Job interviews

[Third Opinion]

Is it me or are they getting longer and more complex?

I work as a sought of IT tutor training teachers how to use specialist examination software. It is not a technical role it is purely for users who often have very little IT experience.

I recently got approach by a company asking me if I would consider training people on their custom software. I looked at the package which seemed very good and decided to go to the interview. The interview went great I showed them my portfolio of courses and deliverd a small presentation.

I got a call yesterday saying they would like to see me again and could I write and deliver a short course on driving a car??? Other than demonstrating my teaching style I can see no relevance. I have a proven portfolio which I have written and demonstrated already to them.

Anyway I have declined to take it any further I don't really know why but it bugged me. It felt more like an audition than an interview. Is it me or are employers going a bit OTT.

 

[Justintime]

The worlds like that these days, everything is bigger, more complex, more red tape, nothing gets done and things are hard to fix.

 

[Sudden]

Maybe they're trying to decide between you and someone else and want to see another demonstration to decide?

 

[kefkef]

I would think they would like to see you produce some new material and be able to deliver in a short period of time, testing how quick you can deliver and adapt to change, and also deliver training on a topic you would not usually cover. They would presume that with having delivered your portfolio quite a few times, you know it off by heart and find it quite easy to do.

 

[Jonny69]

I think it was completely fair of you to decide to take it no further. I've been very suspicious of a lot of these tests as they don't take into account personality, not so much in your case because they wanted a presentation rather than an exam, but you end up with mindless faceless workers that just just fit into a particular demographic because they can pass an exam.

I had an interview at a very big company that took up a whole day, no test, I just got to speak to a whole bunch of the right people. You begin to realise that some people you click with immediately, some you don't and some are better at interviewing than others. Imagine you have one interview with a person you don't easily get on with, then you pass a test but you don't get the job because the interviewer didn't like you. How do you know what all the other people are like there then?

 

[Zogger]

I had an interview at a very big company that took up a whole day, no test, I just got to speak to a whole bunch of the right people. You begin to realise that some people you click with immediately, some you don't and some are better at interviewing than others.

Yeh that's true. I had an 'assessment day' with two interview style assessments, the first one was the best interview I've ever had and the interviewer was good and made it easy for me to feel comfortable. The second one was very different, the interviewer seemed quite patronising and not that nice a person. On top of that we were meant to have 15 minutes preperation time before-hand, but she came in after 10. Didn't get that job. Probably could have done if that interview had gone well.

 

[DaveyD]

To be honest, the longer the interview, the better in my opinion, as a 30min question and answer session isn't going to say how good you are at certain jobs, and what you have described is a pretty good way of finding out what you are like at writing instructions etc, seeing how you can adapt I guess amongst other things.

I've had interviews that have lasted hours going through more technical knowledge and practical skills, along with personal integration with other people and problem solving. These I have found personally is the better way for companies to find the right people.

 

[Bunka]

I've only had one interview (first job) and it lasted just over an hour. It is only a summer job, but we hardly covered what skills I had, just things like what i felt i could offer the company, and where I see myself in 10 years time. Basically they wanted to see if I had some intelligence, knew roughly what i was doing and if i could communicate effectively with the other employees. It wouldn't really bother me if they extended the interview to go further in depth with my skills, as surely you should know your stuff anyway if you're applying for that particular job.