Trials of Finding New Job

[lyonspride]

ToothbrushMan said:

Thesprucegoose said:

How you get to work is your problem, tell them whatever they want to hear, move,car,rent a flat,hovercraft. Counter back but it sounds like a brushoff unfortunately.

i was thinking of sending a notty reply.

my biggest rub is that my ex manager who referred me - she lives no closer! maybe she has a flying carpet - that would explain why she manages every day but I couldnt possibly.

My reply was going to be short and sweet "driving is an option - is there no staff parking available?"

TBH, if they have staff leaving because of a slightly awkward commute, then the staff are lying about why they're leaving, or the company is lying to itself.

[lyonspride]

silent ninja said:

Equally, I have seen many external candidates trump internal ones despite not displaying discernible qualities over and above internal candidates. It happens. A lot. There are too many factors at play.

Biggest one would be a toxic work culture (or a blame culture), people dragging eachothers names through the mud in a bid to gain promotion or dodge the blame for something, to the point where upper management think all of the staff are idiots....

[ToothbrushMan]

i know one thing for sure.......once I land another job I will ensure I do my networking because god know what the jobs market will be like in 2, 3 or even 5 years time so if I get made redundant again I hopefully we be better prepared and can juts make more direct approaches to decision makers..........sod the agencies although there are one or two good ones.

[bad company]

Leonard Stanley said:

In my experience, only the personal network bears fruit. Punting CV's off to shiny suited 'consultants' is a total waste of time.

How do you think they paid for those shiny suits?

[ToothbrushMan]

had a telephone interview this afternoon. wish it had been in the morning because it felt like the day was on hold waiting for the phone to ring - like sitting in the dentist waiting room.

anyway spread over 3 or 4 days i did loads of reading up research and laid out a load of answers in preparation for the competency based questions I was told would be part of the interview and questions and why i want the job reasons etc. pinned all these sheets of A4 up on the wall in the spare room........fully prepared......

phone rings at the time advised and we get started.

all that prep and I was really only asked 2 x competency questions, was told about the job, was asked about my career and that was it. 30 mins and we was done.

I guess I might end up being grateful that it was so easy and short but the truth is it felt a bit amateurish - the person on the phone did'nt sound experienced in interviewing staff and was very script like.

hey ho it was pleasant enough - the next stage is a face to face so maybe next week I will hear something.............

[sparky1pq]

ToothbrushMan said:

had a telephone interview this afternoon. wish it had been in the morning because it felt like the day was on hold waiting for the phone to ring - like sitting in the dentist waiting room.

anyway spread over 3 or 4 days i did loads of reading up research and laid out a load of answers in preparation for the competency based questions I was told would be part of the interview and questions and why i want the job reasons etc. pinned all these sheets of A4 up on the wall in the spare room........fully prepared......

phone rings at the time advised and we get started.

all that prep and I was really only asked 2 x competency questions, was told about the job, was asked about my career and that was it. 30 mins and we was done.

I guess I might end up being grateful that it was so easy and short but the truth is it felt a bit amateurish - the person on the phone did'nt sound experienced in interviewing staff and was very script like.

hey ho it was pleasant enough - the next stage is a face to face so maybe next week I will hear something.............

Fingers crossed for you. Better for you to be prepared and find they aren't than the other way around.

This isn't uncommon that the person conducting the "interview" isn't prepared / experienced. See a book recommended earlier in this very thread "Winning at Interview - A New Way To Succeed by Alan Jones".

[chunder27]

Remember a phone interview a few years ago, job spec looked a bit away from my skills, so was not expecting much. But most of my last 15 or so years was spent doing similar things. So I held out a little hope.

But the guy was asking me about what I did at and after school, so I told him I worked at Sinasburys for a few years and he asked why it was not on my CV, because it is not relevant in any way to the job I applied for and it was a first job out of school, I replied.

And he proceeded to launch into a tirade about people not sending in complete CV's, to which I replied, I only put down stuff which is relevant for either the recent past and to the job applied for, if I put everything down my CV would be 5 pages long. He then wanted to know what I had been doing in the years before all the specific stuff. So I started to tell him and he got impatient.

I said: I think this is a bit of a waste of time don't you, to which he said something about my attitude and not being prepared, to which I simply said Goodbye and slammed the phone down.

I sent an email to the agency and told them and they were horrified. I had never, in 25 years been asked about what I did at school, or the jobs I did during that time, it has no relevance, and if asked I simply say I worked in a supermarket while trying to find something more specific, this guy wanted to know what I did, where I worked. Weird.

Edited by chunder27 on Friday 19th October 18:52

[berlintaxi]

chunder27 said:

I sent an email to the agency and told them and they were horrified. I had never, in 25 years been asked about what I did at school, or the jobs I did during that time, it has no relevance, and if asked I simply say I worked in a supermarket while trying to find something more specific, this guy wanted to know what I did, where I worked. Weird.

Had similar, went for a job interview, stated my qualifications on my CV, Hons degree, guy asked what O levels I had, asked how it was relevant when I had a degree, he wouldn't move on so I got up and walked, who wants to work for these strange people anyway.

[anonymous-user]

I've had the same at an agency,back 22 years history to school, felt like an interrogation, the information was superfluous and written down to be inputted on a computer later, laboriously.

All for a poxy job, never heard from them again.

[Ej74]

Mr Ninja

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say
The frustration from me is that they contacted me and started the ball rolling with the role and also the 2nd time the same has happened to me

Seems to be same BS whether its an internal or external recruiter
I always have many pokers in the fire

The current role, I left on the basis of promises they made which were not adhered to - they even initially denied having ever made the statements

New role secured ! happy days and 25% uplift and relief on my taxable earnings !

[silent ninja]

Ej74 said:

Mr Ninja

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you say
The frustration from me is that they contacted me and started the ball rolling with the role and also the 2nd time the same has happened to me

Seems to be same BS whether its an internal or external recruiter
I always have many pokers in the fire

The current role, I left on the basis of promises they made which were not adhered to - they even initially denied having ever made the statements

New role secured ! happy days and 25% uplift and relief on my taxable earnings !

Congratulations! All has worked out in the end

[Vyse]

Is it usual for hiring managers to send you a linkedin request after the interview? Should I accept?

[Flooble]

Vyse said:

Is it usual for hiring managers to send you a linkedin request after the interview? Should I accept?

Definitely accept

[Vyse]

Funny thing is after the 3 interviews I've had so far, this is the job I want the least.

Flooble said:

Definitely accept

[Flooble]

Cheer up, at least you are getting interviews!

[Vyse]

Yeah that is true. Whats the etiquette for send thank you emails or is that an American thing?

[ToothbrushMan]

interview today 10am 37 miles away - 5 mins to the station then 45 mins on 2 trains then 25 mins walk the other end so had to leave early.

left at 7.50am for the 8am train. delayed then cancelled. signal failures all round people were catching buses.

gave up went back home for 8.15am to take the car. low on petrol- stopped to fill up. 3/4 of an hour in traffic to do about 6 miles.

just dire.

phoned ahead to push back half hour which was fine but arrived at 10.24 feathers ruffled. hate being late and was 2 decent coffees down too as I had time during my connection then again at the destination to grab anther coffee and go through my notes - that all went of the window,

interview was 2 hrs. flounced up on a really basic question - what do you know about our company? I knew a bit but hadnt ripped the company apart to research them. maybe if they invite me for interview no.2 I might get a second chance, I managed to smooth that one over I think. You try and cover all the bases all the scenarios but on that one my mind just went blank. so annoying.

[Flooble]

ToothbrushMan said:

interview today 10am 37 miles away - 5 mins to the station then 45 mins on 2 trains then 25 mins walk the other end so had to leave early.

left at 7.50am for the 8am train. delayed then cancelled. signal failures all round people were catching buses.

gave up went back home for 8.15am to take the car. low on petrol- stopped to fill up. 3/4 of an hour in traffic to do about 6 miles.

just dire.

phoned ahead to push back half hour which was fine but arrived at 10.24 feathers ruffled. hate being late and was 2 decent coffees down too as I had time during my connection then again at the destination to grab anther coffee and go through my notes - that all went of the window,

interview was 2 hrs. flounced up on a really basic question - what do you know about our company? I knew a bit but hadnt ripped the company apart to research them. maybe if they invite me for interview no.2 I might get a second chance, I managed to smooth that one over I think. You try and cover all the bases all the scenarios but on that one my mind just went blank. so annoying.

Bizarrely out of a couple of recent interviews after reading loads I wasn't asked at all about the company. It was always drilled into me its a killer question that you must get right but they just skated past it.

And vyse - I have no idea on follow up thank yous, but it can't hurt to send one a day or two afterwards.

[silent ninja]

The worst thing is being late to interviews. Not because of upsetting the potential new employer - they're usually understanding if public transport has failed etc - but because you end up being flustered.

If I have an AM interview and it's more than say 90 minutes away, I prefer to stay overnight locally. You can normally find a room cheap as chips if you book in advance, and go for out of town locations. Better to stay in a crappy low budget hotel and arrive fresh, early and have time to mentally prepare, than have all that stress should anything go wrong.

[bobmcgod]

silent ninja said:

The worst thing is being late to interviews. Not because of upsetting the potential new employer - they're usually understanding if public transport has failed etc - but because you end up being flustered.

I turned up to an interview an hour and a half late for my current job due to being stuck in traffic. I think it turned out to be a good thing as it made me relax quite a bit. The thinking being "well I can't f*** it up any more than this."