Work Placement and Career Advice pt.3 - Interviews

This final session of Career Advice regarding on the preparations for a job interview is useful. I had written down notes just in case if I ever need to recap on a few things that I need to remind myself, such as preparing my own questions and to know some knowledge about the company I wanted to get into.

While I know some knowledge of preparation, there were a few things I did not know about, such as cases of set ups from the interviewers to test you to see if you are capable to respond in a specific manner, though from what I heard, some of the cases are somewhat bizarre and unfair to the applicants and only to be told afterwards they did not get the job just because they did not respond in a specific manner, such as the case, which I see as unfair, where the interviewer was ‘interrupted’ and he needs to talk to a colleague outside the room for 15 minutes, while the person who is getting interviewed patiently waited, until the interviewer comes back to resume.

The part where he talked outside for 15 mins was a set up in a way to get that person who is being interviewed to tell the interviewer that she’s here for the interview, not to have time wasted, as a response, though clearly that did not happened, hence the job offer was rejected.

As I heard the story about this case, it seems unfair, because you wouldn’t expect to get up and kindly confront the interviewer to stop talking and resume the interview, my initial response would be to sit quietly and patiently wait for the interviewer to return, how would anyone know this was actually a set-up, and to go out to tell the interviewer that you are here for the interview seems rude, as the talk between those two could be important or confidential and not want you to know about.

This is something new I had learnt from this session on interviews and now I am more aware that the company or the interviewers that I would apply in the future might play some tricks or set-up to throw you off guard. Some can be surprising, while some may seem unfair and feel one-sided.