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?

At least console yourself that they are good at their job. It would be worse to miss out this way if they were crap at it.

Also, statistically, people who resign and only stay when offered more money or a promotion tend to still end up leaving relatively soon after. So, the job may well come up again. Find out where they were offered a job elsewhere and apply there too.

Similar happened to me about 10 yrs ago. I applied for a nannying job in London, the mother was British, the father French. When I went for the interview the father hardly spoke to me and seemed really uninterested in anything I had to say. A few days later the mother contacted me to say I hadn’t got the job, they had decided that as they were living in the UK they really wanted a French nanny over a British one. (At the time I remember thinking - was it illegal to hire on grounds of nationality? But the mother was so open about the reason I doubted myself, and unfortunately as it was a phone call which I hadn’t recorded I had no evidence of what she’d said to me to follow up/take it further so I had to let it go.)

Sorry this has happened to you OP, it’s not on when employers behave like this.

I am convinced that on one occasion I was the preferred candidate, they made a big fuss of telling me how wonderful I was but second. But I’d just agreed to move to a notoriously difficult to fill position and I think management didn’t give me the job as filling my job would be a nightmare yet again. The guy who got the job ended up being my manager, he knew I had applied as the big boss told him and he was so full of it, he told me he put little effort in and how he wrote a paragraph in the application but the big boss called him and told him to ‘write more’. I am public sector, it’s laughable, bullies and problem staff get promoted just in an attempt to move the problem

This kind of thing happens all the time. In teaching, they’d already have someone they were going to choose, but were required to interview all the candidates.

I spent a decade in higher education admin and this is disgustingly common. I've interviewed for roles which then went to candidates who were buddy-buddy with the hiring manager.

In my last office, they created a promoted post which was basically written for a specific person. They advertised it as internal only and posted the ad for the legal minimum length of time (five working days, I think). Everyone in the whole university knew who the job had been made for and nobody else applied.

The year before I had expressed interest in line managing a new hire who was working very closely with me but the big boss said no and gave the responsibility to that same colleague, who did a completely different job to either of us... because they knew they'd be making up that job spec and that person would need management experience to progress to the next pay grade. It's all such bullshit.

@BringOnTheOtherWorlders

Interviewing multiple candidates is often required even if they know who it is they want to hire/promote.

It really sucks when they are required to interview external candidates when they know the person they are wanting is an internal candidate. The job still has to posted for x number of days and they have to interview x number of candidates. A super short interview is a huge clue you are one of these interviews they just have to do to remain in ocmpliance with HR policy.

It happens with specialist roles when they don’t think they’ve got a big enough pool of qualified internal applicants, or when they know there is only one suitable candidate but they can’t just give them the job. And where I last worked they simply weren’t allowed to promote someone without them going through some sort of recruitment/interview process.

It happens, my most recent job, I was guaranteed it, but they still have to interview others and be seen as giving equal opportunities 'ticking boxes'

Id say most places know who they will hire before interviewing if its internal.
Other jobs will come along, dont fret it.

@TotallySuper

You're saying branch are you in banking/finance? If so it's definitely who you know not what you know unfortunately and it is a shame. If you want to kick up a stink you could since they refused to interview you out of fairness but then interviewed someone else they knew as well- but you won't get anywhere probably.

I won't name the company, but at one of my former employers in the financial sector this was 100% the case. The candidate was chosen before the post was even advertised in many cases.

I went for a job once, managerial role in the NHS, the woman who had been doing the job for 12 months also went for it, she got it, but what made me laugh is they had already ordered a cake with her name on it!

My current job I knew I was just going for interview experience. The preferred candidate was offered the job. They turned it down as their current employer offered them a higher band to stay.

I outright asked my boss this week (two years down the line) and they confirmed it. They’re more than happy with my performance though.

It happened to me years ago. A new post of supervisor was created. It would have suited me totally. Most colleagues of my level came and congratulated me on getting a new job made just for me. It wasn't, I knew nothing about it until it was advertised, but it was so perfect for me everyone assumed it was for me.

I interviewed, didn't get it, and someone from another branch a few hundred miles away got it. Everyone was gobsmacked.

We later found out that the successful candidates DW was very senior and was transferring to our office, so they had created a post just for him do he could move with her.

@Oftenithinkaboutit

Quite the reverse.

but recruiting manager has the most skin in the game so usually has the biggest say.

It is definitely possible. In a previous job I had the ‘pleasure’ of assisting the senior management team with the process of recruiting for a brand new position. It wasn’t part of my usual duties, however they asked ‘nicely’.

Anyway, during the process it became clear to me that they already knew who was going to get the position before they had even applied.

It wasn’t a surprise for me to find out who eventually got the position. I found out later that they knew all of the senior management team beforehand, and that they were strongly encouraged to apply by all of them.

They initially didn’t want the job, but eventually the senior management team managed to talk them in to it.

The whole recruitment process really felt so pointless.

I and through this years ago. Applied for an NHS admin role and was offered an interview. I prepared as best I could but the two people who interviews me couldn't have been less interested and the interview lasted 10 minutes! I knew before I even left the room that I hadn't got the job and later heard it had gone to someone already covering the post.

[quote PigletJohn]@Oftenithinkaboutit

Quite the reverse.

but recruiting manager has the most skin in the game so usually has the biggest say.[/quote]
And yet he still went with the better candidate despite his friend applying?

So the interview process wasn’t rigged then

Probably
Happens where I work all the time

When I worked in recruitment in the public sector occasionally even with the job description and personal specifications designed exactly for the preferred internal candidate another candidate would have all the skills and interview better. At this point we had to offer the best candidate the job as we had to record and retain the evaluation and scoring form. As the personnel officer I would have had to report any obvious preferential treatment. It was rare as usually the job description/required experience was water tight.

I used to work in university admin. Early on I applied for a job I thought I was well qualified for. Unfortunately in my naivete I hadn't realised that the last permanent postholder had left months earlier and his deputy had been promoted to cover until they got their act together to advertise the post (for some reason this always took months and months). She naturally got the job, but as she was only doing it to pay the bills while she completed her training as a counsellor she didn't stay long. Annoying, as I would have stayed longer.

Then there was the job that came up in Department A. I worked in Department B. The heads of A and B were chummy and had probably chatted about issues in their departments. My HoD was a thoroughly unpleasant man who had no regard for admin at all. He blamed me for various problems which (hand on heart) were absolutely not my fault. In fact, having done a lot of soulsearching over the years, I can truthfully say I think there would have been a hell of a lot more problems in Dept B if it hadn't been for me, as other colleagues were kind enough to tell me when I left. For obscure university admin reasons, my line manager was in Dept C and he knew I was very unhappy and stressed in my job, and looking to move.

As soon as I saw the Dept A job, I thought I would be a good candidate. It was a new post. I told my line manager I was thinking about applying and he was guardedly positive. He was going to be on the interview panel with the HoD of Dept A and one other Dept A person. I did apply. I got an interview. On the day I saw that there were two other internal candidates and no externals. I knew that both the other two were new to the university and had no relevant experience in one absolutely essential facet of the new post. I had a lot. I felt the interview went well.

A few hours after the interview, my line manager called me and asked me if I could come and see him. I honestly thought he was going to offer me the job. He didn't. He went through the usual spiel about another candidate having slightly more to offer. I couldn't believe it. She was working in Dept A in a different post. Clearly the Dept A people had decided that a person they already knew was a better bet than one who actually knew something about the duties.

The crowning glory was when my line manager suggested she should come and see me to talk through this aspect of the job. She was hideously embarrassed as she knew this was appalling. It wasn't her fault, though, so I did it. I left as soon as I could afterwards. I still regret not having putting in a grievance over this. It was an absolutely egregious case of favouritism, and I will always suspect my HoD had badmouthed me at some point. Ah well. Retired now, and don't miss work at all.

This ain't no new thing - local public sector jobs are advertised in the local give-away rag all the time, alongside the Volunteer positions and Carer jobs that are always available. Occasionally there's a Local Rag Delivery job advertised too.

I'm pretty certain those £25k+ public sector jobs aren't advertising in the free rag because they're seriously trying to recruit from the readers. Just a box-ticking exercise to get round the fact they've already recruited their candidate but need to demonstrate they've advertised the vacancy publicly.

It's so obvious I don't ever apply.

@Oftenithinkaboutit

So the interview process wasn’t rigged then

he tried to rig it for his buddy but his choice was so clearly wrong that he was unable to bluster his way through.

he might possibly have managed, with a weaker board.

The NHS ones usually give you the heads up in the advert. Along the lines of it will close when they get enough applicants i.e when “Lizzie” has put hers in.

I worked in one public sector where the manager hired her sister and two next door neighbours. I was over qualified for my grade and when I interviewed for the next grade they wouldn’t give it to me. I got a much better job and left a month later.

It sometimes happens the other way round too. I was temporarily covering a role and they decided to expand the team. They made me interview for it but ultimately gave the jobs to external candidates and another temporary person who had years less experience than I did and was straight out of school.

When I asked why I was told they do it purely on how you score in the interview and disregard what they already know (they’d told me they were happy with what I was doing). I mean if that was true or not I don’t know. Then I had an awful final 2 weeks when my contract was terminated because they now no longer needed me and we’re excitedly talking about arranging socials and doing stuff to welcome the new team while I was right there. It wasn’t the first time they asked me to go for a permanent job only to give it to someone else. In the end I was the only temp that didn’t get taken on permanently despite having the most experience. I guess it’s more often if your face fits rather than if you’re the best person for the job

"When I asked why I was told they do it purely on how you score in the interview and disregard what they already know (they’d told me they were happy with what I was doing). I mean if that was true or not I don’t know."

Probably is. It's silly though. What better way do you have of predicting how someone would do a job than seeing them do it? How you perform in an interview doesn't have much to do with how you perform in a job anyway.