To apply for a job where others have an unfair disadvantage against me?

[Mosschopz]

I'm being interviewed tomorrow for an internal vacancy carrying a lot of responsibility. There are 5 of us going for it and two colleagues also being interviewed are on close friendly terms with the boss - Christmas presents to the kids, poker nights, etc. Last week, when we were all in a meeting together the boss sprang an impromptu 'discussion exercise' on us to get a feel for how we react under pressure. My two colleagues slipped into interview mode immediately and gave some very 'prepared' sounding answers. Later on in the week another colleague who isn't going for the job speculated that they'd had inside knowledge of the exercise. To be honest, it's absolutely no surprise and one of them WILL get it...am I being unreasonable to make any effort in this whole charade?

[lisad123]

Well there will be more than one interviewing wont there?

[TheDreadedFoosa]

You dont actually know that they have any advantage over you, unfair or othrwise.
So you continue with the process and hope for the best.

[TheDreadedFoosa]

I mean, you say the position carries a lot of reponsibility - nobody is going to hand that responsibility to someone unsuitable based on the fact they have a friendship. Its too risky and would make all involved look ridiculously unprofessional.

[carabos]

This happened in my last job. We got a new director who said she wanted to get to know us all as individuals so she booked an hour of time with each of the six of us (all the same grade) in the team, and with our two existing team leaders (higher grade).

What most of us didn't know was that she intended to replace the two team leaders with two of the other team members, that that was already decided and communicated to the relevant two and that the "getting to know you" exercise was actually the interview she was obliged to hold under internal regulations.

Once the new appointments were made, anyone who queried the process was told that they had misunderstood and it was "obvious" that the personal meetings were interviews for jobs they didn't know weren't really becoming available .

Moral of this story - any interaction with anyone senior to you is an interview.

[OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos]

I must be missing something.

Of course it's not unreasonable to make effort.