Aibu? DS should talk about his party politics activities in interviews?

[Theworried]

DS is at uni and applying for internships etc. in the field of finance. A lot of these interviews ask typical skill or behaviour questions- e.g. tell me a time when you have shown teamwork etc.
DS is an active member of the young conservatives and has done a lot of activities in his uni and in our local young conservative group- e.g. take an active role in meetings, canvassing support amongst young people etc.
He thinks that he should be able to use these examples in job interviews as they highlight his skills and is a big part of his life, but DH thinks he should shy away from it as it is do with party politics and is quite a divisive topic in society.
I think that DH is worrying unnecessarily and interviews would not look down upon it as he is developing skills through this activity.

This thread is just a demonstration that too many people are incapable of anything other than "Tory bad!" when it comes to political discussion.

@Frabbits, what have the Tories done in the last three years that you would endorse?

@Fedupofdiets good luck to your DD. If she wants advice or has questions, you can pm me and I can connect to my DS. You should not be discouraged by anything you are reading here. He really enjoyed his internship but decided he did not want to work in politics.

Why would they ‘drone on’ about door knocking? I really think you’re judgement is skewed here. And if you are in the position to hire (especially Uni students). I think you need to check your biases.

What if the examples given by the candidate were : scheduled 10 volunteers to staff an informational booth, was treasurer for an organization, represented my org at a national convention, planned a led a fundraising campaign, that involved X,Y, and Z, etc

You really think gave a presentation and studied are good replacements? Or even hiding the fact they have experience in something and coming up with a hypothetical example would be better than saying, “yes I did mediate a conflict in my organization by doing x,y, and z” ?

In other words you want candidates to sell themselves short and you would willingly discount relevant experience just so you don’t have to be presented with a political affiliation.

Nothing personally, I have never voted tory.

But they have been popular enough to win the last 4 GEs (or form a government in coalition). People vote for them for all sorts of reasons and, shock horror, not always for "evil" reasons.

For instance, in Scotland if you are anti-independence you would likely vote tory as they are the main opposition to the SNP in most parts.

Good on your Ds. I agree with your advice to pp and take this thread with a pinch of salt.

they have been popular enough to win the last 4 GEs (or form a government in coalition). People vote for them for all sorts of reasons and, shock horror, not always for "evil" reasons.

It is almost four years since the last election, and most of the truly shocking behaviour has occurred since then (i.e. ushered in with Johnson). I think the reason many posters, including me, are alarmed at the idea of a student Tory activist is because their adult years will have been spent entirely under Johnson's Tory party - which it still is, even under Sunak, given the Johnson purge when he became PM.

No, people don't necessarily vote Tory for 'evil' reasons - although being an activist is different from merely voting. But there comes a point when people need to open their eyes to the harm that is being done, and if they don't, they are colluding with evil. It's pretty fair to say we've reached that point now.

This. In my industry crowing about being a Tory party member would go down like A lead balloon. However, I think people would be fine if you didn't talk about it at work.

I wouldn't advise anyone to talk about politics in an interview. It's far too emotive a subject.

To be honest, I'm stunned that a 21 year old has chosen to support the Conservative Party. It's this poor judgement that would most likely put the interview panel off.

I work in financial services and we look for people with empathy, strong values and a willingness to do the right thing for customers and support people in our local communities. Not sure where the young conservatives fit in with that...

Of course I have some bias when interviewing in that I have a preference for the sort of skill, person or both (depending on the role) that I'm looking for. That's what interviewing is about isn't it as long as everyone gets a fair shot and there's no discrimination.

I wouldn't want to recruit anyone who feels its appropriate to focus on their experience in politics - in an interview - when they must surely have more relevant examples (and no, of course giving a presentation and studying wouldn't bowl me over on their own, I didn't think I'd have to list them out but I'd be interested in how they approached these things, any difficulties/deadline issues, preparation, what feedback they received, approach to revision, how they fit studying in around a part time job if they had one, how did they stay motivated if they hit a wall etc).

I'd discount examples of situations that i feel are not relevant or that experience isn't particularly wanted. To be blunt, like other employers, we wouldn't want someone who has potential to cause any upset. Given politics is always a tricky subject if someone felt it appropriate to focus on their experience in this area when they will have so many other examples, it would worry me that that would be a key topic for them in the workplace too.

Exactly. I read that Erdogan comment and couldn't be bothered to respond as the thread had many pages of posts after that and living in Tory Britain is exhausting. The whataboutism and British exceptionalism of Tory party supporters sickening.

I know how the media in this country would be acting if half the stuff this party are doing was happening in a foreign state.

I'd recommend referencing the skills and experiences (relevant to the jobs he's going for) while not naming them. So if he's organised a conference, managed a budget, introduced speakers etc - talk about that, about being involved in a "University Society", a "campaign group" etc. If asked then the "mainstream political party, prefer to keep politics out of work" is good deflector.

I don't disagree that the tories are awful. They are, but I just think that going down the road of assuming everyone who votes and campaigns for them buys into all of it is pretty disturbing if you take it to it's logical conclusion.

What the world needs is healthy debate and openness, not this increasingly polarised discord of us vs them.

@Frabbits

I dont mind admitting that tory = bad.

Imo you can't be a nice person and a member of the tory party and even voting for them is stretching it.

A young tory member is (by definition) far more likely to be xenophobic, classist, elitist, sexist, racist and mysoginist

Their core values are bad. If you agree with them then you must be too.

I think you'd have a job at tribunal getting a political belief covered

For example believing Brexit was good (or bad) would never have qualified. It would have to be incredibly narrow to qualify.

Although precedents aren't set at Employment Tribunals, McEleny v MoD found in favour of the employee's belief in Scottish independence was a protected characteristic.

they have been popular enough to win the last 4 GEs (or form a government in coalition). People vote for them for all sorts of reasons and, shock horror, not always for "evil" reasons.

More people voted against them than for them. So they aren’t that popular. We just have a crap voting system.

We all held the same remain view in my workplace. And teaching is quite a politicised profession ( mainly left wing) so not many people hold different views.

l don’t know one teacher who voted to leave. Not one.

We all held the same remain view in my workplace. And teaching is quite a politicised profession ( mainly left wing) so not many people hold different views.

l don’t know one teacher who voted to leave. Not one.
Most people I know who shared their views also voted remain, not that any of the colleagues who considered or voted brexit would have felt able to join in though.
There was a distinct right side of history, clever remainers Vs thick brexit voter's rhetoric. I honestly think a major failing of the remain campaign was there were too many people patting themselves on the back for being the good guys, sitting in echo chambers congratulating themselves, and anything other than utter support for remain was dismissed as being stupid or racist.

Even before I went into teaching, I rarely experienced centre left people, centrists or moderate centre right people discussing politics in the workplace. Some parts of the left suffers quite strongly from "we're the good guys on the right side of history"-itis.

I'm left wing and still avoid political discussions at work. We're there to work, my political views are irrelevant and I choose not to contribute to an echo chamber.

True but finance isn't exactly a bastion of racial and gender based equality is it?

OP, I think your DS will probably have a better chance if he says he's for the Tories in the interview. Finance is one of the only places that'd happen, so why not use it. His face will fit. Sad but true.

dependent on the role many people in finance are actually a bit anarchistic. Money is a high risk, and often creative, game which doesn’t attract conservative (small c) types.

@Outofthepark

I'd be horrified if my kid wanted to work in finance as well

What an incredibly blinkered view you have.

Hence "popular enough".

@Frabbits

Not blinkered, no

Just aware of what the tories are all about.

Maybe you aren't?

@Frabbits

No, not popular enough.

Winning through corruption, lack of PR and opposition doesn't mean they're popular

I'm well aware of what the tories are like, especially recently.

However, if you go around with your attitude you are part of the problem as much as they are.