When you interview for your next job, I recommend analyzing how people treated you during the hiring process.
Why?
The treatment you receive will mirror the treatment you will receive on the job.
For instance, analyze the responsiveness of the people involved in your hiring process. If people were responsive to scheduling appointments and answering your questions, expect that you will receive similar responsiveness working inside the organization. Otherwise, expect the same kind of unresponsiveness that you experienced during the hiring process.
Jason, a colleague and friend, is interviewing for a new job. He told me about his experience interviewing for an IT management position at an insurance company in the Seattle area. A manager inside the organization scheduled an interview with him. But to Jason’s surprise, the hiring manager didn’t tell him until a few hours before the interview that it would be a phone rather than a face-to-face interview.
Jason must have did well enough during the interview because the manager talked to him about scheduling a series of panel interviews with other managers. Thankfully they were to be face-to-face meetings, but it took three weeks to schedule the meeting. When the meetings finally happened, they consumed Jason’s entire day. What was the result of the panel interview? He doesn’t know. Although it’s been over a month since the interviews, no one has contacted him.
It’s not hard for Jason to imagine what it would be like working inside this organization. He doesn’t care any longer whether they contact him. He doesn’t want to work with the people who interviewed him. Would you?
My experience with the people who do the hiring is they can’t help but act like themselves. However they treat you during the hiring process is valuable information about how you will be treated if you decide to work with them. You choose whether you want to continue being treated like you were during the hiring process.
The Heart attack interviewer:
I once interviewed for a job a few years ago. The person that would have been my direct supervisor had I got the job was sitting at the end of the table where I could see him from head to toe. During the interview, he was grabbing his chair with both hands and squeezing it so hard that his veins looked like they were going to burst. His face was red and he wasn’t breathing.
I thought he was having a heart attack. Thankfully, he wasn’t.
I lost all interest in the job. I don’t think I could work everyday with someone who looked like he was dying.
Hi Dwayne, He wasn’t breathing… The corners of my mouth are still upturned from laughing after reading your story. It sounds like EMT training would have been helpful for doing the job. Thank you for sharing. -Steve