How Badly Do You Want That Job?Monday, October 24, 2005Ever since I posted about a militaristic form of interviewing, I have received feedback that suggests that this is not as unusual as the Blogging Boss thought. One reader even suggests that it might be on the increase. Except for certain rare situations, a hiring manager using intimidation and even being somewhat hostile is ridiculous. The exception is probably reserved for the military. If you are interviewing for the majority of jobs available today your interviewing experience should be a fair, decent experience. Most people get fairly nervous for the event. Some really qualified candidates suffer from what I call “interview anxiety.” They may be the perfect candidate, but interview terribly. They cannot focus and every question becomes harder than the next. I compare it to “test anxiety.” If they did not become so paralyzed under the pressure of an interview, they could answer every question perfectly. I have hired people who suffered from this type of anxiety and they have been wonderful employees. My angst surrounding this artificially induced hostile interview is simple. It greatly diminishes the validity of the first encounter with the candidate. An interview should be a two way communication. The hiring manager is not the only one who is interviewing. When you interview for a job, you should be also proactively interviewing. The hiring manager wants to know if you are the right one for the job and you should be trying to determine if this is the right job for you. If you do not interview while being interviewed you are missing out on the opportunity to walk away from a potentially toxic situation. Sometimes people are so glad they got the offer; they never considered all of the red flags that went up while they were interviewing. Six months later they are miserable and looking for another job. If the hiring manager is intimidating you during the interview ( so called hiring stractegy), how can you possibly understand what this person is really like? The two way interview is now a battle of the minds. I never recommend that you do anything unprofessional in an interview. If you are subjected to an interview like I have described, you will fell like walking. Don’t do it. Do your best and learn from it. Always hold the higher ground. If you made it through and got the job, think twice before accepting it. Any stories where the result of a "hostile interview" turned out to be your dream job? I would love to hear about it. The Blogging Boss Eric Boehme posted at 10/24/2005 10:52:00 AM |
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Copyright © 2006 Beat Your Own Drum
5 Comments:
I thought hostile interviews had gone out of style, and I'm very unhappy to learn that they're enjoying a rebirth. I agree that I sure wouldn't want to accept a job from a company that thought this was the way to conduct a professional interview.
Under no circumstance would I accept a position where management viewed that as the best way to interview people. There is not enough money in the world to go through that again.
just wanted to say love the new style changes!
Joan, Homer,
I agree, obvious;y. Joan, I like your site.
Doris, thank you for the feedback. I couldn't let Jill have all the fun..... ;)
Eric
So you know Jonathan ( i heard you co did this one LOL) could open up a side business at designing blogs.
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