...to think this interview was unrealistic? (Long sorry)

[EveDallasRetd]

Went for an interview today, for an office manager/PA role. This morning was billed as 'activities' followed by an interview in the afternoon. I've bombed out, but am left wondering if it's 'me' or 'them'

There were 11 of us going for the job. Separately we were taken into an office, given a laptop and data stick and told to complete the exercises in 45 minutes. The exercises were:

*Put these 6 tasks into priority order explaining why you have chosen that priority and how you would action the tasks (things like "a person called from the LA saying there is a problem with a casual workers time sheet. The LA needs answer by 1200 tomorrow, but the casual workers manager is off work until tomorrow morning" and "You arrive at work at 0800 to a note from a colleague saying they have emailed you a doc that must be signed by the HT or DHT before 1100 or a trip will be cancelled. When you open the email the doc is corrupted and cannot be printed")

*Write a letter to a member of staff whose sickness record you are concerned about, pointing out how many sickness days she has had this term.

*Miss X is on maternity leave and has written a letter request she returns in a part time role. Write a letter to the HT and Governors explaining the law (you may use internet links) and suggesting a course of action.

*The attached document needs to be seen and signed by all staff within a one week period. You can use email.

*Send a text to all parents requesting assistance at the end of year disco. Mrs Y is organising it and her telephone number is 01234 567896.

*You receive an anonymous telephone call suggesting that the parent of Tommy Smith in Yr4 collected him from school yesterday smelling strongly of alcohol. You know that Tommy Smith is under CP. What do you do?

*Proof read this letter correcting all mistakes and punctuation.

And in the midst of all this i received a (pretend) telephone call from a local resident complaining about parking and litter and demanding to speak to the HT.

I didn't manage to proof read the letter and think I was prob a bit 'curt' on the phone. oh and I was annoyed by the alcohol scenario which probably showed. The current PA thanked me for coming in and said "I would have expected you to finish everything in the time provided, if we do want you to come back I will call you about 230"

So I'm not going back, am I?

Is that scenario normal? I thought it was too much to do in 45 mins, but am I just not as good as I thought I was . Do you think you could do that in 45 mins?

45 minutes is adequate (just about!) to cover all those tasks.

if you're a PA/Office Manager generally efficiency is one of the main skills.

Their scenario could well be normal but I think they're also testing how well you do under pressure, and there is pressure involved in this job.

don't beat yourself up over it though! well done on going for interview.

no, i couldnt do all that in 45 minutes

That sounds like a LOT of stuff to do

I could do that in 45 minutes but I'm a copywriter...I think and type far more quickly than most people.

I think it sounds unrealistic given the tricky nature of some of the tasks. I don't know why the alcohol scenario annoyed you though.

I was once made to sit in an office and write 10 comedy sketches "As fast as you can!" by a BBC producer. There were other writers present and when the producer left we all gawped at one another and laughed hysterically....then proceeded to try and help one another along!

Most of the tasks look pretty quick. I think tasks 2 and 3 (letter to staff member and letter to HT & Governors) might take it over the 45-min deadline if done carefully.

Being curt on the phone was a bit of a no-no.

I couldn't- however I am not experienced in that sort of job.
An excellent way to sort out those who can from the ones just good at talking about it.

all 3 tasks you said you slipped up on, they're not terrible (re curt on the phone) but the proof reading should have been done, prioritised if anything.

also, not worked at school etc but why would you be annoyed re alcohol and no you shouldn't be, if you say let your own feelings etc get involved.

Finally sorry but it sounds as if school role and it is "you" not them.

If you really do want to work in this field just prep, practise this sort of thing in future. Otherwise find another field to work in. Lots of architects/Law firms (where I've worked) would value a fab PA/office manager and architects are lovely... .

Sounds an excellent way to see you prioritise and see how much you can do in the time. How you do?

also based on other posters' answers, say a few of you out of the 11 will have been able to complete the tasks in that time slot, the rest won't.

depends how well they want them done. like I said before I'm not used to school roles but you admitted your mistakes so you've learned something.

Well, it sounds as if they are hopefully going to employ a demon of an office manager.

Btw is there a "right" answer? Does the CP one trump them all?

I don't think I could do them in 45 mins given that you have to find out the law on maternity leave/part time working requests and come up with a legally correct suggestion for head/govs.

I also don't see the problem with the alcohol one. Surely all you'd do is pass it on the school CP officer. It's their responsibility, not yours. (Disclaimer - have never worked in a school).

lainie, I'd just go on the ACAS website. Here. Then write a letter to go with it - 10 min job.

The phone was weird. Woman very ranty asking for the HT, I explained she was in a meeting and couldn't be disturbed, could I take a name and number and ask the HT to call her back, or could I or someone else help? Woman said parents were parking outside her house all the time and she'd had enough rant rant. I offered to send a text to all parents, she interrupted and said they done that before and it didn't help. I offered to publicise it on the website and she said there was no point. She then said about an ice cream man and moaned about litter, I said I'd check if he had a bin and could remind the children using the school notice board. She said she was calling the police and I said (the curt bit) that I didn't think the police would be able to do anything as it was a public road and a private business. Offered again to take her number and see what I could do and she ranted a bit more then rang off.

Thinking about it, I reckon the phone call alone took 10 minutes.

My two letters were very basic, and not what I would have written without a time constraint.

The longest thing was putting the 6 tasks in order and explaining how I'd complete them - I think it's one thing to do a task, but another entirely to have to write down what you would do to complete it and why.

Hmm.

Why did the alcohol task annoy you?

The person on the phone really got into the spirit of things! You were creative with your solutions, but maybe too much so - it might have been better to make soothing noises and keep promising to pass it on the HT.

Tbf, I think it was a tough set of tasks - the outgoing person might be able to do that in 45 mins simply through familiarity, but that doesn't mean it's fair to have the same expectations of a new person.

OP you're gonna have to tell us why the question about the alcohol annoyed you! We want to judge!

Under pressure I think it could be done, but it would be pressured and highly likely to not be my best work. Although, IME I've never met a school office manager who I think would do all of those in the time allocated without getting a bit ratty about it. Most I've met are mums themselves and seem to think the jobs will get done when they get done, there's never any rush. Might just be me though, I've not worked in schools, only ever corporate environments, and now my own business (and in that 45 minutes there'd have been at least one tea break...and after the phone call probably a KitKat).

Ahh have I explained this wrongly? The 'put these tasks in order' was one exercise, then the letter was a second exercise etc. There were 7 exercises and one phone call.

It prob took me 5 mins to read through the question set, then I spent about 15 mins on the 'tasks' exercise, wrote the letters, wrote an email to staff, wrote a text message, quickly typed that I would pass the anon msg to the Guidance Councillor....And that was it.

The alcohol thing bugged me because tbh I wasn't sure how I would be aware that Tommy was under CP and what for. Is that normal then? It seems wrong to me, but I suppose that's because of my background and not being allowed to tell anyone else anything about welfare matters. Plus I suppose it seemed 'sneaky' to me. Yup. Think that one is definitely a 'me' issue then

Isn't it fairly standard that they give you too much to do on purpose? That does sound like a lot, and would imagine that rather than the completing it, they were looking for attitude and how you coped?

You aren't necessarily expected to finish within 45 minutes, but that is the time limit you are given to see what you prioritise and how. It is just to see how you work and is a very common interview strategy.

Ahh now that would make sense, but the woman (the retiring current Office Manager) specifically said "I would have expected you to finish everything in the time provided" when I apologised saying I hadn't proof read the letter. That was all she said though. Maybe she'll say more if I get the phone call.

It's very artificial. In real life you'd have templates for a lot of those letters/texts that you could just pull out so they would get done fairly quickly. Doing it all from scratch when you're nervous and on a strange laptop is always going to be slower. The bit about researching the legal position on the part-time working request would take me a while in real life but then I'm not familiar with the law and would want to take my time over that to be sure I'd got it right, if others were going to rely on my advice.

I'm sure you've done better than you think!

For the Tommy one, I would have emailed the Child Protection person on the staff and passed on the details. The alcohol part is a red herring - they want to see you can pass important info correctly to the identified person.

Hope you hear soon.

Crikey some superwomen on this thread! :) OP I thought I was a fast worker but I would have found it hard to get through all of those tasks in 45 minutes.

Well, I'll say it straight out - no way could I do all that in 45 minutes to what I consider an adequate standard.