QOD 19/02/2013 - When Was Your Last Interview & How Was it?!

Flipo's Mum

Flipo's Mum

Heavy owner of a Heavy
Aug 17, 2009
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Perthshire, Scotland
So in honour of CFP's interview this morning, I thought we could regale with horror or success stories when it comes to interviews.....hopefully by the time she sees this, it'll all be over and done with for the day so this shouldn't scare her off!
So what was your last interview like, did you get the job, have you ever boobed in an interview? Has any company ever drawn attention to your online presence once you were in a job or as part of their application process? Do you think it is right for prospective employers to research your online life?
 
I've been lucky, although I've applied for loads of jobs over the years and not got responses or got rejections, I've been offered the job for every interview I've done.

Its funny because I'm so nervous and crap at exams, but I love interviews and presentations and I suppose that makes me come across as keen, personable and confident. I hope I never need to do another interview again as I aim to just work for myself rather than be employed.


The funniest one was my hubby's last interview. I had to drive him there so that he could Google and read up on the company in the car and then find out that the product did that the company made! He's been there 11 years and heads up the department now! He's always been a jammy git!
 
Can't say I've ever come out of an interview and thought "Eek, that didn't go well", although I've been refused a few jobs so obviously THEY thought differently! :redcarded: The last formal type of interview I had was, believe it or not, for a part-time bar worker! Proper sit down and question and answer sesh - and I didn't get that one either! When I got the job at The Halfway House I popped in with a CV and then Peter phoned me up the next day and said could I start the next Wednesday! No interview at ALL! :giggle:

I guess I've been fairly lucky as I've not had many interview failures in my life... and a lot of jobs I've kind of fallen into by starting as a temp and being asked to stay. In fact, THOSE interviews are probably the worst as you have to go through the motions with someone who already knows you and your quirks....

I suppose the last biggie was coming for our joint positions here - change of career for me from office worker to housekeeper so I had nothing written to prove I could "housekeep"!
 
Didn't really interview for my current job, met one of the directors for a coffee but i had worked with them before... In fact he had interviewed me somewhere else for my first job as a graduate 7 years earlier, back then I thought he was the young person they sent in to prove the company wasn't full of old people after I had seen two others.. That was a bit weird too, instead of a panel they came in and questioned you one after the other.. I'm 99% sure I got that job on the merit of the fact they had loved my OH on his summer job there the year before and presumed if I was going out with him and had gone to uni with him then I might be ok and nothing to do with myself! :redcarded:

Apart from that I have only ever not got jobs that I didn't want anyway, which probably came across in interview then maybe? Will bear this in mind next time.. I really haven't done that many interviews though, three more than the two I have done for jobs I took.. And for one of those I was way out my depth which was a little awkward at interview because it was through an agency and we both had realised it but kept the charade going to the bitter end! My brief time at the council was probably after the worst interview as I didn't really know anything about what they expected but they didn't either (new role for new scheme!) so I needn't have worried when I got there!
 
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I've been very lucky in that I've only really had 2 jobs, my current one included! I did a year out as part of my Degree working in a saddlery and I had sort of a mini interview for that, mainly just to give me interview experience.

I interviewed twice for my first job out of Uni, the first was for a position I wasn't even aware was open and didn't want! :giggle: I'd just sent my CV off to every company I could think of in the area I wanted to work in. Needless to say I didn't get that position but was called back a month or so later for a different position so they did like me. I did get nervous about it as I'm quite shy, but it wasn't as bad as I'd dreamt in my head!

I technically didn't interview for my current job but as my bosses are my Dad and Sister there's not much they don't know about me! :giggle:
 
Good Luck CFP!

My last interview (in August last year) was a bit rubbish... but I still got the job. They asked me a few questions that I had a rubbishy, bare-minimum answer for. And then there was one question that took me about 5min to answer and they kept trying to promt me to the correct answer but it took a little bit before it clicked in my head. Definitely thought I'd messed it up but either they liked me or everyone else messed up worse that I did!!!

I have to say that I've been very lucky - every interview I've gone to I've got the job. I've applied for plenty of jobs and not got to the interview stage though!
 
My last interview for a job was back in 1988 with an agency. It was all black high gloss desks and shoulder pads back then lol and women (career women) were scary beasts!!! In the spirit of being such a career woman I remember wearing my bestest pointy shoes, shoulder padded jacket and blouse - complete with hair that NEVER moved and of course my bag was full of essential items. I remember impressing the head honcho very much, with the fact that I had a DIARY and ORGANISER in said bag and could produce immediately upon request all details such as NI number etc etc. Wow. Then she asked me how I fancied an assignment - it turned out to be the longest and best one ever. If that day had not happened then I wouldn't be sat here peering out the window with the girls munching peacefully. Oh no, that's leading us back to the FATE thread!lol
 
Hoping to have one in the next month for so. I am looking to come out of my current trade to work at camp closer to home which is nothing to do with my current role. I have done PMF for the last 10 years at various units and locations.

We have been told that there is know promotion this year or next so I have nothing to lose by leaving the trade for a year or two. BUT I already know that there are 8 others who have applied it is a presention and interwiew but the post is rank ranged so I will be up against other Corporals and Sergeants.:help:
 
I've been for several internal jobs here over the last 5 years or so & didn't get any of them - fortunately not really, each one was eventually made redundant! Oops, going back to that fate thread now...

In the interview for my current job, in engineering, I was asked to name parts of a car engine. Yikes, talk about put me on the spot!
 
Mixed bag really. Been to some and bombed but looking back I wasn't keen. Last one I had doubts on but got a second interview but it was quick and thinking on it now it wouldn't have been a good career move. I like working in a big(ish) office. And I have colleagues in London who I get on fantastically well with. If I lived in London and I could work with that team I'd be there in a shot. My employer is a good one but I bitch and moan. It wasn't until I looked elsewhere I realised how protected the industry I work in is. I work for the largest charity in the world doing what they do and there are benefits there that I didn't see before.
 
So what was your last interview like

Well i think it went ok - started off very shakey and babbled a bit but i think i started to relax after that.


did you get the job,

pass - will know in a few days. I hope so though .

have you ever boobed in an interview?

No i have never flashed my boobs :tongue:but when i was 18 i went to an interview for a PT job in boots and wore a mini skirt. Didnt get the job :giggle:

Has any company ever drawn attention to your online presence once you were in a job or as part of their application process?

Yes worked at BP (on the IOM for around 3 years )..regularly got caught out & had a telling off for being on the net when i should have been working :redcarded::redface:.

Do you think it is right for prospective employers to research your online life?

This is a grey area :unsure:- for admin/manual type/unskilled roles then no i dont think its acceptable. However you could argue the same for any profession BUT i think police/army/navy/air force/MI5 or upper government (and poss some fields in the care sector) then maybe would be acceptable due to the nature of the role.
 
The last one I had was just before Christmas. They offered me the job but wanted me to pay for my own CRB check. I thought that was a bit weird and as I was poorly I declined.

The job keeps popping up again from time to time, I sense something 'dodgy'.

I am pretty good with interviews and don't really get nervous, I actually quite enjoy them.

Offices once used to do something called an aptitude test. I used to be absolutely hopeless at them and get rubbish scores. Most frustrating when the job was generally a piece off cake that I could have done with my eyes closed. One very frustrating one that always sticks in my mind. I had been working as a temp for six months in an accounts dept of a large supermarket chain. The job was easy and I enjoyed it so the manager approached me and asked if I would consider a permanent position. I had to do one of these tests with the HR Dept and failed, so didn't get the job! how ridiculous. I actually cried.
 
My last interview was quite bizarre. A rather eccentric gentleman chatted to me, started talking about the local pub and the characters there in, waffled about it for ten minutes, then suddenly said, 'You shouldn't be talking about a pub! You're in an interview you know!!', which I thought was funny so I just laughed.

Five years later I'm still here.

The on line thing can be a problem. A friend used to run a business and they offered a job to a young woman who they felt was well qualified and knew her stuff. He then found the young lads giggling around a computer - they had found photo's of her readily available on line in various states of undress, pouting at the camera. She wasn't modelling or anything, this was just a 'look at me' thing.

My friend had mixed feelings - on the one hand what she got up to in her private life was her own affair, but he began to question her judgement. Rightly as it turned out. She didn't get to the end of her 3 month trial
 
I don't make a good first impression. I babble, try too hard and just generally don't do well (I think).

I haven't had a whole lot of job interviews, but I've had a few and generally, I'm crap at them - hence why I've been in the same job for almost twelve years! I tend to feel that having suffered from low self esteem through out my twenties, I lost out.
My last job interview almost made my head explode. It was a full day made up of -
a presentation (which you had ten minutes to research on the internet prior to giving it).
A group debate.
An in-tray exercise where you had to sort through lots of information, tasks, meetings, plans, etc. and prioritise what needed to be done and how.
A numeracy and verbal test - checking through information and red penning incorrect details
And finally an interview
I was exhausted by the end of it all, and they deliberately created distractions during some of the exercises so as to add extra pressure. I guess it must be so difficult to decide if you're fit for the job, with employment law these days once we're in the door, its very difficult to get rid of us! I'd hate to be an employer, I'm not sure I could trust anyone!
 
I've just thought, my last interview with me as the interviewer. I headed up the customer service dept for a graphics firm and was interviewing for another customer service assistant. I'd received a CV from a very unlikely candidate and couldn't resist calling him in to find out a bit more.

On CV, he really reminded me of my father in law. He was a 64 year old, who only had 2 jobs. He'd been a schoolmaster (hate that term, its what my FIL always called himself too) and then a librarian but currently unemployed.

To cut a long story short, it turned out he was less than 6 months off of retirement and was shocked to be called in for an interview. He was applying for work to appease the DSS but just wanted to get through till he could claim his pension so that explained that!
 
Just remembered an odd one.

I went for an interview at a riding school for a job. When I got there I had to share the interview with another applicant.

I thought the other girl came over as being totally unsuitable. For starters she was wearing a skirt and had her hair done and makeup and didn't look remotely horsey.

We both got a job the job (they needed two people). Turned out she was an experienced show jumping groom, BHS stage 4 riding and care and was also a qualified equine veterinary nurse. How wrong can first impressions be? We got on great and are still friends although we both left the riding school about two months later, we both got fed up with the other staff:giggle:
 
My last interview was just over two years ago, I hate interviews and find them quite terrifying!
Anyway went in sat down and started talking, (sales role and one I know well) it was supposed to be about 45 minute interview .... two hours later I walked out with an offer of the job to start as soon as.
I have been offered every job I've ever been interviewed for so I guess I must be ok at them, either that or the companies I apply to are so desperate they'll take anyone (probably this) but I find getting the interview difficult sometimes.
I don't care what companies want to check out about me, check away I've done nothing to be ashamed or worried about.
 
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