Is this unprofessional?

[Mindthenicedeadpeople]

Job interview for 12pm

10 candidates all booked in for 12pm being seen individually by one person.

So whoever is here last will presumably be interviewed an hour later than booked.

Dentist, doctors & undertakers = always guaranteed to have a market

Very unprofessional! The only time I've ever seen that happen was for a surgeon's appointment at their rooms. Every patient was booked for 9am and then you'd just wait your turn

I've experienced this at hospital appointments. Had an appointment for my 2 year old at 2pm. There were several of us there and chatting, eventually found out we all had the same 2pm appointment. By 3.20pm I had to leave to get my 5 year old from school. Consultant came out when I told the receptionist I was leaving - she said she'd have to let him know. He was quite snotty about it, said it was a shame I felt I couldn't stay. Told him it wasn't what I 'felt', I had a child to collect. If I'd known it was going to be nearer 4pm I could have made other arrangements. (don't know what, tbh, I wouldn't have had anyone to do it. anyway)

Usually, a slap-dash application just for the Job Centre won't go through to interview stage. However, it's possible that this dentist decided to give every single candidate an interview, which would explain why there were so many and such short interviews.

Are you taking the piss?

This is a wholly inappropriate way for anyone to run a recruitment process, least of all a dental practice presumably run by an intelligent and highly educated professional.

It isn’t mandatory to eat at midday. Presumably you just eat before or after.

Yeah, really thin on the seat and maybe knees due to excessive wear. As in can't afford a new pair but made the most of what they had and came clean and tidy

It’s a dental surgery - they had to make the experience as close to pulling teeth as possible and then see who cracked first.

AI made them all sound amazing. Or he was combining job interviews with speed dating.

Threadbare

From the sublime to the ridiculous, someone just asked me on another thread if I was using AI - I should direct them to you to comment on my spelling. 😁😉🤐

I don’t really see the problem tbh.

I think the majority of interviews I’ve been to have you all come at the same time.

Usually they take at least 3 hours but often have tasks involved so it runs more smoothly.
They usually do a group thing like a group tour instead of doing it multiple times for multiple people.

No way would I have left after only 1 hour.

If there was only 1 person then I assume having people come in at staggered times would be difficult for them.

It seems ridiculous that they didn’t have it over a couple of days though.

It’s blatantly unprofessional to invite someone to an interview with no explanation of what to expect. In the absence of clarification, at the very least candidates should have been interviewed in the order in which they arrived, rather than be left to hang around as though they had been forgotten.

No idea what sector you work in, but this has never been my experience. I worked in a job centre for 8 years, then worked in HR/Learning and Development, managing and recruiting large teams. I now work in early careers and take on graduates and apprentices. I will invite them to an assessment centre, where they work in groups on different tasks. There is no sitting around waiting. If they are successful, they are called back for a 1-2-1 interview on a specific time and date with the hiring manager.

The only time I have heard of this happening (apart from the dodgy dentist today) is for chugging or cold call sales.

My experience of this has been in education/teaching.

Everyone arrives at the same time as it’s just easier to sign everyone in and walk them to where they need to be.
Then we’re there usually all day with a break halfway, but it’s always a good 3 hours.

It sounds like this person was on their own and so it would be quite difficult if people were coming in at different times.

I'm glad you reviewed them and sent them a message explaining how incredibly rude they were to the people applying ... especially since they were clearly interviewing way too many people for the role. He's looking for a 'look' not someone who will do the job well is my take, hence the high number of interviewees.

I used to be a Chair of Gov’s and this didn’t happen at my school. To be fair, the Head was super organised and the school administrator was even better. Individual interviews there.

If this is common across education, (it’s definitely not in other sectors) I’ll pre-warn my son, who has just started his PGCE primary.

Absolutely disgraceful and unprofessional! Well done for not allowing them to waste any more of your time!

It’s obviously nothing like an interview for a teaching position. For a teaching role, you would expect information in advance on the likely length of the day, whether lunch will be provided, and be told, eg, to prepare a presentation about x subject, a 20 minute lesson to x year group, and to expect an interview with the Headteacher and head of whatever, and/or a governor, etc, etc. You would definitely not expect to be told nothing more than to turn up at midday for an interview and to then sit in a waiting room with 14 other teachers waiting to be interviewed, then be given no information on arrival and watch the others be called in in apparently random order, one after the other, to be interviewed for 8 minutes before leaving the premises.

Probably expect you just to grin and bear it?

very bad and unprofessional.

Just a small point, in your email you say "a hour". I think it should be "an". Also it's practice with a c for a noun. my spelling and grammar are shocking so not trying to be an arse.

Or make it like having a filling - it’ll just be a little prick (interviewing you).

They don’t put much thought into their recruitment do they!

Oh I have had some shockers in my time worst was a lady who turned up for 9.30 interview, clearly hadn't washed, and tried to cover up her body odour with perfume. Out of politeness I went through the interview with her as quickly as possible, as the smell was making me feel ill

Good luck to your son.

He can definitely expect to be at the interview with the other candidates for the majority of the day (which makes it harder when you’re not successful).

Yes of course it’s completely different but I’m saying I don’t think having the interview time at the same as the other candidates is that big of a deal and makes sense when there’s only 1 staff member available.

They should have had it over 2 days but the interviews were very short and I wouldn’t have left after only an hour knowing it was going to be my time soon.