Monday, May 30, 2011

Interviews: then and now

Interviews Then

Interview Time: 11 am
Candidates arrives: 10:30 am
Interview begins: 11 am.

Interviews Now

Interview Time: 11 am
Candidates calls up to inquire if she can come next week: 10:55 am
Candidate says she is in native place and hence got delayed on the way back home: 10:58 am
Candidate asks for another time: 11 am
Interview fixed for next day after furious rescheduling of conference rooms, other interviewers etc : 12 pm

Candidate calls and says she is stuck in traffic jam: 10:55 am
Candidate calls again and says she is still stuck in the same spot: 11 am
Facility manager throws you out bodily out of the interview room: 11:05 am
Then he throws the laptop on your head: 11:06 am
Then he throws the laptop bag, your phone etc in the trash can: 11:07 am
Candidate calls and says that she is stuck in an altercation with the traffic cops: 11:15 am
Interview fixed for next day after furious rescheduling of conference rooms, other interviewers etc : 12 pm

Candidate calls and says she is stuck in traffic jam: 10:55 am
You bite back the epithets straining to get out of your mouth and wreak hell on the candidate and instead lie to the candidate in a sweet voice that the post has been filled up by another candidate “WHO ARRIVED ON TIME FOR THE INTERVIEW!!!!” :12:05 pm
Hear with sadistic pleasure her disappointed "oh": 12:06 pm
You run behind HR for more resumes to fill in the post: 12:07 pm... to for like forever!

A day in the life of a humble IT communications mule.

11 comments:

Sam, the Real Reader said...

hilarious!!!

Nona said...

What has changed between then and now? Are there more opportunities? Are there more body hunters trying to maximize their chances of finding a body?

sandeep said...

could not agree more :)

Anita Jeyan said...

LOL..what an interesting job u have...:D

Anita Jeyan said...

LOL..what an interesting job u have...:D

hammy said...

Well, there is an additional problem here... Escalation.

Knowing well the tendancy for such behavior from prospective candidates, the companies then try to outsmart themselves by scheduling ahead... I imagine they wink to themselves in the mirror and then put the interview time as 10:00 am when they fully know that nobody would be expected to turn up before 11:00 at best.

But seasoned candidates would then one-up the self-winking management back-patters... They would assume that management is already padding up their timeline. So when they hear 10:00 am, they automatically process the time as 12:45 am, and work towards that goal. Their entire strategy would consist of coming fresh and hearty to a room full of exhausted candidates who simply wasted their entire day from 10:00 am... Their dream of the interview would go something like this

Interviewer: Wow. You totally knew we were bluffing about the 10:00 am slot. Clearly, the others who showed up on time were mere idiots. I don't have any questions for you, other than when can you join up? And here... here's a bundle of cash as a joining bonus.
Candidate: Thank you.

Of course, this in turn, escalates management's padding of the time. It's a never ending cycle.

(Hi, Silverine... Been a long time since I've visited.. My new job has been... well.. taxing :)

Harish P I said...

lol.. tough job, right?

Grayquill said...

Yikes...good workers are so hard to find. But I gotta say the interview I was rather effective. You found out all yo needed to know without atcually meetint the person. I would say you should get an A+.

diyadear said...

good one :)
well i hope u'll write one soon from the candidates perspective too where afer a lot of gate crashing and avoiding stampede, the candidate arrives the waiting room and waits for 4 hours to get a response "technical panel not available"...:)

silverine said...

Sue: I didn't find it very funny :( I will punch that girl's face if I meet her :)

Nona: The change is evident in the post!

Sandeep: :)

Anita: I hate hiring :( Other than that my job is interesting :)

Hammy: lol! And thanks for all your other comments. Your comments are most entertaining :)

Harish: You bet! :)

Grayquill: Thank you!! I feel much better now :)

diyadear: Ouch! Did that happen to you? In this case she was given an interview time. And thank you for your comments on the older posts :)

AS said...

hii

liked ur blog.. that was funny!

i like ur coffee post as well :)