job interviews

'In essence no, the Netherlands has a far more developed welfare stated but the theoretical side to the profession is more or less the same."

"Good. Can you then explain the difference between practise and process based social work particularly in relation to the 5 interview model?"

"Errrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmm. (long pause). Not exactly......"

"Yes. Yes, that's right."

"What do you consider your biggest weakness?"

"Public speaking."

It seemed to go quite well though

*scans through copy of application form she sent off to remember what arse she said she could do*

HAHAHA oh god if anyone has a computer with web editing proper programmes please could I borrow them to re-familiarise myself with them as I said I have used them - YES but can I remember ANYTHING about them hahahaha.

Oh god I'm nervous. I need lunch. WHERE IS ECWM?????

good luck to sarah and chris.

I am still panicking!

Also, don't move too far away from the subject. No matter how much they like you, they don't want to hear about irrelevancies or, another failing of mine (in all walks of life), overly personal stuff.

Sigh. Does anyone want to give me a job too?

Do you get firsts in A-levels too?

Who is this David Baddiel?

The degree starts from a third (you scraped through), the common 2:2, the very good 2:1 (aka lower/upper second) and the first.

David Baddiel is a British comedian. You're not missing much.

GROWL. ;) ;) ;)

First (first class honours): bloody impressive. Second: so common that they were split into two types, 2:1 and 2:2, where the former is better. And then there are thirds. Basically, that's it. I think fourths have died out completely (they were very rare, my great grandfather got one for being, well, not very good but a nice bloke, or thereabouts; cynical people will tell you that they were for thick aristocrats who basically failed but were rich and influential and so had to be given some kind of degree just for turning up, and this may well be partly true, but my greatgrandfather was not rich or particularly posh).

There are also degrees "without honours" for if you don't quite manage to fulfil all the requirements for a proper degree but I don't really know how common they are, I think how often they get given and what they involve varies a lot from place to place. Perhaps I should know more, since being a dropout from a university that's not as good as the one Martin dropped out of (HMPF ;) I spent a while reading the small print to see if there was anything I could do to get a non-honours degree. And there wasn't. Sigh.

As for non-honours degrees, at De Montfort there were a number of students who started on an HND, then transferred to a degree programme after that. For some reason they got non-honours degrees. This is fact, but I don't understand it!

Question - how on earth do you successfully duck out of work for the afternoon without arousing suspicion? I'm usually a scruffy bastard so there's no way I can style out turning up in a suit for a "doctor's appointment". Also, I'm supposed to be training an assistant as the moment so actually taking time off could be difficult. What to do?

It is also my philosophy that if you take a few hours of vacation it is your own damn business why; no explaination required beyond "I need to take a couple of hours off tomorrow -- that o.k.?" The end. I'm uncomfortable lying about sick leave or doctor's appointments.

yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

anyone ever withdrawn from an application when they've been offered an interview? just not sure I cba doing all the prep (company research, working up answers to the competency qs etc) and my current job is... fine I guess

Loads of times

did it. kinda regret doing it now. inevitable

said it was bad timing (financial year end) and hadn't had time to properly prepare and didn't want to waste everyone's time. can I say to something along the lines 'if you're still interviewing in dec/jan, let me know. it's the ideal role but was just very unfortunate with the timing'

have heard from several people that the application is about the past, the interview is about the future

but i live in the now

the application is about the misery your past employment bestowed upon you, the interview is about the horrors which lie ahead

Tend to agree with bizarro.

Application is partially about the future tho - a cover page can make clear how your values align with the company and how you can see yourself fitting in there. Hopefully that's not too literal

make sure your cover letter stands out by using an eye-catching font, like comic sans, in a colour which reflects your personality, like lavender

you can also add visual interest by breaking up the text with clip art of businesspeople doing business things, eg

https://openclipart.org/download/236805/Businessman-Pointing-To-Graph-On-Monitor.svg

All of my application is in the past for sure

the interview should also be about the past, the idea is that you provide specific examples of how you've demonstrated the competencies required for the position

so I 99% completed an application for a post but did not submit it....... & I have been invited for an interview....
-\..o../-

I made it to the third and final stage of a job interview, which is a “chemistry meet” where I’ll meet the five people I’m going to manage and my co-managers.

I’ve done one of these before, as a team member not a candidate, and it was excruciating. I consider myself quite sociable and chatty but I can turn into an overpleasing dingbat when conversation gets awkward.

Any hints/experience? Definitely more nervous about this than the two other interviews...

Breathe
Relax
Less is more

think of some cool orders to give them, to show them how fun it will be to do your bidding

I have been jobhunting.

Note: I don't, strictly speaking, need to, because I already have a job. I just want a different one, and there are a bunch out there (for my particular niche type of work). I know this is a ridiculously privileged situation to be in.

That said, it IS a bit surreal - not just because everything is phones and zooms and teams and stuff, but because basically no one knows what tf is happening, so a lot of things are tentative. Thoughts in no particular order:

1. Almost every company has an online application; some are better than others.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and that's pretty much it. A+.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and the tool parses it successfully. B+.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and the tool parses it middlingly well - you still have to go in and correct/edit to correspond with reality. C.
- Sometimes you upload your resume and then you STILL have to manually enter every fricking thing. D-.

2. I have told a LOT of companies about my gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, and veteran-ness. This is fine and I understand why they collect the data but it's pretty repetitive and I find myself wishing for a way to do it all with one button.

3. I have talked to a LOT of initial screener interviewers (generally, recruiters or other HR types). These conversations generally go well. But the second phase (of talking to a person who actually understands the work) is usually slow to materialize. Because people are busy having, y'know, jobs.

4. Every potential calculation of whether/when to say yes is fraught. If I accept the first offer I will forever wonder whether I should have held out longer. If I reject an offer I will forever wonder if I should have taken it.

Friend just got a new gig, depends on the industry I guess

had an interview on friday - said I should hear the outcome today. still haven’t heard anything. know it’s a bit early to be worried (given ppl can get dragged into operational processes, final sign-off discussions etc) and thought at the time ‘on tuesday’ sounded ambitious. but that rational thinking isn’t helping my anxiety tho.

keep telling myself it was a bank holiday weekend and today the hiring manager needs to ‘score’/assess the candidates, get her big boss to give the nod, and - even though it’s her decision - she’ll need to get HR to give the nod too. throw in the fact the big boss might be busy or otherwise waylaid, same for HR… plus fact I’m asking for slightly above the pay band on the advert (which is another thing that would need signed off)… all that and they’re all doing their day jobs too plus whatever crap crops up… that’s giving me some comfort.

I just hate this waiting part. I’m impatient

also fuck a competency question / STAR response

What sort of question would you prefer to competency ones? Genuinely curious, since I seem to have ended up in charge of recruitment at my company, and we ask mostly (but not entirely) competency questions. We don't grade super strictly on STAR though.

And like I kind of get it, because anytime I've interviewed on competency questions I haven't gotten the job, whereas I can nail 'shoot the shit' sort of interviews or less formally structured ones. Is there a happy medium that's still 'fair' to candidates and gives interviewers a common ground for scoring?

I don't necessarily hate STAR questions but if they're looking for something extremely specific I wish they would tell you ahead of time what the questions might be. I interviewed a lot in 2022-23 and I found that getting "gotcha" questions popped at me was not an effective way to reveal anything except how I would react if rudely confronted. Which is poorly.

The best interview I ever had (and I did not get the job!) was with an NYC city agency and included questions like "How do you like to manage?" and "How do you prefer to BE managed?" and it taught me so much more about myself, how to talk about myself, and how to ascertain the right fit with the culture & expectations of a workplace. No one had ever asked me how I liked to be managed or get feedback--you got whatever your boss did, and by gum you liked it or at least shut up about it. Total game changer.

I change my mind - competency questions are good not bad. (they want to give me the job I interviewed for but think I might actually be a better suit for a more senior position they have open so we’re working through the details on that.)

way to go!

I’ve had some interviews lately, my first since…. 2011 maybe? Everything is different and I suck at it. I’m pretty good in person and people like me. I think. But the zoom and phone interviews are fucking me up and I hate it. Half the time there’s some technical glitch and it totally throws me off.

I had an interview for a library job and the zoom thing didn’t work right at the beginning and then the connection broke right before it ended, so it started and ended on bum notes. And the library is 15 minutes from my house. Everything is stupid.

good stuff ||||||
i took the initial post as just blowing off steam anyhow. these things suck. i'm on the interviewer side for the first time soon and am absolutely dreading it. Very formal format.

Well done barcode.

Had a job interview last Friday, apparently should've known the outcome on Tuesday lol

Last yr I had a gap between initial and final interviews of about 4-6 weeks