All that matters is being good at interviews

[Wendiy]

so many people come in and are mediocre/ poor at the job. But they were often great at interview. Then people who I know would be great do badly at interview, these are Cs competency interviews. It is all so depressing. I feel my kids just need interview confidence to get on in the world

I’m great at my job but if I interviewed for it I probably wouldn’t be successful.

have you suggested interview coaching to your kids?

My kids are actually still at school but I was just thinking ahead, given what happens at work with all the best bull shitters getting ahead

This is me... Can do the job but interviews I just shake all the way through and what to cry!

I've interviewed loads of people for my line of work. Decent interviewers can detect bullshitters..

But, of course, if you are crap at interviews you are unlikely to get yourself jobs you deserve.

If you have the skills for the job you can learn interview skills, there are a variety of coaching opportunities available

Surely that's what a probational period is for?

Totally agree. It’s bloody farcical.

Exactly! Why are people who are shit at their jobs allowed to stay on? In my current job I had a six-month probationary period. If I'd been shit, they'd have let me go. Good bullshitters can get through an interview, but if you are genuinely clueless, unreliable, unpleasant, difficult, etc, keeping up the pretence of competency for six months is hard!

Definitely a thing now, from what I can see. Once you get selected the scorecard goes back to zero for everyone.

My job is public sector and it’s actually really hard to get rid of people even with the probationary period. They just get extra support and an extension then often get through. Also there’s no probation if it’s an internal move, even if a promotion

As well as people who aren't particularly bright knowing how to ace interviews, you have those who know how to ace exams. If you are both of those (and many are, because of our education system being obsessed with exams and interview prep) then you will have a candidate who is excellent 'on paper' but useless at the job.

What would you propose as an alternative to exams and interviews?

They’ve just shortened this.

This is why the private sector has always been more dynamic than the public and why useless people get public sector jobs, because they know they can spin it out for years and it's really hard to get rid of them. I used to work for TFL and it was full of utterly incompetent people who wouldn't have lasted 5 mins in the private sector. I worked with a guy who used to come into work and watch porn on his work computer. He did finally get fired, but it took ages.

Well it would be helpful to be taught life skills such as common sense, resilience, lateral thinking and compassion for example. These skills are genuinely needed in most work places. Rather than simply mastering telling people what they want to hear (in the case of interview prep) and how to formulaically answer questions that you know will come up in exams, which will probably serve you very little purpose other than to pass your GCSEs.

Yes I totally agree with you that all these things are needed and much more important than performing well on a single day.

But as an employer, how would you decide that people had those skills if you didn’t interview them or look at exam results? How would you make it fair?

Just wondering what people think would work better.

I think it depends on the job tbf. In my role if you're shit at interviews, you'll be shit at the job.

Other roles, competency based exercises would be useful but theyre also artificial.

But interviews are like anything, just a skill you need to learn. Nervousness can be excused but preparation and knowing the role is tricky to fake.

I hate the fakeness of it all. I prefer to be authentic. It's frustrating when you know you can do it but just don't always get your words out right on the day.

I think with these competency based interviews what's to stop someone inventing the example, eg using something one of their colleagues has done..?
Had this type of interview earlier this year and found it odd tbh.

I also work in a place where no one tends to get fired for incompetence. Only for gross misconduct .

One of my colleagues can talk the talk and must have sounded convincing at interview but cannot do the job.

I agree to some extent. But this can be solved with practice and interview coaching.

Being good at interview often indicates someone with good presentation skills who can be put in any meeting and will carry themselves/their department. It was years before I was able to be like this so there is some sense to it for corporate life.

Interview coaching can be really helpful.

Also looking for progression routes in the workplace you are in. I always aim to work like I am one level above. I happily take on the extra responsibilities. It's led to me getting regularly promoted within my organisation.

Agree wholeheartedly. We recently had a restructure at work (education). Several brilliant teachers tanked in the interviews and were made redundant; several dreadful teachers had better interview technique and so kept their jobs. It’s a nonsense.

I worked in the private sector- in a big corporate organisation - and my manager spent the whole time looking up cars and holidays and whining to me about his wife. But he had a smart suit and the right accent and always stayed in the office till 8 (to avoid the kids bedtimes) so people perceived him as hard working

Get them doing some kind of public speaking/ acting/ anything that gets them used to presenting and speaking to people.

You’d be amazed at the amount of people I work with (students) who are too scared to speak in front of a class. And you’re right, my lack of fear in doing so has got me many opportunities over the years. I thank my mum for putting me in show school in the summers for years. Just two weeks every summer where you’re on a stage and people staring up at you is no big deal.

I think I’m pretty good at seeing through the interview bullshitters, you can downgrade easily enough if the vibe is off. It’s much harder to find a diamond in the rough at interview if the person doesn’t interview well, it’s really important people learn to overcome that and the emphasis is on them. I do my best to be as inviting and helpful as is feasible, but some candidates are beyond help. A colleague of mine went for coaching as it was something he struggled with so much, but knew he had to overcome it to continue to progress.