My big one is that they need to stop asking why I applied for their company. The real answer is I want a new job, and I blasted out a hundred applications. I didn’t choose your company specifically.
“Wanna get out of here?”
Also a bit weird to ask what hobbies i have if its asked early on int interview and for a very in and out job like supermarket staff
I’ve interviewed people before, and am doing so again next week. I often ask why a candidate is interested in working for my org, because I want to known that their personal goals/ambitions are at least somewhat aligned with the org. Hiring someone and then finding out that they don’t fit sucks.
Many job ads receive tens or hundreds of applications. They want the best candidate. If you’re not specifically keen, they’ll probably go for someone who shows some interest. I know I have picked people who are interested over more qualified but disinterested people before.
So you favor dumb people over competent people?
Sounds about right for the average hiring manager. People don’t care about your organization. The incredibly inefficient system of capitalism they were born into requires them to exchange the unrenewable resource that is their time, the only thing they have in this universe, for arbitrarily valued currency which changes value constantly through no action they make, so they get the privilege of continuing to exchange their time for more of this currency, until their flesh suit is too broken to continue this exchange.
No one has ever been excited about working for your company. A few learned to fake it. A few simply aren’t capable of complex thought and treat working for your company the same way they’d treat a colonoscopy or birthday party because they literally can’t tell the difference.
Lemmy ahh comment.
Feel free to go back to reddit, where you ‘people’ belong.
And you’re acting like a jealous ex of Reddit’s?
Dude is what happens when you ask chatgpt for “Lemmy user”
What do you specifically mean by putting people in quotes like that?
It sounds to me like you have never worked some place exciting. You should give it a try. I was and am very excited about the work I do and for whom I do it.
Me too but it’s easier to find what they’re talking about and really hard to find what you’re talking about, and even harder to get hired. And 10x harder to know what you’re getting into before your first month in the job, so this answer is the most appropriate during the interview.
Yeah, that is why I was looking for a job for a year and a half before I landed this gig. I was ruthlessly picky. I am a damn good integration engineer/engineering technologist, and I asked a ton of questions in the three interviews I had in my search. I looked almost every day, applied to maybe 5 jobs, and attended 3 interviews. One job, I was a poor fit for them. One job they were a poor fit for me. The third job was a great fit on both ends, which was awesome because I had wanted to work there for years, but they never had a position open.
Ask. Lots. Of. Questions. Don’t just let them interview you, you both need to interview each other. you both have to live with each other.
If you think your only value as a human being is your capacity to produce, then I don’t know what to say to you?
Yes, capitalism sucks, but also, humans aren’t all just out here blindly doing capitalism and not thinking about anything else. Every person working a job has to interact with coworkers, and those interactions are not mediated solely through a lens of productivity.
No. See, most people ARE just blindly doing capitalism because it’s either that or die.
Listen to me very closely: Nobody gives a single flying fuck about your mission statement. Turning away more qualified candidates because you didn’t feel they were as interested in the company culture as others makes you a shitty hiring manager. Nobody gives a shit about the company culture. Every employee with two brain cells knows it’s about money, period. When times get hard, the company will not care how much you mesh with the culture, they will drop you like a hot turd if you aren’t producing enough or are costing them money. So why pretend anything else matters?
Just because you don’t care doesn’t mean there aren’t people who do care.
Also, not every company is a corporate hell hole.
Because working with people you like makes work so much more bearable? We have an AP lady who is a hotshot, does such a good job but so mean and hotheaded and thinks she is “honest” but is really just mean. Hates her husband , hates people, only likes her dog. Her manager is on her last straw because she criticizes everyone else all the time and dislikes half the people she works with, and she (the manager) has had to referee arguments she has with the rest of the staff.
You can train someone to do a job, it’s much harder to train someone out of being an asshole.
Mate I’ve got to spend 40 hours a week with these people. I would much rather hire someone who is socially competent but needs to learn a few things technically than hire an asshole who is just going to be a pain in the ass.
Honestly if you view every interaction through a strictly transactional lens you’re not gonna have a good time being a human. Most of our lives are spent doing things we don’t really want to be doing, be that work or cleaning or building/repairing shelter, etc. The thing is, most people find ways to find some joy or comradery in these tasks. If your only goal is to complete each of them as quickly as possible you’re gonna spend most of your life being fucking miserable.
But getting back on track - not every company is built the way you describe. Personally, I’ve been able to build a team at my company where everyone gets their work done, enjoys each other’s company, and goes home after 40 hours. If I hire people who don’t get along with everyone else I lose that balance. So I hire people that fit the culture, and teach them the skills they need technically. The offices with a bunch of individualistic assholes tend to work longer hours, have poorer quality, and higher turnover rates. And they are all fucking miserable. Personally that is not something I’m interested in.
The votes on your comment are enough to tell that your blanket “Nobody” is not a valid statement. It’s generally a smart idea to accept that there are diverse perspectives that exist, and not everyone who disagrees with you is wrong.
Is that question at the end of your comment actually curiousity, or just a boring rhetorical?
I said the opposite, actually, the problem is your work is your entire life. Jobs are there to enable you to live life. They are not your life. They are not what you do, they are the necessary component that allows you to do what you want to do because we live in a world that does not value human life.
I agree with that. What makes you assume my work is my entire life? I only work 4 days, and I have a solid community outside work and various hobbies.
Crazy you get to hire people only working 4 days a week.
Why do you have that authority?
Why are you only willing to give 4 days a week of your time to your glorious employer.
Are you not serious about your goals with that company?
I … honestly have no idea how to tell how serious or sarcastic those questions are…
Sounds like you are not qualified to interview people for jobs.
Where do you see yourself in X years?
Just be honest: Will you ditch us for the next best opportunity?
And answer: it depends.
All in all, that question is useless.
“Killed in the food riots.”
“progressing within the company”
If there’s no progression they may not hire you but did you really want a dead end job anyway?
Oh right, there’s also the career people and the obnoxious Megacorps. I only apply for small to medium, like flat hierarchies, so i forgot that.
My least favorite is, “where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
“Ummm, getting your job after I push you in front of a train for asking me this stupid question.”
Usually via photos or videos of myself and the good old mirror of course. Just as I have always been able to see myself. /j
Why are people here so negative about interviews? Companies and candidates interview each other. You should have an answer prepared to these standard questions.
My only gripe about job hunt happens before any interview: Any barriers unrelated to the candidate, intended to reduce the number of candidates. I don’t see it that often, but some positions have way too many candidates and candidates cannot be judged fairly
Got questioned if we’re ok working overtime without pay. We asked for clarification and they wanted us to work 60h/w and only paid for 35h so they can keep us as a part time. Obviously we laughed in their faces and walked out.
It’s great they admitted such illegal assholery before going any further. At least you didn’t waste anymore time.
Verily, such atrocities are not in our interests
That’s what I mean. The candidate also interviews the company
Going to be honest, never had an interview where we liked, let alone had any respect for the employer.
We ask why you applied to our company specifically to screen for candidates that are excited about the product and its mission. Granted, I do work in the space industry.
How often do you get an answer with aliens in it?
Heh, not yet, unfortunately.
Maybe a better question: how many of your applicants do you think are hiding their obsession with aliens from you? 😂
An even better question: How many of your applicants are actual aliens who are looking for a ride home?
They’re easy to spot. Their last job is always at a phone company.
Nah, they know we only have chemical propulsion that can’t even achieve a respectable %c. They know they are here to stay, and that we will extort their tech if we found out their true origins.
“Who are you and what are you doing in my office?”
I’m a locksmith, and I’m a locksmith.
Honestly I just hate personality based questions. I’m here to do a job and get paid. I’m not here to make friends and honestly don’t care enough to try working my way up some corporate ladder that requires connections and kissing ass. If the job just has me pulling around slabs of meat or cutting them up, why are you asking about my personal life? Ask to give examples of me doing similar work.
It’s a production line, workers are dependent on each other, particularly in an abattoir. They also don’t want crazies for obvious reasons and it’s food production so personal hygiene is required. It’s not a suitable job for hermits.
The skills in sport for instance, are relevant to a production job.
I guess this place is different cause they have no standards for who they hire. If you can reliably show up and move your limbs easily, then that’s good enough. I have seen all kinds of examples of the people you say they wouldn’t want in just the 9 months I’ve been there.
Because working with people you don’t like is not fun?
I work in a slaughterhouse in the middle of nowhere of a deep red state. I’m surrounded by people I can’t stand and have to listen to hateful rhetoric in the locker room every day. I don’t care cause I get paid to keep coming in and spend most of my time listening to music/podcasts.
That sounds fucking shit, my sympathies.
To be clear, I wasn’t trying to provide THE answer to your question, just a possible answer (that’s not necessarily applicable in all contexts). But also, I suspect my answer might still be applicable in your context from the perspective of your boss/hirer.
It’s not supposed to be fun. No one is at work to have fun. People are at work because they die if they do not work. It’s not really possible to have fun with a gun to your head unless you’re mentally incompetent or a psychopath.
It must be the worst living this way. I’m 47 and have never had a job where I haven’t at least had a little fun. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. I’m genuinely sorry you have to live that way.
Having a good bunch of coworkers whom you become friends with makes the work a lot more enjoyable.
It can, sure, but that isn’t the point of work or where most people fulfill their social needs. That is called finding community in suffering. During bank robberies and other hostage situations the victims also find ways to trauma bond and take their mind off of their current suffering, to the point where trauma bonded people are far more likely to be lifelong friends and partners than just random strangers.
In an ideal world where people magically get to do what they want to do and not worry about getting paid, your view point makes more sense. We don’t live in that world though, and selecting applicants based on how much they’re willing to fake being your friend just results in less competency and more work for everyone.
I get it. It sucks being forced to work to fulfill your basic needs.
But jeez, your perspective sucks. I bet you’re a lot of fun to work with. 🙄
You know, even without capitalism, we’d all have to work to get something in return somehow. We all have different needs.
OK, but consider this: I do have fun at work. And most of my friends do to, at least some of the time. I know that this is a privileged position to be in.
I’m sorry that you don’t. And I agree that lots of people don’t, and that that sucks. But that’s not a universal truth.
And for the hirer, there’s a choice between working with someone who might see work as at least tolerable and maybe even an enjoyable and fiendly place to be, or working with someone who hates every minute of being there. If you were in their shoes, which would you pick?
I’d pick the person that is most competent for the job, personally, as that means less work for others on their team, and less work overall that needs to be done in order for a day to be over.
I’m not at work to make friends, normal humans have a life outside of work for that. ‘Work friends’ are not real friends, they’re hardly real people. They are entities you have to interact with in order to continue living.
I doubt that I’m the only person here who has good friendships that started as co-workers…
Yeah pretty sure you can go back as far as you want in human history and people will tend to be friends with the people they work with. Gathering partners, building partners, scouting partners, etc. Befriending others to complete mutually beneficial tasks is a big part of the special sauce that defines our species. This idea that we shouldn’t befriend those we work with is absolutely wild to me. Like, you don’t need to be best friends, but you should get along and enjoy each other’s company.
I get along and enjoy the people that don’t make my job harder. Which is why I’ve been a lot happier at work lately cause I started working alone.
You are not.
Working with a great team and boss can make it seem a whole lot less like work. Still friends with a team that formed 30 years ago. Two marriages came out of it as well. We all worked together for about 10 years before people and the company went other ways but we all remember it as one of our best work environments we were ever part of, and we still get together regularly.
Tbh, most of the time they’re not listening to the answer, but instead how you answered it, whether you come off as gruff, assholish, etc
Yeah. As someone who has done interviews I think a lot of it is bs. I generally was mostly asking questions around their experience to see how genuine it is. When going over the resume I mostly tried to verify it was authenticate.
I’ve had two jobs ask me about religious beliefs. That needs to stop because 1: it’s none of their business and 2: it’s illegal.
The only way I can think that would be relevant is if you’re applying to be a preist/rabbi/imam/religious leader of some sort
I had a job cold call me for an interview. During the interview it turned out I’d be working for a guy I’ve already worked for in the past, but the company went under.
He asked me why I applied, I said “I didn’t, they called me and asked if I wanted an interview, I’ve never heard of this place before”. He didn’t like that answer.
“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
Internal voice:
“Bitch, please, I don’t know what I’m doing this weekend”External voice:
“Improving my knowledge and skills in this area to allow for others to move up if that’s what they desire. My goal is to be a critical member of the team and to earn the trust of my peers”I’ve never understood how the hell is one supposed to answer tot hat question without just making stuff up. None of us are psychics to be able to see the future or none of us have an access to a supercomputer to simulate life to even guess whats going to happen to us in 5 years.
It’s an impossible question to answer without just making stuff up.
i suspect that future question is to gauge the applicant, if they are going to just ditch the company within a year or less.
The interviewer wants to know what your ambitions are. You’re supposed to make stuff up, so they get an idea what want your career path to be like.
Fair and being passionate about not dying of hunger or living on the street aren’t aren’t going to suffice?
That would depend on the job and the interviewer.
You should realize that that is a passion you share with pretty much everyone, including the interviewer.
In order to achieve that dream the interviewer wishes to keep their job and thus select the best candidate possible. If you can’t come up with anything that sets you apart from the crowd, chances are that’s not you.
It’s not about prediction, it’s about desires, interests, and goals
Aren’t those things based on predictions as well. Kinda intrinsically linked together?
Like no point to desire something that’s completely unrealistic. So somewhat accurate predictions are necessary and goals set based on that prediction.
My approach to that question is to talk about a skill related to but not required for the role I’m applying for which I would like to learn. I try to present myself as someone motivated to improve his skills in such a way that I would be qualified for the position I’d like for them to promote me to within five years if they hire me.
“I see myself contributing to the continued success of <company-that-I-plan-to-leave-as-soon-as-possible>.”
“Balls deep in your daughter because I want to run this place someday.”
I lile this take from smbc
This.
That
Expecting answers in the STAR format is my number one complaint. No one talks like that.
An interview isn’t talking to another person. It’s a download of information.
I’ve never heard of that. What is it?
You talk about it in this order with most of the time being focused on the A
Situation, Task, Action, Results.
I’ve hired dozens of people and I’ve interviewed hundreds. As a manager (area of business development), my objective is simple: get the interviewee talking. I know their CV and have checked their social media; I know the favorite candidates. My typical interviews run like this: “first, I will tell you about the position for a few minutes, then you will have time to tell me about yourself, and to ask your questions. And then we talk about possible next steps. This will take about 30 minutes. Is that OK for you?” I try to get onto an equal footing, although I will ask simple questions occasionally, I skip all the humbug, curve ball stuff. By laying out the interview plan first, good candidates have sufficient time to prepare their story and clever questions in their head.
What do you do for people with no social media? And I’m not talking its private, or hidden, I’m straight up talking someone does not exist online. I’ve got no SM for 10+ years, within the last year no reddit, Imgur, not even a LinkedIn or indeed anymore. Honestly, when I had LinkedIn, its full of self-righteous assholes, humble bragging, and corporate brown-nosers. It’s toxic work culture IMO.
But say I found a job posting or heard of your company and applied directly on the portal, is that a deal breaker?
I don’t do social media. I do still maintain a LinkedIn. I don’t read anyone’s bullshit, and I certainly don’t write any bullshit. But I would have to say about 95% of my jobs have come through recruiters that found me on LinkedIn. It just has my work history there, basically. And of course I’m connected to people so I guess they can maybe validate I’m a real person with real connections.
Anyway, I’d recommend having an account and updating it any time you update your resume. I 100% understand why you might choose not to, but it’s been invaluable to me.
I used to be the same way where I utilized LinkedIn and I’ve been on the platform for a long time, but the hoarding of data and now their partnership with Amazon to access that data, I’m just sick of being for sale, especially since we don’t even profit from it ourselves! It’s OUR data from OUR lives, yet we’re not allowed to keep it ours. So, I finally ditched it a couple months ago.
I know it has value, but I’m going to utilize a federated version or stand up my own Domain and link it that way.
Not OP but I run a business and handle the majority of interviews and hiring. I set up the beginning of my interviews just like OP does. If someone doesn’t have social media, I honestly think it is a bonus. I barely touch my own LinkedIn… I’d also much rather an application come through our website then an ad. I feel like those who apply directly have a better understanding already of what the job will entail. If a candidate makes it through the first few interviews, we invite them out to observe and then participate in the role (to see what they think and how they like it). I can usually tell by then if they will be a good fit. It’s been nice because occasionally a candidate will decide right then it’s not for them and save us both a lot of time.
Absolutely no deal breaker. I am just interested to learn about the person in front of me (hopefully the candidate does the same about my company or me, after all, the candidate shouldn’t start working for a manager that they later find out they don’t like). If you’re not on social media, I won’t judge that, in fact if you do it for conscientious or fact-based reasons I even appreciate it. But if you are on social media and you have a beautiful CV on LinkedIn it can be a little plus, getting into weird political discussions on insta is definitely a minus; I need fact-focused employees that can see both sides of the medal, willing to (unemotionally) find middle ground. The CV and application letter are still the key thing. In the application letter, you need to address the needs that I have put into the job posting, the more fact-based and interesting the better. Adjust the cv so that it fits the actual job description, don’t use some outdated listing that you’ve been using the last two years, try to show that you take me seriously.
I am a hobby photographer, I do post to pixelfed, but I won’t link that account on my CV, however I do maintain a personal gallery on my own domain, it is not indexed by google, I don’t want it shared all over the place, but I have added a link to in on my CV under hobbies.
I just export galleries from digikam, upload them, and add them to a custom page with pure HTML and CSS so it looks nice.
I have had several interviewers bring up my photos and gallery and be quite interesting.
I love that it has zero ads and every page loads immediately. There is zero SQL lookups, zero analytics and once you try it, and then go back to the normal modern web you realize how slow everything is.
