Re: Interview from hell

["Egelstaff, Julian" <Julian -dot- Egelstaff -at- COGNOS -dot- COM>]

> A agree, and therein lies the frustration. Candidates are not
> selected on
> measureable, pertinent skills and experience. They are
> selected on whims -
> another element of our highly dysfunctional corporate invironments.

I think this is often the case.

My father once took an excellent job hunting course.  It went over all
aspects of job hunting in great detail, and with some good research thrown
in to qualify its material, though I don't remember the sources (but I could
find them).  One of the things they said about interviews was that most
interviewers have made a decision about whether to hire a person or not
*within the first five minutes* of the interview.  They then spend the rest
of the interview trying the corroborate their hunch.  If you break down an
interview into its normal stages, the first five minutes puts you barely
beyond the introductory phase, and you certainly haven't started elaborating
on your skills yet.

I don't suppose there's many salespeople on techwr-l, but I'd love to know
how that sort of analysis matches or doesn't match with what is known about
the dynamics of sales meetings with potential customers.  The way I see it,
the interviewer is a salesperson and they are the product too.  They've got
to sell themself to the customer (the potential employer).  Normally, I've
decided if I like a salesperson or not pretty quickly.

--Julian Egelstaff
(Speaking for myself, NOT Cognos)

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