To think i am wasting my time even turning up for this interview :(

[doggiemumma]

Bloody hell! I have been selected for an interview - i put in what i thought was a strong application for a job that whilst i have no direct experience my background should be sufficient, and hey, i got an interview!

Turns out there is an internal applicant - it says so on the interview timetable

This is for a temporary job (10 months) for a science technician in the school - I get the feeling this is a box ticking exercise.

Have put two days to one side (today and tomorrow) to prepare and am poring through health and safety stuff etc , just got the email

Im wasting my time aren't i? :(

Not necessarily, my work has selected external over internal candidates a number of times. Good luck. X

Not necessarily, same as Queen, my work have always picked the best candidate rather than just someone as they are internal candidate.

Also IME internal candidates don't always make the effort as they think it is in the baG!

BTW in spite of what people may think, there is no law anywhere to say you have to advertise externally. They could just have opened the position up to internal applicants only in the first instance.

I would go. You've got a good a chance as everyone else and it's always a useful thing to get interview experience.

Good luck :)

I agree, go. You were selected, we often do this and often DO NOT employ the internal applicant!

I agree with the others - my work have taken externals over internals on several occasions. Good luck! Hope it goes well. Let us know how you get on.

I was an internal candidate, and I didn't get the job. They already knew my weaknesses, whereas it's easier to be all shiny at interview if you are a stranger.

Oh yes - good luck!!

That is so not the way to be thinking, going in to an interview. Think positive. Seriously. You are the best person for the job. If you don't think that, why would they?

We sometimes are forced to interview internal candidates as part of a redeployment scheme which applies to staff whose fixed term contracts have ended. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they are awful.

Use it as interview experience. If you go into it with no expectations you won't be disappointed if you don't get it, getting it would be a bonus! Good luck.

When I say no expectation I don't mean go to it in a negative way, still try your best!

Go for it ... Both my DP and my sister got their current jobs in the teeth of an internal applicant. Batman's right, sometimes you can have too much infomation!

Interview experience is always useful. Go and do your best. Chances are the internal candidate is going to be chosen (better the devil and all that), but they have probably advertised to see if there is someone better out there, so you may be that person!

ahh, thanks guys - im good (i think, i used to be, ive not worked for 7 years!) and im desperate to get back - I have a PhD (not boasting, but its over and above the level required) and i pick up new stuff instantly - i'd employ me!

So the guy is already a sci tech at the school - WTAF

He could be on a short term contract ending soon?

Go, and good luck!

[Written from my new desk, looking over at the unsuccessful internal candidate] :)

go for it, even if just for the experience of getting out and selling yourself. I've got an interview coming up, for a p-t job I'd forgotten I'd applied for, and I have NO IDEA why they are offering me an interview even!! so I think you'll do better than me - good luck.

boshy - my daughter was phoned out of the blue in january, never heard of the company, offered interview, got the job, been promoted already Good luck to you too!

Go for it and good luck. I've been on both sides of this: got the job over an internal applicant, then been the internal applicant who didn't get it.

If you're right for the job, they'll pick you.

I agree with others, I also know people who've been selected for a job above internal candidates.

I remember a few years back when a line managers job came available at my work - they only advertised the job externally after interviewing several internal candidates and deciding that none of them were up to it.

Chances are that if they really really wanted to give the internal candidate the job, they wouldn't have bothered advertising externally in the first place.

Go for it - you never know, they could hate this bloke but feel they have to offer him an interview as it is politically expedient. They may jump at the chance of having a PhD work for them.

My last job interview there was also an internal applicant, we had to conduct a team exercise. I thought I hadn't a chance in hell, he was brilliant. I got the job in the end as he was too complacent in his panel interview. So you never know. Knock 'em dead.

The internal candidate is already a science technician at the school yet they have advertised his job externally and called you for interview. If they wanted him and nobody else they would advertise the job internally, he would get a token interview and get the job.
You are not wasting your time, schools don't bother with external adverts unless they have to.

Good luck doggie!

Remember an interview is about you seeing if they're right for you as an employer as much as the other way round, imo anyway. I applied for millions (felt like it anyway!) of jobs and got precisely 2 interviews. When I set foot through the door of the first I felt uncomfortable, not just in an interview nerves kinda way. And although it sucked that after months of trying I didn't come out with a job, I was actually relieved.

The second was not in my field, but with an organisation doing something I'm passionate about. I really wanted to work for them and I guess that came across. Felt immediately comfortable/at home with the interviewers desite never having met them before and having a history of being utterly pathetic incredibly nervous during interviews. Was still gobsmacked when they phoned me the next day to say yes though!

And I totally agree with MsKittyFane.

I think you should go for it. I've been appointed over an internal candidate a couple of times and companies I've worked for previously have picked external candidates over internal several times.

Not a waste of time at all. Even if it goes nowhere, you gain valuable skills and experience for your next interview. Good Luck .