They knew their decision before interview

[jalepenocheese]

I applied for a higher position in my branch but was told my management team could not interview me because they knew me as such. Therefore I had to wait for someone else be available to interview me.
Fast forward over a month later I got my interview date so I prepared myself very well. My interviewer was another manager from another branch who I knew (previously worked in another branch together) my interview was over within half the expected time and I was told I would hear back in 3 days.

A few hours after my interview I got told the decision that I was unsuccessful in passing the interview by just 2 points. And they told me who did get the position. I know the person in question and they knew the interviewer very well (they worked together in same branch) this person also handed in their resignation about a month ago with the company! They are good at their job and had job offers with other companies.

I feel like the company didn’t want to lose her so offered her a higher position more £££ and already knew they were going to give her the position. But had to interview to be ‘fair’

Thoughts?

Thanks everyone
It just seems completely unfair tbh

Extremely common. When I apply for an internal role I sound out someone close to the team to see if there are any obvious candidates and if it’s worth my time. Where I work all jobs have to be advertised internally, even in the case where someone has been fulfilling that role in a secondment capacity for sometime

We had a senior position come up in my job. The role had already been given to someone (internally) but the boss said legally they had to advertise it and interview afew people to show they had been fair!?

It's ridiculous but yes happens all of the time.

This happened to me many moon ago. I walked in and the person interviewing said lovely to see you thanks for coming in you realise this is a formality as we have to interview the others, how is xx getting on over at xx place - obviously he thought I was the person getting job. I said oh I'm sorry I'm May from xx. He looked mortified, shuffled his papers and found my cv and I had to go through the interview knowing I wouldn't get it. I was young so didn't say anything, now I would have just left!

I don't see the point of pretend interviews if you already know who you want to fill the role. I don't think there's usually any strict requirement in the private sector. However, I can imagine that people are never 100% certain so feel letting interviews play out could help feed into the end decision or simply confirm what they wanted anyway. As a lazy manager, I don't have the time or energy to pretend interview people.

Organisations do sometimes for various procedural or even legal reasons have to appear to interview people when in fact they already know who they want.

I remember working as an IT contractor at a government department, a position came up that could be filled by either a civil servant or a consultancy bod, the job had to be advertised internally and the civil servant who applied had to be interviewed, even though there was no way they could have even begun to do the actual job. (99.9% of people with a background in IT could not have done the specialist job, this person did not work in IT. )

(The person applying was not at fault for applying for a job they were so unqualified for. It was partly a case of them not knowing what they didn't know, and the words describing the job did made it sound mundane rather than technical.)

Also NHS, happens all the time. I don’t actually have a major problem with it for internal candidates - if you have a good candidate who is a known quantity, you’d hardly offer it to somebody you know from experience is not as good, would you? Why would a twenty minute interview outweigh several years of working with them?

I know someone who was being interviewed for a very senior public sector position. He was sitting in a waiting area and, as the door to the interviewing panel’s room opened, he heard one of them say “Now the next couple are the ones we’re not interested in, right?”.
I was surprised that he still went ahead with the interview but he said he really wanted the role so thought he might as well try. He didn’t get the job.

At one time positions didn’t legally have to be advertised. They were just offered to the preferred candidate usually internally. This was considered unfair so a legal obligation was imposed to advertise job vacancies as mentioned by @Poptart4. This legal obligation has not improved anything for jobseekers. In fact it causes people to think that they were not ‘good enough’ to get a particular job. In reality they didn’t stand a chance of getting it anyway. What a waste of time for everyone involved in the job application process.If these ‘false’ vacancies were not advertised at least people would know that any advertised job vacancies were genuinely available. Interesting that PP’s mention teaching as that has definitely been my experience with teaching roles. The vast majority of the roles were already spoken for. I was given so many mealy mouthed reasons as to why the other ‘candidate’ was so much better than me! I am glad to be retired!

Also have worked in the nhs and now work in private. Have seen happen in both. I didn’t bother applying for a promotion when my then boss referred to the vacancy as “Lizzie’s job”. Lizzie and another nurse with more experience went for and she still got it.

It does happen. Not fair and disappointing but hey, onwards and upwards.

YANBU. Happens all the time, essentially in certain professions. I can't tell you the amount of times I was there to make up the numbers for interviews for teaching and TA jobs, been told I was a very close second, and then later funding out the job had been given to someone they know...

Oops! Especially and finding.

When my friend (let’s call him Ed), left his public sector job after years of bullying, one of the bullies marched into the boss’s office and said, “Am I getting Ed’s job, or what?”

She was the boss’s favourite blonde, so yes, she did get the job. No one else was even given the chance to apply! The boss was eventually told off for not following procedure. Still, even if he had, I bet he would have ensured that the outcome was the same.

My DSis works in the NHS and is currently pissed off as she went for a promotion recently. The person who got it had vastly less experience and fewer of the required/desirable qualifications BUT was best mates with one of the interview panel. She has raised a grievance.

I've also been in the position of being the fortunate candidate. A while ago (I'm in primary education) I was hired on a temporary contract to cover a maternity leave. I loved the school and got on great there. Just before the end of my contract the job became available on a permanent basis. I was pulled aside by SLT and told, "we don't want to lose you, you HAVE to apply for the permanent job, of course we'll have to hold interviews but..." They interviewed me and one other person, I got the job. I did feel bad for the external candidate but actually a few months later another job came up at our school and she got that one. We both still work there now.

It sort of almost happened with DH. He went for a big promotion, pleased he got an interview and then got the job. When he started a colleague told him they had someone lined up for the job, it was a done deal, but they were so impressed by DHs interview they gave him the job.

I think he was partly flattered as he got the job anyway and partly annoyed that they'd potentially wasted his time (the interview was a 2 hr drive away) and other peoples.

Sad but happens quite a lot.

This was very common in my old job (NHS). However, it was widely known that applying for a promotion (that you obviously weren't going to get) was how to express an interest in career progression - if you came second in the interviews then it was likely that the next promotion would have your name on it.

This has happened to me twice. It sucks but sounds like it's really common.

I know it "shows you're interested for the future" but I still hate it.

Happens all the time with visa sponsorship as well, companies legally have to put adverts out to show that the international existing staff member is the only qualified person for the role and no locals can do the job. Job description will be insanely specific to that one person - qualified vet with bachelor of fine arts etc sucks for people job hunting!

If its banking yes it happens all the time. I was in the door a year and got a call from my district manager asking if I'd seen the job application and asking me to apply. It was a bit awkward because my DH cousin had done the 'training academy' for the job and had 5 years experience and I had heard through the grapevine that she had applied. I was initially hesitant on the phone but he begged me to apply for the job and I needed some extra cash so I did and got it and sadly she never. It was so cruel that they put her through the motions of getting the job when she was never going to get it but I guess it was all a sales game in those days.

Yes, it’s common practice, particularly in public sector work. Internal vacancies - 99% of the time the management know who they want to slot into that post. I’ve seen it happen so many times it’s unreal. I also think the individual whose name is on it are nearly always invited to apply if they don’t already have a good inkling that it’s theirs for the taking.

I’ve had it happen to me both ways - I’ve been invited to apply to an internal role & for it, & went for an internal promotion without the “nod” and surprise surprise didn’t get it, even though I helped the manager scope out the context and responsibilities of the job.

Being promoted is more a popularity contest than anything to do with your expertise or ability.

@jalepenocheese

I applied for a higher position in my branch but was told my management team could not interview me because they knew me as such. Therefore I had to wait for someone else be available to interview me. Fast forward over a month later I got my interview date so I prepared myself very well. My interviewer was another manager from another branch who I knew (previously worked in another branch together) my interview was over within half the expected time and I was told I would hear back in 3 days.

A few hours after my interview I got told the decision that I was unsuccessful in passing the interview by just 2 points. And they told me who did get the position. I know the person in question and they knew the interviewer very well (they worked together in same branch) this person also handed in their resignation about a month ago with the company! They are good at their job and had job offers with other companies.

I feel like the company didn’t want to lose her so offered her a higher position more £££ and already knew they were going to give her the position. But had to interview to be ‘fair’

Thoughts?

Yep, that is very possible and Seems likely, I've not got concrete evidence, but previous in passing people have said we have to do x to go through the motions but the result will already end up as x etc

@Allsorts1

Happens all the time with visa sponsorship as well, companies legally have to put adverts out to show that the international existing staff member is the only qualified person for the role and no locals can do the job. Job description will be insanely specific to that one person - qualified vet with bachelor of fine arts etc sucks for people job hunting!

Years ago, I had a boss who did this. He was quite pleased with his ingenuity, I think he thought he’d invented this trick!

It normal across many sectors, and is basically down to HR Recruitment policies that are designed to offer a level playing field for every job opportunity. Also to reinforce the theory that the company promotes from within.

So a recruiting manager will be forced to advertise the job internally at minimum, sometimes externally as well, and conduct a minimum of three interviews.

I've been in this position, have known 100% who the right person for the job is and that they want it, but have had to interview others who I know won't get it. It's not a very lovely position to be in, but common, unfortunately.

The theory behind these practices can be defended; but don't take into account the reality of working relationships and experience within teams etc, which ultimately means that the recruiting manager will recruit who they want, while dashing other people's hopes.