We’ve all sat through awkward and difficult interviews, I’ve even asked if we could just finish up when I was a candidate once and I must admit I was very proud of myself. One of the most difficult things as a recruiter, whether agency or internal, is to manage and work with a difficult hiring manager. Here are some examples of bad interviewers and why interview training works.
The Best Friend
This is the person who spends half the time sussing out your personal life, hobbies, favourite sports and often comes in the form of ‘what are you passionate about outside of work’ or ‘what are your favourite hobbies’. You then spend the rest of the interview chatting and laughing which is great but you won’t learn a thing about the role or business. Often it ends up being a no boundaries interview and you end up leaving overly confident or confused.
The Micromanager
Often this is the person who is looking for a cookie-cutter model of what already exists in the team. They will ask every candidate the same make or break question and often won’t negotiate on the answer they are looking for. They don’t want someone to come and disrupt the fixed model. They like to talk about hours and are structured in how they expect you to work. They want answers to be 100% clear and will give no guidance in the interview if you get stuck. This doesn’t mean they are a bad manager, it just means you will need to be able to work with that style of leadership.
The Overly Positive Manager
This is the person who has nothing negative to say about the job, company, culture or team. Everything is amazing and perfect, the team collaborate, everyone is best friends, the company is achieving all its goals and targets and it can only improve. Question these managers on what improvements need to be done or how targets will change based on such a strong performance this year. If they can’t answer these then proceed with caution.
The Chatter
The chatter often doesn’t know how to conduct a clear and structured interview, they chat about themselves, the weather, the company, the role but only start to ask you questions at the very end. As a candidate, these interviews can be exhausting, you spend so much energy focusing on what’s being said to you that by the time you have to start talking about yourself you’re shattered. It’s also easy to lose focus because often when asked a question you can get sidetracked by the interviewer going on a different tangent.
The Gamer
This person has a plan of action and won’t let you in on it either. It could be they cut candidates out if they dress a certain way or don’t answer a question correctly, some may even lead you into a trap that you have to climb out of. They might throw little tests in and sometimes you might lose and other times you can win. Be mindful you can also outplay a Gamer so always listen and tread carefully.
Often, the person you meet at your first interview is not the person you end up working for. As you can see, there are a lot of different types of interviewers. Learning to deal with each will help you secure the job you want. If you want further understanding on how to deal with bad interviewers and why interview training works or even if you just want to brush up on your interview skills then contact THE PEAK HR for more information.
