Wednesday, October 22, 2008

INTERVIEWS

Job interviews - they're like having diarrhea after eating stale food. You get tensed, stomach cramps, you feel like throwing up. You go into the little (interview) room, (bull) shit around, and then only will you feel relieved *phew!*. Did you stink or not? Well, "don't call us, we'll call you" hehehe :-)

Anyway, the HR is conducting interviews for temporary clerical staff, to be upgraded into the permanent employment scheme. OK, for their level, interviews are not as subject-oriented as interviews for professionals. But I think sometimes the interviewers just take it as their personal entertainment lah, jahat!

Here's some of my friends' experiences - but these are not necessarily interviews conducted at my office, okkay?

One candidate said her hobby was reading, so the interviewer asked her to name her favourite author, to which she answered "Ramlee Awang Murshid". The interviewer asked her to recount the novel "Hatiku di Harajuku", since the interviewer herself had just finished reading that novel. Well, she was so nervous that she muddled up the ending - she said that Noriko died, when the actual ending was Hisham married Noriko and they opened up a strawberry farm in Cameron Highlands. What a sad 'reason' for losing interview points *sigh*.

Another candidate was asked her opinion about a certain procedure practiced in her department. She was still in the midst of her first sentence, when the interviewer cut her off and proceeded to tell her HIS opinion about the procedure, how ineffective it was, the problems caused by it, and ways & recommendations on how to improve the procedures. Well, who's actually being interviewed here, huh?

One candidate in an interview for a promotion, exited the interview room royally pissed. The interview took only about 5 minutes, and just the basic 'introduce yourself' questions were asked. So the candidate asked the panel, how come I am not asked about my current job performance - the normal question in an interview for job promotion. One of the interviewers said "oh kami dah ada calon, awak ni cuma untuk cukupkan kuota temuduga aje". Buat sakit hati je!

There are some who actually bully the candidates, just to see them menggelabah. One of my clerks was told by an interviewer "saya dengar awak ni kat pejabat ada masalah sikit ye? apa hal nya ni?" The clerk was tongue-tied and panicked, before he realized the interviewer was laughing his head off "muka awak kelakar la bila awak takut!" Oh yeah, have some laughs at someone else's expense. Why don't you just drop dead?

Some candidates also go through embarassing moments. One clerk was asked what events led to her divorce, and whether she feels lonely now. I can't see the relevancy of this question to her job interview, can you?

Menyampah tul dengan interviewer yang mulut sampah macam ni!

2 comments:

Ir. Hanafi Ali said...

I am an interviewer for my company, which has a very strict procedures regarding interviews. No personal questions, no leading questions, no badgering, nothing that could make the interviewer not comfortable to the point that he/she will sue us later, hahah!

But the good thing about our type of interviews is that it is very impartial, and that not just one interviewers are involved. All inputs from interviewers are combined and totalled up. One interviewer alone cannot fail the interviewee.

More often than not, it is the interviewee that fails to meet the mark.

JIE said...

Salam Hans,

Professional camtu, baru la the interview capai objektif, to find out if the interviewee is the best person for the job, kan?

Well, looks like some people just wanna be big bullies *sigh*