Important job skills, opus III

[franzh]

Here is a new twist!
I went on a job interview about 10 years (actually, to the job I now hold, but not with my hiring supervisor).
During the interview, my single interviewer asked me the usual questions interspersed with some questions it was very obvious were not a part of the regular question sheet.
The interviewer became very nervous and left the room several times, once for 30 minutes before she returned, and apologized profusely saying she was called into a conference with the director she was obligated to keep.
After almost two hours of this, one question was somewhat expected: “Where would you expect to be in 5 years?” My canned answer was: “I would like to have your position!”
She promptly got up, left the room, and never returned! After what I presumed was a proper waiting period, I went outside and asked where the interviewer was, to which I was answered, “She said she became ill and went home!”
Four months later, I was called back in for another interview with what would become my future boss. I asked what happened to the first interview. I was told that she destroyed my applicant portfolio and made a recommendation to hire another individual. Fortunately, I was rather well known in that field and my name came up during her justification process as to why I was not considered. Her excuse did not hold water and the job was reposted and I started over again with a different supervisor. My future boss told me that she felt intimidated by me and thought that if she hired me, I would be after her job and force her out! She did quit almost immediately thereafter even though she was not in a position I would have had any influence over.
Go figure.

Franz

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[mshimko]

Interesting example.

It reminds me of a situation metioned in the "Dress For Success" book (if you're a prefession and never read it, I highly recommend it). The point I remember was the recommendation that very large people (that's LARGE, not fat) should not wear "strong" attire, such as dark pinstripes, as these make the person appear too dominating. One supervisor questioned this, and brough in his best salesman as his example to the contrary. This man was an ex-NFL player, still obviously in great physical shape, wore veru dominating attire. When questioned, the salesman agreed with the "attire expert"! He then said that when he first met potential clients, he was very aware of their perception of him, and if they appeared even remotely not-at-ease, the salesman would stumble ot trip, get assistance getting up, and the "ice" was broken.

I suppose the lessons area are twofold:
1 - the "interviewer" could occasionally be the one not-at-ease, and
2 - not all interviewers are good interviewers!

In the later case, the candidate is forced to adjust and make up for the other's shortcomings....or keep looking.

 

[IRstuff]

Haven't anything like that happen, but did have something else happen once.

We were told that we had to interview some employees from a sister division that was having cutbacks. This guy comes in, supposedly with a 4.0 GPA from a marginally acceptable school. Being a EE, and applying for an IC designer position, I ask him to figure out the threshold voltage for a standard TTL input. He's clueless, so I explain to him how it works and pass him on.

At the end of the day, 5 of us get together to discuss the applicant. Turns out two other people asked him the exact same question and the next the chain also explained toh im how to solve the problem. In zero out of 3 times was the applicant able to answer the question.

TTFN