The Joy of Interviews

Job interviews don't get any easier the older you get, do they? I have one coming up later this week and I can't say I'm really looking forward to it. Not only is there the interview itself but there is also a task I have to do beforehand. And it brings back some bad memories. In particular one unpleasant experience I had at a Scottish university ten or eleven years ago. The job was for an IT technician and the task I had to do involved putting together some audio-visual equipment. I had very little experience of this and from the array of cables on the table in front of me I only recognised a couple so chose them and we moved on to the interview.

I don't remember much about the questions I was asked that day but I do remember leaving the university feeling utterly dejected. They managed to make me feel like I knew very little about computers despite me having close on 15 years experience. It was really quite humiliating and I decided there and then that I was not going to apply for any more IT jobs. I'd had enough. In the months leading up to me leaving my previous job, also in Higher Education, I had come to the conclusion that IT was a young person's game, especially working as a technician. Could I really see myself in 10 or 15 years time still crawling about under desks plugging in network cables? No I couldn't.

But here I am ten years later applying for an IT job and I've been offered an interview. I suppose there isn't so much crawling about under desks these days what with wi-fi technology and people of all ages use computers so what does it matter how old I am?

With less than three days to go I am getting more and more nervous but I suppose the other candidates are probably feeling the same. At least they are interviewing us seperately - it isn't one of those awful scenarios where all the candidates are in a room together and you have to take part in some team-building exercise. I think I'd rather have my teeth drilled without anaesthetic than have to go through that sort of thing.

If someone had come up with an alternative to the traditional interview I suppose it would have been adopted by now. But the thing is that in the same way that some people are good at doing exams, some people come over very well at interviews though this is not always an accurate reflection of what they are actually like. I remember hearing of an accountant who was very cheerful and chatty at his interview and was offered the job but when he started work he was like a completely different person. He hardly ever smiled and all the office staff found him difficult to work with. He also had quite bad BO which he had managed to hide at the interview.

So interviews are far from perfect and employing anyone just on the basis of a 30 minute question and answer session must be a gamble for any employer. At least with this job I took them up on the offer of a tour of the premises so they have already met me and I have an idea of what the workplace is like.

I suppose all anyone can do under these circumstances is...