Or is this bonkers?

[KatyaKat]

I was recently in a situation where an internal team within my organisation was hiring for 2 roles - one at my grade, and one at the next grade up. I knew I could do the same grade role, but I also thought I could do the higher grade role, even if a bit of on the job development might also be needed.

I decided to apply for both, and explained to the hiring manager (who I know) why. They offered an interview for the higher grade role, and explained they'll consider me for the same grade one in the same interview - great, I thought!

A week after the interview, I received an email (not even a call!) saying I was unsuccessful for both, because the roles are very different and I didn't give enough evidence in the interview about which one I really wanted.

Am I being totally unreasonable in thinking this is utterly mad? They could have told me to focus on one role, and interviewed me just for that one, if that's what they wanted, surely?

It does seem strange, but they probably already knew who they were hiring, and the interview process was a formality.

Yea this is bonkers but they probably shouldn’t have interviewed for 2 different roles together as the job spec and requirements would be different. This wouldn’t be allowed in my work place so this could be an issue of you being told by one person this could happen and then a senior manager or HR person has said it can’t.

It sounds very unfair, I’d be upset about that.

You got hobbled by the hire manager.

But would agree the careless nature of your interview suggests you may not have been seen as a serious contender for either role.

You can not interview for a "junior" and "senior" role where the tasks involved are different. And part of the hire dance is the expected "I lived my whole career to get this job and tada this is why I am the only person for it".

You need to show you can do the tasks understand the policy and processes and "hit the ground runing" for each role.

On the hire side they need to structure the interview get the information to prove you can do both jobs in the time others are using to proving they can do the nittygritry of the one specific role.

You were aiming for the senior role and would likely end up underselling your skills when discussing the junior role.

I would ask for extra feedback to understand what they were looking for and what they seen a weakness and a strenght for each role

This. It is wrong but we know that's how it is

This is an excellent post.

Neither roles were junior, and "careless nature of your interview"? Were you there?

My point was that if the roles were so different that they couldn't be assessed in one interview, then they shouldn't have done that, and told me to pick, or say, we think you can do the higher grade, let's focus on that.

If you’re not a junior why didn’t you say that yourself?

I was unsuccessful for both, because the roles are very different and I didn't give enough evidence in the interview about which one I really wanted. Is reasonable advice when you said

They offered an interview for the higher grade role,

You should have treated it as one interview for the higher role. That's what they were interviewing for, should have been your priority, and should have been all you talked about, really.

It's not appropriate to say to your potential new boss "you're doing this wrong"

Why did you ever want to interview for both in the first place? That says to me you don’t know what you want.

and I agree with a pp you should’ve treated it as an interview for the higher level role.

I did. But they also asked questions relevant to the other role. I couldn't ignore those and refuse to answer them. I tried to answer them to illustrate my relevant skills for that role.

The hire manager was careless in rolling the two roles into one interview. No one serious at giving you a shot at either job would combine the 2 roles. So why?

You never had a real chance to fit your skills (no matter how you excel) into both roles at the same interview.

One role was junior to the other.

For the more junior role you needed to show you can take instruction from the higher grades and be guided by them (Soft dotted line management ) as if things go wrong seniors are more responsible than juniors (in theory anyway) . A role to be the correct cog in the correct space making everything work up the chain of command.

In the higher grade you needed to show an ability to be the guide to the more junior role ans take more ownership. So you are the force needed to move the junior cogs

So the question you have to ask is why did the hire manager offer to include the junior role in your interview.

To qualify for the senior tasks/job all the questions needed to focus on the higher grade

Ridiculous. They said they were interviewing you for the higher role. Not that they were interviewing you for both. They just said they'd consider you for the lower one as a result of the higher interview. I don't see how when they didn't interview you for it. It sounds like a bit of a fit up. The reason they gave for your failure is down to their own decision making.