Interview includes interview by staff - advice

[RaisinGirls]

I've a job interview later this week, and I've just been told it will include half and hour q and a with two managers who would report into me if I got the job. Anyone every had this in an interview before, what should I expect, how should I prepare.

also anyone ever interviewed their potential manager before - if so what did you want to get out of the experience.

Any thoughts, observations, ideas welcome!

Posted on chat but no replies so thought I'd try here too.

I haven't heard of this before.

However, I think the key thing to remember is that interviews are two-way things - it's not just about them finding out if they'd want to hire you. It's about you finding out if they'd want to work for them. So what things do you want to know about? What are their processes like? What are working hours like? Are they steady, or do they have times which are a lot more intense? (Some of that will depend a lot on what the job actually is.) What's the departmental structure like? How have they handled a difficult staff problem in the past? How do they handle X, Y, Z?

If you were interviewing a new post in your current role, what questions would you ask? It's probably as good a starting place as any.

This sounds really odd to me.

Its not odd at all. Its completely normal to have 360 deg representation on an interview panel. I'm surprised that you are surprised tbh.

Its not hard to predict what they are likely to be interested in. Management style, experience, do you understand the business or are they going to have to babysit you, have you been successful before or are you are a serial job-hopper/failure, do you fit into the prevailing culture. That kind of stuff. Just what you would want to know about your potential new boss.

Yes, in my team, the candidates can also interviewed by their reports. The reality is their views are not given as much weight as the boss. It is probably more awkward for the report in the interview - they will tend to ask questions about team work and work style to see if they can get along.

When I was a youth worker, used to have groups of the kids on interview panel, that was somewhat daunting!

Mental health nurse here... my interview panel included my would be manager, a nurse who would be on the same level as me, a health care assistant who would be in my team and one of the service users from the ward. Very daunting But they all asked different types of questions and had different priorities.

I've heard of service users or children interviewing a teacher. But not the people you'd directly manage. Seems it's quite common.

Becoming almost standard - and I do think it means that the team is more "bought into" the successful candidate if they have been involved in the appointment. I've seen this even when their preferred choice was not the successful appointee.

Your direct reports have more invested in this role than others in the company. I'd guess UptheRoad is on the right lines.

Just be yourself. Remember - they are likely to be more nervous than you are.

I'm obviously replying way too late to be useful for OP, but as someone who has been asked to participate in interviewing their potential manager, I agree with Olly that although we were in an advisory capacity only (i.e. we didn't have the final decision, just gave our feedback for consideration), it definitely did help us feel more "buy in". We'd talked to other candidates, so had an idea of what range was there, and what senior management had turned down, and also, they'd all met us, so we knew that they had an idea of what they were coming in to.

All in all, it was a really good experience, and definitely worth doing IMO. Haven't been on the other side of it yet. Hope it went well for you OP.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I got the job! And it is good to know I have met the team before I start and an idea of what the challenges they face are and what they need me to do to help them do their jobs well.

Congratulations! Good luck with the new job and your new team!