Hi guys, so here's another two past experiences I've had, this time its with interviews. As like before no names shall be given but there are hints for you to use your imagination with.
Stupid interview ("Debit Bank")
Back in 2011 I was invited for an hour of interview at the bank and was told it'll be with 1 interviewer. When I got there there was one guy (who would be my manager) that was to interview me. But before we started he told me that it will just be for half an hour with him and then the second half will be with one of his staff (i.e. a girl who would be my senior).
Already I thought that is stupid given that:
- 30 mins isn't near enough to go through all my experience and talk about the job and ask questions on such as suitability, team, company culture etc.
- On top of that I'd have to do it twice!
Even though I thought it was silly and my gut feeling told me that I wouldn't get this job I couldn't just leave lol. So there I was going through all my 7 jobs. By the time I finished there were a few mins left until the second person would come in...and those minutes were spent trying to see where that other person was...great use of time!
When I thought it couldn't get more stupid the second person proved me wrong. So same as the first part of the interview I went through my job experience in chronological order and by the time I got to my consultancy experience I could already see that she was looking a bit "puzzled"...but I ploughed through given time was against me. When I finished she looked at my CV again and asked "so how comes you were at two places at the same time?" So I said "because I was with a consultancy and they placed me at "the bank that got bailed out". I thought that by consultancy that would answer the question anyway. But to my surprise her response was "how does that work?"...at that point I was thinking WTF?! its a consultancy they have an army of people to help their clients with their problems/projects. Now you might think well not everybody might know...which is a fair point. BUT this lady (which was about 30 or so and have been in the industry for about nearly a decade and have worked in Asia and the US and so you'd think she would know a fair bit). The funny thing was throughout the interview and even after asking that, IMO, ridiculously low IQ question she never once smiled and even looked stuck up.
Stupid interview 2 ("The uni with two ethnicity names")
As recent as last year I was interviewing at a number of places which included a university. An agent had emailed me (along with a number of candidates) that an urgent role has come up. Knowing where the university was, which I liked, I immediately called up the agent. She explained that the role was a contract for 6 months and upon discussing my skills it was, I'd say a perfect match.
1: They required someone to do process mapping as well as understanding the full student life cycle, given my background in a previous university and with a Business Analysis background I could easily do it.
2: It would be the first and only BA in team. Again that was a good match as I previously helped a university establish a BA team.
3: The ultimate goal of the project was to implement a student system and that system was exactly the one I used at the university.
We both thought I'd have a very high chance. As the role was so urgent (wanted the candidate to start the following Monday) and that the manager (Associate Director) was working from home the next day (Friday) a call interview was arranged for the next morning. Even though the role was a very good match I still did some prep and had the interview. During the interview I sensed it went well given I matched all requirements as well as being able to offer more. The interview call ended positively. As there were still other candidates going for the same role we all had to wait for the result in late afternoon. By about 5:15 I finally got a call from the agent, but to my surprise I didn't get the role despite positive feedback. So I asked why?...and to this day I find this one of the dumbest feedbacks ever. So apparently, I had extremely good skills and would be excellent for the role but I appeared to be a "too formal"...right....so SINCE WHEN are interviews not meant to be formal? Granted you shouldn't take like a robot (which I didn't) but I don't think you should joke. The call was with an Associate Director I'm not exactly going to keep laughing and all!