Job interviews that are not really actual job interviews?

N918KT

N918KT

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Guys, have you ever had a job interview that are not really actual job interviews? What I mean by that is are there job interviews out there where the interviewer does not really ask you interview questions, but talks more about the job itself for which you are applying?

I cannot find any information online about this kind of interview and it is not exactly an informational interview either since in this kind of interviewer the job seeker is interviewing a person to know more about the job or the field in general.

If you get this kind of interview, does it say anything about the difficulty of job or work conditions, like if the job is going to be easy or hard or something like that? Does it also mean they already want to hire you before you even get into the interview?
 
N918KT said:
Guys, have you ever had a job interview that are not really actual job interviews? What I mean by that is are there job interviews out there where the interviewer does not really ask you interview questions, but talks more about the job itself for which you are applying?

I cannot find any information online about this kind of interview and it is not exactly an informational interview either since in this kind of interviewer the job seeker is interviewing a person to know more about the job or the field in general.

If you get this kind of interview, does it say anything about the difficulty of job or work conditions, like if the job is going to be easy or hard or something like that? Does it also mean they already want to hire you before you even get into the interview?
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I talk a lot about the job and the work they like to do on the phone.

First time in person it's a lot more about them to see if they're someone I would want to work with.

After that I give them a technical project that's by no means easy and represents the work I want them to do. Whatever I give them will probably take a full working day on their own time to produce.

Once I look at that I know if they have the skills I need. From there it's either an offer or another interview w/ more people to get their thoughts if there was something I was unsure about in the first in person interview.

Usually when I'm hiring I need help badly and the desire to have SOMEONE ANYONE can be blinding. So I try to get people present at the in person interview that have nothing to lose really if they tell me they don't think we should hire them. It's nice to have more perspective.

Everytime I shortcut this process I regret it.
 
Eh? I'm confused. It's rare I have had a job interview when they didn't talk about the job for which they wanted to hire me. The last one I had was for a VP position, they told me what the job should entail and wanted me to explain how I was going to do it.
 
Yeah, or, often it is the job from hell. I've done it myself.

"So the job requires bla bla bla bla...." (watch for response.)

"And your duties would include bla bla bla bla...." (watch for facial expression.)

"And you would be required to bla bla bla bla..." (detect level of cringing.)

"And the right person would be bla bla bla bla..." (Interviewee still there?)
 
Sac Arrow said:
Yeah, or, often it is the job from hell. I've done it myself.

"So the job requires bla bla bla bla...." (watch for response.)

"And your duties would include bla bla bla bla...." (watch for facial expression.)

"And you would be required to bla bla bla bla..." (detect level of cringing.)

"And the right person would be bla bla bla bla..." (Interviewee still there?)
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That is often true. I do it myself sometimes. I don't always ask a lot of questions because the answers are always exactly what they think I want them to say, or what they read in a book that they are supposed to say. So sometimes I will make a statement to them and gauge their reaction.

A lot of people doing the interviewing, especially at small companies, know a lot about the job but know nothing about how to interview.
 
JOhnH said:
That is often true. I do it myself sometimes. I don't always ask a lot of questions because the answers are always exactly what they think I want them to say, or what they read in a book that they are supposed to say. So sometimes I will make a statement to them and gauge their reaction.
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I've done that as a hint that things aren't well. Last guy I did it to, wasn't scared and didn't take the hint. He was fired three months after I quit.

"You know you'll need to do X, Y, and Z and not doing them is a fireable offense around here...?"

Sadly, he's enjoying a vacation on unemployment insurance and I'm busting butt at the new place. But I'm probably making a lot more than he is. Not sure he cares, though.

Or more likely he planned it. Hell if I know. Not my business.
 
I had an experience like that once..

 
steingar said:
"Job interviews" can sometimes be recruitment sessions in disguise.
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What Michael said. I'd be very Leary of company that tries to sell you on the job rather than require you to sell yourself for the job.
 
My interview tip of the day.

If you want to really asses a candidate, ask them what they don't like.

Example. Say I sell Mac computers.
They can study macs until they are blue in the face and if I ask them about Macs, they can share with me all the wonderful things Macs can do. All rote responses they got out of a book/online.

Now if I ask "Tell me what you don't like about Macs"
When they say "I really dislike the lack of intuition programmed into the interfaces and I find it frustrating how everything is proprietary", I get they have some hands on experience and it is a question they likely weren't expecting so you don't get a planned response.

If someone can tell me what they don't like about something, then I can tell if they have likely gotten into it and used it and gotten themselves frustrated with it.

That is a silly example but being able to tell me SQL server is powerful and allows me to keep my business logic in a data layer out of the interface etc doesn't show me anything. Telling my it can be a challenge that profiler required dbo rights and makes debugging stored procedures a challenge when not having those rights, I know the developer has gone a few rounds with it.

Works the same way in the other direction. I ask employers: "what do you like least about working here" Catches them off guard and forces an honest response.

I have heard answers to this question like "I get frustrated then the steering committee / sales folks provide unreasonable deadlines and we are struggling to stay up as a result"

Try asking some questions like this sometime and I bet you will see people either have to try and think something up in which case you probably will be letting them go later. Or you will get an idea of how much they have used something required for the job.
 
Job interviews can also be mass efforts at identity theft . . . .

keep that in mind. Limit the information you provide until AFTER you have the job, and are certain it is a real business . . . .
 
In the late 90's during the dotcom madness I interviewed at a Bay area company. I did all the lower level interviews and obviously passed because at some point I got to the CEO's office for my final interview. It was a Silicon Valley start up so yes he was some slob wearing flip flops... His interview was to take me to his favorite hang out and play video games... Later that evening I got a job offer. :D

That was a strange job interview that was not an interview. I didn't take the job in the end.
 
My cfi job interview was basically finishing my check ride. The chief was the one who did the cfi training and if he was willing to sign you off then you also had a job on the other side.

My internship interview turned into a how were my parents doing and how college had been so far discussion after I learned that the HR guy knew my mother.
 
Interviews vary a lot. As someone who did technical interviews, I wasn't given any guidance on how to conduct them. My manager would say something like, "John, we have someone coming in today at 12:00, do you have time to talk to them?" I never took anyone to play video games but I've sure I came across as random at times. It's usually easy to sniff things out by picking a couple of things on their resume that sound similar and grilling them for details. Describing the position they're interviewing for is also a conversation starter. Hopefully the candidate will run with that and do a bit of a sales pitch on how their abilities and experience make them the perfect person for the job.

Do you like movies about gladiators?
 
Also some people suck at doing interviews and instead of asking intelligent questions they ramble on about the open job opportunity. So not necessary any hidden agenda just a poor interviewer.
 
The last couple of jobs that I actually applied for and got, ended up being very interesting. I retired in 2006, but after a couple of years of messing around and working at the airport part time, I came across a job that looked interesting, so I applied for it.

The interview started out kind of hard core, kind of like Nate's example, to the point. But I didn't even know if I really wanted to go back to work or not, so I just took it in. The interviewer was watching for reactions, I could see that. So then there was some questions like what strengths do I bring to the job, what weaknesses, a few hypothetical questions, etc. So then he asked me if I had any questions, which I didn't, but I told him that he could see by my resume and application that I had retired, and that the job looked interesting enough to grab my attention. I went on to say that I didn't really know if it would be a good fit for me until I got into it, but it really looked like it might be. So then the whole interview took a turn, and the guy interviewing me started really talking up the job, and how he too thought it would be a good fit, and what a good asset I would be.

So I ended up with the job, and I stayed there a few years, then I decided to retire again. But then, a year later, I was offered a seat on the board of directors for that same business, where I still am. It doesn't pay anything though, but that is OK. But when I am in PR I attend board meetings by Skype, which is kind of fun.

The very last job that I got was as a supervisor at the city aquatics center. I saw the P&R Director in a bar and we were talking. She asked me what I was doing in retirement and I told her that I was swimming a lot. So she asked me if I would be interested in working at the new aquatics center and I told her that I would. So she actually filled out my application for me, and we went to lunch for the interview.

Anyway, my point is, that interviews when you are young and hungry are not the same as interviews when you are old, and not hungry at all, and it seems to manifest itself in the process. Funny how someone wants you so much more when you are not sure if you want the job.
 
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The one thing I would watch for in interviews is where they are not interviewing you so much as pumping you for information. This can be because they are competitors of your present or former employer and they are pumping you for proprietary info, they are gathering your expertise to solve a particular problem and have no intention of hiring you or they are foreign operatives trying to collect export controlled or classified information.

If they are asking a lot of specific questions about a particular area and not discussing the job beware. This does not mean that they can't ask specific technical questions, just not a deep dive into some specific thing that excludes other parts of a job interview.

I, personally, like to ask small programming or design problems.

But my favorite is "What's the worst bug you ever had to find and fix and how did you go about it?" That one is great because even if all you did was school projects you probably have some stories. If not, you've never done any significant programming. It helps to put the interviewee at ease because we're quickly swapping "war" stories. Also, it gives me insight into how you approach problem solving which is more important to me than specific programming language or experience.

John
 
The yacht industry is interesting in that most of the interviews are conducted at a bar somewhere. All I need to do is see what watch they are wearing and I have pretty good idea if I'm going to hire them or not.
 
I had this type of interview for my current job. We mostly just talked about the job, about what I was looking for and wanted to do here, and what they needed from me. No quizzing, no problems to solve, no bs HR questions, etc.

But, in this case, the interviewer was an engineer, not an HR staffer, and was somewhat familiar with my prior work. We weren't friends, but we had met a couple times at conferences so I don't think he was too concerned about my technical abilities and just wanted to get a sense of my personality before hiring me.
 
My interviews always turn toward personality, as that is a big part of vendor management. I believe anyone can do the technical side of IT management (or at least, everyone who knows what Vendor Management is can), but not everyone can build a relationship effectively.

The goal of the interview is to see if they can build a relationship with me in the time allotted. If we leave the interview with a common understanding of each other, it was a success.

I also have one question I always ask because it is very telling: "in everything you have experienced in life, do you consider yourself to be a lucky person, or an unlucky oerson, and why?" You can get a lot out of someone's answer to that one question.
 
AdamZ said:
What Michael said. I'd be very Leary of company that tries to sell you on the job rather than require you to sell yourself for the job.
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Totally depends on the situation. If you answer an ad from the newspaper from some company that sells something but isn't clear what it is, and their interviewer is trying to sell you a job, then I agree. Alternatively, if you are in a professional field and have an interview with a company you know, then I wouldn't worry about it at all.
 
SkyHog said:
My interviews always turn toward personality, as that is a big part of vendor management. I believe anyone can do the technical side of IT management (or at least, everyone who knows what Vendor Management is can), but not everyone can build a relationship effectively.

The goal of the interview is to see if they can build a relationship with me in the time allotted. If we leave the interview with a common understanding of each other, it was a success.

I also have one question I always ask because it is very telling: "in everything you have experienced in life, do you consider yourself to be a lucky person, or an unlucky oerson, and why?" You can get a lot out of someone's answer to that one question.
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In the yacht business the interview is mostly to determine personality, it's the most critical job requirement in the business.
 
Henning said:
The yacht industry is interesting in that most of the interviews are conducted at a bar somewhere. All I need to do is see what watch they are wearing and I have pretty good idea if I'm going to hire them or not.
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I suppose that if they are wearing one of those " really don't care what time it is" watches, they just get a fee drink and a sorry Charlie.:wink2:
 
It is a fairly funny thing, to be interviews are one of the most antagonistic things imaginable. The goal of both the interviewer and the interviewee are to keep the other talking, which are utterly antithetical.
 
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