Didn’t get job

Oh God - this is the crazy scenario I’ve always suspected.

How utterly bonkers to disregard someone’s practical performance in the actual role and instead give weight to theoretical (possible bullshitting) fantasy answers from unknowns?

The world has gone mad. Once a really excellent temp who fitted well into th3 team would just have been offered the job, But now the law seems to demand an Alice in Wonderland counter-intuitive system which I hear so often does NOT result in the best person being appointed.

No wonder were in the mess were in.

And worse than that they want you to help the new one!

I've seen advice on here before in similar things to say "That's not in my job to teach" but as you're temp I'd just look at leaving.

I'd ask for feedback whilst looking for a new job!

Hi Not sure if you are temp from an agency therefore if they want to employ you permanently there will be a huge invoice for the Company to pay from the Agency.

This may be the only factor it may have nothing to do with you and how well you did but basically down to money.

I know that doesn't really help you but should make you feel better that it wasn't anything you did or didn't do at the interview.

Good luck with your jobsearch

I think this is a huge thing with internal interviews, and very commonly leads to external candidates being selected. I am guilty of doing this myself in interviews. Many of us - not just women - are held back by almost a “Britishness” a lack of desire to boast when talking to people we know.

In a way it’s quite lazy though, to expect people to “fill in the blanks”.

I do think it’s unfair when employers ask an unsuccessful candidate to show the person who beat them at interview the ropes. The manager should be stepping in here.

Maybe you are perfectly good in your role, but we’re missing some other qualities that the other candidate had? Perhaps they’re more at ease when communicating, perhaps they have more potential to grow into a more senior role in the future?
Who knows.
The way it’s made you feel though, I’d be looking for another job.

Depends.

if the interview question was ‘how would you stamp x widget’
candidate 1 may have had experience or described how they would find out.

The OP may have answered using how she currently (incorrectly) stamps it, thus feedback would be your answer was wrong, and OP then realises she’s been stamping the widget incorrectly.

Hang on a minute. Surely the employer isn't adhering to the "pure meritocracy, interview day is all that counts" philosophy anyway? They provided feedback to the OP regarding a minor negative issue based on her known (by them) work performance. They can't have it both ways - positive aspects from interview only, negative aspects from interview AND prior knowledge. They have acted poorly.

If you’re already in the job and are good at it, it seems crazy to have to interview successfully in order to become permanent in that job or else someone new gets it.

Completely agree. I’ve had a lot of investment and I recruit myself which gives you a lot of experience.

a mentor is great for this sort of thing but if you have to self teach chat GPT and you tube are good. It can take years to get comfortable with it, unfortunately, not just some quick work before the interview itself. It’s a real investment

Absolutely this. My daughter is temping currently and I have been really pleasantly surprised to see how healthy the temping market is at the moment. Not dissimilar to when I did it many, many moons ago.

Get another temp job starting ASAP and have the current CFs find someone else to train up the new person taking over 'your' job.
I wouldn't stay a minute longer in the current place than I absolutely had to.
And then you can take your time to look for the permanent role you are wanting for your financial security and wellbeing. At a place that deserves you.
All the best to you, OP.

Perhaps not, there is a skill in recognising what you do well on a daily basis in your current role and matching it to the competencies in the role you want, and being able to express it well in an interview.
I will demonstrate that you understand your current and future roles, as you're able to assess your own skills, identify and talk about them in detail, and match them to future roles and where they fit in.

I had coaching on being able to do this, which made a huge difference. I did have a good coach, though. Once you're guided through it, you can then prepare well for most matrix-type scoring.

The problem is not many people get this kind of development to help them progress, so they can find it very difficult to verbalise their skills and capabilities in the way which is needed.

you can have anxiety in job interviews- in fact everyone does, it’s expected.

what you describe is what everyone feels. It’s a skill you have to learn.

all roles have loads of potential applicants who are good at them. That’s why selection criteria has become more complex (and fair recruitment, of course.

Why would you give a role to someone good at the job but bad at interviews vs someone good at the job and good at interviews?

I would do this if they can get you another assignment.

I’ve been good at my jobs but I’m not generally good at interviews, hence why I liked getting jobs through temping. 🤷‍♀️ I can research the company and reel off facts about them but ask me to relay a scenario where I overcame a challenge or where do I see myself in five years I go blank and start to babble even if I’ve rehearsed it, because I know these questions are coming and they put me on edge (I have to really wrack my brain to think of a challenge professionally and if I start on a personal one I’ll be there all day). I’m not going for CEO jobs, I’m going for low level admin and receptionist type roles. I have a good CV, I’ve been working for many years (excluding having children). It seems you’re allowed to have anxiety about everything except job interviews.

Its a bit of a difficult truth that if you want a job that interviews, you have to be good (enough) at interviews.
When people say I’m great at the job but not interviews they are identifying something about the job they’re not good at- talking about their value, being able to articulate why they’re good. Taking time to research and prepare the interview context. Stakeholder management. All really important things and part of these roles.

Sorry to hear this has happened to you. If you are working there temporarily, are you with an agency? You do not have to give any notice, so ask your agency to find you a new role to start on Monday. It is possible that the agency wanted a finder's fee for them to take you on permanently and that is why you did not get the job so please don't take it personally. This happens to thousands of supply teachers all the time. They work their socks off for a school and then don't get taken on permanently, often because of the finder's fee. Get out now. You owe the company nothing.

If you were good at your job then you were offered permanent regardless of anything else. My temp job was secretary assigned to a particular team. So each team had their own requirements and needs. The secretaries were a mix of colours and ages, they only got rid of you if you were not good at the job, they couldn’t care less what colour, religion, age, sexual leaning you were. I was very happy there for ten years and only left because they relocated.

I agree that this is a bit nuts for a NMW job, but at the same time surely the interview process and criteria should have been produced and absorbed?
Or at least showing initiative by contacting the hiring team before hand to ask the interview format/process?

In the 90s I was taken on perm after temping with just a ‘sign this’, but really poo-pooing fair process is a sign of privilege, many of the processes here avoid ‘face doesn’t fit’ type stuff and not just related to protected characteristics.

And for those saying past in role experience should count - it will, if you bring it up in the interview!

It’s made me very anxious about interviews now. I’ve never been good at ‘scripts’ or rehearsing answers because my brain and my mouth don’t co-operate with each other that way. I’m too busy trying to remember the gist of what I am meant to say but I’m not a good actor playing out a rehearsed scene! I end up babbling 😭 Give me a naturally flowing interview any day. One of the best ones I ever had we ended up talking about our grandfathers, no box ticking, no ‘star’ just getting to know each other. I got the job. This was in the 80s.

Doesn’t happen because it’s harder to prove you are not discriminating against people with protected characteristics. So do they have 5 temps, 4 are black but the final white one is offered the job permanently.

I completely agree! They're living in lala land! Expecting Einstein to apply for minimum wage jobs, so they can answer unnecessary questions. What ever happened to common sense?! Surely someone already doing the job well, for years is better than someone new, and they won't require training!

I disagree. Of course a good internal candidate should get the job.

What annoys me is when a job is advertised because the recruiting manager has been told by HR that they have to advertise when they know full well who’s going to get the job.

If you have a good internal candidate ready to be promoted then just promote them. Stop wasting every else’s time.

That’s very disappointing and disheartening. Personally this would cause me to lose all loyalty to that employer and I’d be seeking new permanent employment elsewhere. You’ve got this experience under your belt now so I’m sure you’d have no problem finding a new job, for better money too. I always jump up on salary when changing jobs.
It’s also possible the employer knew they would have to increase your salary going from temp to perm, and maybe the new employee came in at a lower salary than would be expected to give to you. Either way, I feel it would be hard to move on from the resentment and stay there long term, unless they changed your employment status soon…

The same thing happened to me when I was doing zero hours at a bloody supermarket. I’d been doing the job for a couple of years without complaint but I didn’t know about this box ticking crapola, so my answers weren’t scripted or rehearsed and I was taken aback by them. I had been a sahm for many years and things had changed dramatically, unbeknown to me, from ‘my day’. Fair enough if you’re going for high powered jobs but all this box ticking ‘star’ crap for minimum wage? Fuck off!

This happened to me a few years ago. 2 people in a particular department, one leaving so one thing led to another and I was expecting to get the job. And of course I didn’t ! I was gutted. Then around 6 months later as I got to know the person staying a bit better I realised that I didn’t actually get on with her that well, so I was actually kind of relieved!