sham interviews

[Milpool]

How do you feel about interviewing external candidates for a position that you know will be filled with an internal candidate?

 

[bananananana]

Tell them the truth, and that they need to really wow you. Encourage them to say the most outrageous ****, otherwise they have no chance, and post back on sf.

 

[scarphe]

Originally Posted by Milpool

How do you feel about interviewing external candidates for a position that you know will be filled with an internal candidate?
if the poistion is to be filled by an internal candidate... the person maaking this decision to interview external candidates should be fired for misuse of company resources... he should have external interviews to fill the the vancancy left by the person taking the position.

 

[L'Incandescent]

Without knowing the details of the situation, two thoughts come to mind:

1. You may intend to offer the position to an internal candidate, but s/he might accept a better offer somewhere else.

2. Depending on how entry-level the position is, the "sham" interviews might be very good practice for the interviewees.

 

[ginlimetonic]

Originally Posted by scarphe

if the poistion is to be filled by an internal candidate... the person maaking this decision to interview external candidates should be fired for misuse of company resources... he should have external interviews to fill the the vancancy left by the person taking the position.

often the case... its often an HR requirement that external candidates are interviewed, even though the hiring manager which makes the decision, already has a upskilled, internal candidate ready for the job.

HR are often solicited by external recruitment agencies to see whether they have a job.

 

[Dakota rube]

It is bullshit.
Unfair to the external candidates being interviewed, and a complete waste of time of the interviewer.

 

[Milpool]

Originally Posted by ginlimetonic

often the case... its often an HR requirement that external candidates are interviewed, even though the hiring manager which makes the decision, already has a upskilled, internal candidate ready for the job.

HR are often solicited by external recruitment agencies to see whether they have a job.

I still don't understand why this is. . . is it something for EEO or part of a labor agreement or what? But yes, in short, often positions are required to be posted even though an internal promotion is going to occur. And a few folks are required to be interviewed.

I personally think it is cruel in this economy. Folks are so hopeful at an interview.

 

[thenanyu]

When I interview for one open position and two candidates impress me and the other interviewers, we do everything in our power to find an opening in another group or division to send one of the candidates to. Interviews are great networking opportunities.

 

[Harold falcon]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

It is bullshit.
Unfair to the external candidates being interviewed, and a complete waste of time of the interviewer.

x2. Whoever made the decision to do this is not a good person.

 

[HRoi]

My company requires me to post every position even if I know I'm going to promote someone into it internally. I agree that it's a waste of everyones time but we're allowed to say that we already have a candidate in mind so no one wastes their time.

So I guess you can say that we don't have sham interviews but we do have sham job postings

 

[countdemoney]

As long as its similar to HRoi's example, I think its great. Several of my best and most successful managers have routinely gone on interviews like this for several reasons:
1. Practice - hey, we could all be next
2. external feedback - same as 1
3. business intelligence - not in the sense of stealing secrets, but more in the sense of talking to someone who has a similar role with a similar set of problems and a different approach to solving them
4. networking

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by harvey_birdman

x2. Whoever made the decision to do this is not a good person.

Most people aren't good people.

I had a sham interview with my company (I'm in a sales position and I wanted to move to corp). Basically since I kept on putting pressure to be taken seriously, I was given an interview for a position I was grossly overqualified for only to be told, by the HR manager that the dept head thought that I would have been 'bored' with the position.

Bestially, they gave me an interview for a position they were never going to give me, so that I would stop pushing for a corp position.

 

[MrG]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

It is bullshit.
Unfair to the external candidates being interviewed, and a complete waste of time of the interviewer.

+1

Interviewing someone who can't possibly get the job is dishonest, and it's a complete waste of the candidate's time.

It's ridiculous to me that this happens. People can say what they want about government employees, but at least our job listings make it clear when a job is only available to internal candidates.

 

[Huntsman]

How can anything with so much deception with no good reason (for the interviewee) be good?

~ H

 

[Blackhood]

Its ticking "fairness" boxes becuase everyone is so terrified of getting themselves sued. Sham interviews are just legal-riot-shields