Is interview moving forward a bad thing?

[Feliciacat]

Hello!

I don’t want to say which companies these are for obvious reasons. I had an interview with a company last week and they seemed mega disinterested in me during the interview and didn’t even ask me about the research I’d been asked to do on the company. I invited them to ask me and they said ‘that’s not on the list of questions’. They’ve not let me know if I’ve got the job but I imagine they must’ve had someone already and were just interviewing me because I’d been scheduled in. That was the vibe I got.

Fast forward to this week and I had an interview scheduled for Thursday with another company. They’ve moved the interview to tomorrow because ‘my interview is one of the last ones and they want to let all the candidates know by the end of the week’. Does this sound like they’ve already got someone and want to let them know asap? Or has my confidence just been knocked by last week’s interview?

As an additional point, I am a disability confident interviewee. This means that I’m guaranteed an interview if I meet the requirements in my application. Some people I’ve spoken to think it means I’m just automatically given an interview just for being disabled. However, I have to meet the requirements the same as anyone else and it’s not a token thing. Do you think maybe some employers are giving me interviews because they think they have to rather than because they’re actually interested?

I invited them to ask me and they said ‘that’s not on the list of questions’.

I might be misunderstanding you but that seems like a slightly rude / passive aggressive thing to do in an interview.

Does this sound like they’ve already got someone and want to let them know asap?

Depends on the organisation. It's possible. But they might also be genuinely trying to shorten the process for the benefit of all candidates.

Do you think maybe some employers are giving me interviews because they think they have to rather than because they’re actually interested?

Possible. Anecdotally it happens. Or what's also possible is that the person who ticked the box only met the minimum interview requirements whereas the non-tickers invited for interview far exceeded them (eg if lots of applicants so they unofficially raised the requirements for everyone else while sifting) - so unlikely to be able to compete.

It's not tokenism per se, the scheme is just a blunt tool that doesn't necessarily translate into a level playing field.

Job hunting can erode anyone's confidence, so try not to let your head fill up with negative thoughts as it will derail you.

@user628468523532453 thank you for your detailed reply. I waited until they asked me if I had any questions before I asked if they were going to ask me about the research. Everything they had said before the interview suggested that it was essential to do research and that it would be a large part of the interview. When they said it wasn’t part of their questions I said it was no problem at all and moved on. I was ultimately pretty miffed that they’d been so curt throughout the whole interview (literally right from hello) and had not valued the time I had spent preparing. I had been polite until then. Their recruitment team had also erroneously sent me the two different times for the interview and the recruiter had told me she’d train me if I got an interview…but then did not. I don’t think I’d want to work there even if I did get it.

I am thinking very negatively, it’s true. Thank you for your honest yet ultimately kind opinion. I appreciate it! I’ll try my best tomorrow and who knows what will happen!

You're ideally supposed to drop the research into your answers.

Anyway, no, I would suggest bringing your interview forwards suggests they've had someone else drop out

Researching and understanding the company isn't a seperate Q, with 2 mins to show your specialist subject. You're meant to weave it into your a BBC swears to other Q. So, by understanding the company philosophies, policies, areas of expertise, growth sectors etc, you enhance your answers with this knowledge.

Eg:
Interviewer: So Felicia, I see you have a diploma in medieval basket weaving?

You: Yes, in my role at ABC Consultancy, I supported a number of medieval basketweaving schemes, which inspired me to take the qualification on day release. You might have seen/be aware of xxx project. I see that your organisation is a world leader in basketweaving seeking to expand your market share of specialist medieval services. With my previous skills, knowledge and experience, I feel that I could really bring something to your organisation to progress this ambition.

Unsure about the first interview, maybe your application wasn’t as good as a couple of others? Or others had different skills of interest?

second date shit could easily be about managers being unavailable or going away.

I waited until they asked me if I had any questions before I asked if they were going to ask me about the research.

That's even worse 😬 Is clearly not what anyone means when they say "Do you have any questions?" and makes you seem passive aggressive, like you're questioning their ability to interview you effectively.

Yes agree with others researching the company is standard and you tailor your answers to the company. This is how you show your knowledge.

But the next interview is a new chance, there could be any reason they have changed the date - cancellations, other candidates needing to change or company needing to.

You have a chance go for it. Look at the job spec and link your knowledge and experience to it, research the company and link your knowledge and experience to the company ethos, expectations etc. Have some answers planned based on typical questions, if you are unsure glassdoor often give examples. Assuming they are similar companies you also have the experience of the last company. Good luck.

I don't know about the interview you've had really, it's possible they just took a bit of a dislike to you from the start, or they may just had a previous REALLY awful interviewee and we're trying to just get through others. Not your fault but it happens. I think you could have tried to weave your research answers into your own questions to them though in the 'I know that your company did xyz, that sounds interesting, can you tell me anything more about that?' type of thing.

For your upcoming interview, I think it is most likely they really do want to just get through the interviews faster. I think that's quite common.

If you're qualified and have the right experience then your disability shouldn't make a difference, but I suspect it probably does. I too am disabled and have recently had an interview but it didn't occur to me to even let them know about it as in my case I didn't need any adjustments.

I was just so surprised and asked it out of surprise without thinking. Then immediately said ‘oh that’s completely fine’ and moved onto the next question. I don’t have that much interview experience but I have previously had ‘what do you know about the company?’ as a separate question towards the start of the interview so assumed this would be the case here. Good to know this is not always the case!

It’s really interesting that people say to weave the knowledge about the company into the answers. They were STAR competency based questions so were more about my previous experience. However, I can now see that I could add information about the company after the result part of my answer to enhance it. Thank you all for the useful info; I’m glad I asked.

I am reassured that the interview moving forward doesn’t seem like a bad thing. Thank you so much. Fingers crossed for the second interview today! The first company will let me know if I got through to round two of their interviews as well today.

Ok so, despite my reservations, I’ve got through to the second round of interviews! I guess I must not have come across as passive aggressive! Phew! I guess it didn’t matter that I didn’t get to say anything about the company either. Just goes to show that you never know!

I had an interview with a totally different company today too and I used the advice you’ve all given about weaving company info into my answers! I feel like it went much better than it otherwise would have! Thank you all!

I'm glad you came away from today's interview feeling positive and also had positive news from your previous interview. That's a good day!

Thanks @user628468523532453! it sure was! Thank you for your input to this thread :)