When you know you didn't get it....

[Binky]

the job I mean.

Since I have been on the job hunt I've had to do a few interviews. I'm getting pretty good at gaging whether or not I got the job by how the person(s) interviewing me react or what they say to me.

When they start to tell you about the other people they are/will be interviewing having more experience/more degrees/higher educational status that you. Yeah you're not getting the job.

Then there is the "this job requires you to do heavy lifting" repearted over and over. Yes, I don't look like I'm that strong, but looks are decieving.

"we require people with more administrative experience".....ummm 4 years isn't enough? wow!

what else...back in the day I used to apply for jobs that required a photo be sent. When I started getting turned down for every one of those jobs I stopped trying. Now I figure if you need to look a certain way to get the job I don't need that job!

I've applied (and got) for a few jobs with being a Nanny, I don't have a lot of experience apart from a few stints as a baby sitter so I didn't expect people to be too keen on me. But the kicker was when I applied for jobs that said "no experience required" "new to the field accepted" . Then getting an interview to be told that I don't have enough experience for the job :S then why did you say yes to an interview????

In the end I spose you have to wade through all the crap to get something, and I'm hoping the jobs I have at the moment go ok. I start next week, and it's going to be a killer! 7:30-6:00 4 days a week, when I've been lazy and getting up at 10:00 for the past 3ish years.

But yes...any more stories?

[Arm]

When you walk in the door. (Okay, maybe that's just cynical)

Let's see...

I've had an interview where they wanted me to take a programming proficiency test, which they freely admitted was broken. Which means it can't be passed, because the test questions are wrong. Yeah.

I hate the ones that're just the HR department doing makework to look busy. Any interview that doesn't involve someone from the actual department you'd be working in? That's a make-work interview. You're not getting that job, because that job doesn't exist. HR is having a nice circle-jerk at your expense, and at the end of the day they will tell their higher-ups, "we interviewed all these people for that job, but none of them were suitable. Give us bonuses for keeping personnel costs down!"

I get a lot of ones where I just want to shake them and ask, "Did you READ my resume?!"
Ones where they'll ask, "Do you know programming language X?" "Well, no, Bob, I sure don't, because if I did it would be on that piece of paper you're doodling on." That's a job you're not getting. Because they're not interested in hiring someone. If they were, they would bring in candidates that matched the job. And, if they really wanted a candidate who matched, they would list the requirements for the job in the advertisement.

Had an interview once where they wanted to pay me $10/hour for programming. Honest to god. To make it better, it would've been a 30-mile commute for me. Actually, let me expand on this one... When they ask you what your salary requirements are... you're not getting the job. Because they should KNOW what to offer, without asking. If they're asking, it's because they don't think they can afford you, or they KNOW they can't afford you. If you're getting the job, there's going to be a salary range listed on the advertisement or on the company website, or something. A competent HR department should know what a worker who does task X should be paid. If they're asking, it's more along the lines of morbid curiosity.
Alternately, if they ask what your salary requirements are before making the offer, and you get the job, you'll wish you hadn't.

[aqutalion]

Or the ones where they're not interested in hiring you, but in trying to get information on your company. Supposedly, one of the things less-than-ethical companies do to get info on what their competitors are doing is find someone working for that company who is looking for a new job and pretend to interview them. I've had a few where they ask more about my soon-to-be-ex company than my qualifications for the job.

"So, in this job, you'll be doing X and Y and Z. Did they have you doing that at Ex-Company?"
"Um.... yeah."
"And it pays $X with benefits A and B. That's about what they do at Ex-Company, right?"

And on and on.

[It shouldn't]

Had an interview once where they wanted to pay me $10/hour for programming.

Had an interview once, where after it seemed to go very well and boss person enthusiastically explained I would be the receptionist, bookeeper and help with programming, they offered me $6/hr.

Hahahahahahahaha....aaaah...... Mikey Dee's pays more around here.

[Kheldarson]

Did a phone interview this morning. Everything seemed to go well until we got to classroom manager. Then I got this line: "Well, we're looking for somebody who has strong classroom management skills." Um...sorry I haven't gotten any experience to really try out my classroom management skills?

Maybe I'll get lucky and my strong points will outweigh this one poor area...right.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

You know, I actually never had an interview where I didn't get the job. Lots of applications, sure, but if I got an interview, I'd get offered the job.

And Arm, my current job asked me what my salary requirements were, and I got the job AND that salary, which is slightly higher than your average entry level.

[Balgram]

The only time where I got an interview and didn't get a job was my first job application in college.

I have worked since I was 12, but that was the first time I had to actually interview.

Looking back I would have rocked that job, but I'm glad they didn't hire me. I needed to grow up a little more, and I got the perfect jobs to do it.

I hate it when they only read my resume after I come in for the interview. I realize that they're busy, but it's like studying for class. We could go so much faster if they freaking glanced at it before I was there.

Sometimes that's impossible, like when they have 50 people to interview in a day, but I was the only person they interviewed.

I loved that job, and I'm glad now that the management is so laid back, but sigh.

[anyanka2]

You know you haven't got it when...

-They tell you that they're inteviewing 30+ people for one position and it will be at least a month before they make a decision. There go your chances because it's unlikely they'll remember the first couple people they interviewed towards the end.

-When your weekly phone calls asking about the status of the search don't get returned and when you finally get a hold of them finding out that you didn't have the specific advanced degree they were looking for. You wasted your time and money for a job that they were not realistically going to offer you.

[technical.angel]

Heck, I didn't even GET an interview from the job I just applied for. I got a nice little letter saying they got my application, but nothing since.

The job isn't listed in the site anymore. It was a great job for me, what I'm doing now, minus a few stuff, and it was in education, which, bonus.

Sad Jenni is sad.

[KellyHabersham]

It's happened to me a few times where I had an interview and wasn't going to get the job, but it didn't bother me all that much because one store was just hiring for very temporary seasonal positions, and the other had come shortly after I'd pretty much gotten hired at Macy's.

[draftermatt]

I had an interview a few weeks ago and I got a feeling that I wasn't going to get the job when the lady interviewing me said:

"Just make sure you don't quit until you have another job lined up" after I told her why I was looking to change jobs.

But they said they wanted to bring me back for a 2nd interview, and I haven't heard back so yeah.

[Ben_Who]

Had an interview once, where after it seemed to go very well and boss person enthusiastically explained I would be the receptionist, bookeeper and help with programming, they offered me $6/hr.

Hahahahahahahaha....aaaah...... Mikey Dee's pays more around here.

It's entirely possible that they thought that that was quite a generous salary. My mother lives in a state of constant astonishment that my salary doesn't allow me to live the Life of Reilly, when a) it's pretty marginal for someone with these mad skillz, and b) it's not 1979 anymore. If it's a small business run by someone of advanced years, they may actually not know the going rates, adjusted for inflation.

I've been to a number of places that think a quarter above minimum wage is lavish and thirty hours a week is plenty.

My Dad once got a raise from a notoriously tight-fisted boss - ten cents an hour. Hooray, an extra four bucks a week. The weird thing is that the boss thought that he was being spectacularly generous and never let Dad forget how he came through for him.

I once worked for someone who paid me $5 an hour (when the minimum wage was $3.25) and tried to convince me that I was lucky to be getting that much, and that I'd be pressed to find a job anywhere that paid so well without a college degree. The first job I got after bailing that place paid $6 and they were amazed they got me so cheap.

Love, Who?

[Skeksin]

I had to take one of those prove it tests once. Over various Microsoft Office materials. The funny part is the hardest application, in my opinion anyway, I aced. That's right. I aced the Microsoft Access portion. Database. The others I received the level right below ace. After all how often does one need to remember off the top of your head how to do a specific thing in Word?

[Ben_Who]

Another one is when they get a leeeettle too over-specific in their questions. I once applied for a job with a T-shirt printing concern. My father was a screen printer and I'd been pulling a squeegee since I was eleven; I only had a decade of experience in an industrial printing environment, and I probably knew more about printing than the proprietors. The phone interview went like this.

"Do you have printing experience?"
"Yes."
"Offset or screen?"
"Screen."
"What substrate?"
"T-shirts, posters, baseball caps, tennis balls, uniforms...I once screen-printed a logo onto a stack of horse blankets." (Dad would print on anything if he could engineer a workaround.)
"T-shirts?"
"Yes."
"Sweatshirts and caps?"
"Yes."
"How about heat transfers?"
"Machined and printed, also flock."
"Can you do four-color process ink mixing?"
"Yes."
"Automatic or manual?"
"Manual."
"Sorry. We need someone who can run an automatic press." *click.*

I'm betting that if I'd said "automatic," they would have asked me what the make and model of the press to see if it matched. These days, I have a sneaking suspicion that they were just hunting for a reason to get me off the phone.

Love, Who?

[AirHostess]

I have been interviewed for an Executive Assistant post for a Research Council job. Turns out it was me against an internal candidate.