As we go into the interview stage of this year’s Apprentice Ireland, possibly the toughest week for contestants, where the candidates will be viciously grilled by Bill’s handpicked interviewers, I can’t help but think back over my own interview history.
Let me start by saying, I give good interview. I always have. Of all the interviews I’ve had since I was 16 years of age, I’ve been offered the position in well over 90% of cases. So, it stands to reason that the ones that did not result in an offer play on my mind. I ask myself what I could have done better, what went wrong, did I wear the wrong suit, was my handshake too limp…
But one interview stands out as being particularly harrowing - yes, I did shed a tear. As I tentatively write this, it still stirs up mixed feelings of anger, embarrassment and even a bit of relief that I didn’t end up working there.
I knew I was slightly over-reaching going for the job. i didn’t quite have the required experience and I hadn’t done my usual hours of research. But, I was always a strong, loyal employee with a great work ethic and a serious excitement in learning new things. My references were impeccable. I felt that if I could express this side of myself, I could impress upon the interviewers (there were three) that I would be the perfect fit for their organisation.
Ha! What a fool I was!
The first interviewer, the head of HR, was a lovely pleasant young woman who told me about the position and the work involved. We struck up an instant rapport.
The second interviewer was a department head. He was fairly neutral, asking me a number of tough questions, all of which I ably answered. I felt I had won him over.
The third interviewer was the MD. He was rude, gruff and aggressive from the word go. Looking back now, I wish I had walked out after one minute. Had I thought about it, there was no way I would want to work alongside such a person anyway. But I endured. I sat through a half hour of his deep academic questions, looking for detailed facts and figures which I could not possibly know. Every “ehh” and “umm” I uttered was met with “Speak up would you, I haven’t got all day”. One of the first things he told me was that I would have to buy better clothes (I was wearing a brand new suit). He didn’t let me speak more than a few words, but instead tore through me. He said I was “stupid to come in” wasting his time and I would “never amount to anything”. He didn’t even know me. Ultimately, he told me to get out and never come near the building again.
The head of HR walked me out. She just kept apologising as I walked the long corridor in silence. She said he was awful to work for and I was better off. She said he did do this to every applicant to see if they could handle the pressure. I couldn’t. She said he was having a particularly bad day and she’d never seen him attack someone quite that badly before.
It plagued me for weeks, completely crushing my confidence. To this day, I am nervous about every interview, for fear that it could go that way. Or worse - for fear I meet him again.
So, that’s my story and while it may not compare with the gruelling interviews tonight’s Apprentice contestants will endure, it was damn tough for me.
Do you have any interview horror stories? Let us know in the comments below. And don’t forget to join us tonight at the usual earlier time of 8.45pm.
I remember going for an interview with a really well known Irish company when my little girl was about 2 years old. I was interviewed by their HR Manager, the MD, and his son, who was another director. The MD was the rudest, most obnoxious man … he asked, straight out, how in God’s name I thought I could work for him in a role of any responsibility when I had a child at home sharing my attention span. His son was mortified, and said, “Sure, how did you manage, Dad? You had kids at home!”. The MD shrugged it off; clearly it was one thing for a father to have a career, and quite another for a mother to attempt the same thing.
I was twenty-two at the time, so completely unprepared for how to handle a question like that. Had I come up against him in an interview situation at the grand old age I’m at now, he would have been in reams of shite.
Funny thing was, the HR Manager phoned me the next day, offering me the job.
I turned it down.
Ugh, you poor thing, that sounds really rough. Sounds like you really are better off away from that MD. Ikk.
Sweary,
I would say that attitude is unfortunately very common. It’s definitely not as prevalent as it once was, but I know some managers/business owners who would have that kind of outlook on mothers in the workplace. Disgraceful.
Couple of years ago, I had an interviewing MD ask me whether I was intending to have kids or not. To which the HR rep promptly squeaked ‘You CAN’T ask her that!’. He was definitely an old-skool guy - but not as bad as the one you encountered! Sometimes they forget that an interview is as much what you think about them as vice versa. And that kind of hazing shit is unacceptable.
I have always approached interviews with me interviewing the company as much as they interviewing me.
Now that sounds all cocky and sure of myself. But I was (and still am to a certain extent) chronicaly shy. YES I AM!
The way I got about this was to create a persona that had the character traits I wished I had and simply act the part. I started doing that and by a simple process of osmosis I have actually taken on some of these traits by default!
So I remember being in a number of interviews and deciding that the role or people were not for me and cutting it short, thanking them for their time and leaving.
Thinking about this in the cold light of day I wonder how I could do such a thing but I know if I went for another interview I would just adopt this other persona.
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I may need professional help