of the interrogating new candidates. Without knowing more about it, it's tough to say for sure why they did this. Perhaps the job itself is a real pressure cooker and they wanted to simulate that environment. Putting you through 5 1/2 hours of grueling tests would definitely accomplish this. Or maybe they had some very bad employees in that job and don't want to make the same mistake. That battery of tests would then be the weeding out. Maybe they wanted to see if you'd complain or develop attitude about those tests and the amount of time they took. Your time is valuable just like theirs. There are some jobs where employees complain more, and perhaps this was their way to see how you'd behave. The interesting part will be to see how they behave now that it's over. If the attitude changes, then you'll know this was by design.
Thanks Careerdoctor. Have not heard back from them so guessing i didn't pass. Anyway, I'm thinking about a new career. I took a few years offand now I am a bit rusty. The jobs these days seem to beonly taking candidates that can pass these tests with expert levelscores, even though only asking very low pay and have many yearsexperience. I've been rusty before, still got a job without beinggrilled or tested and did excellent at the job (have proof of it butdoesn't seem to be enough). Things have changed. Onejob even questioned the integrity my resume. It's been verydiscouraging and trying to study and relearn every skill on my resumeis overwhelming. | |
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