My experience was neutral leaning towards negative.
In the interview, I was asked about myself personally and to briefly go over my past experience. I wasn’t asked if particular questions regarding my experience, technical questions nor my motivations for attending the interview. This is when I started to realise I wasn’t a consideration at all.
The interview was conducted by a woman in charge of business side of things and then a male partner of a department. The woman was very polite, friendly, open and approachable. The man wasn’t listening, was on his phone under the table for the majority of the interview, tuned in every now and again to ask basic things such as in my current role, do I speak to my clients by phone? Explaining yes, at length and very personal and confidential information is discussed, he didn’t seem to believe me. He didn’t seem to believe anything I said despite attempting to explain myself several times clearly. He didn’t seem to think I had the ability for the role and I felt that decision was made before I even walked through the door. No effort was made to question or test me to attempt to change that bias.
I completely understand and sympathetic to the fact that sometimes, interviewers end up choosing their candidates before your own interview rolls around. It happens. But I would like to be informed of this so I don’t have to attend an interview where I’m obviously not a consideration. Essentially, it was a waste of my time and very obviously their time. The male partner was bored. I took a holiday off work to prepare and attend the interview. That’s a holiday that could have been spent with my family. My time is precious too. I know some interviewers would argue all candidates are considered seriously but that’s not true. Unconscious bias really is a thing. If you’ve already met candidates you set your heart on, you’ll unconsciously find faults with the rest. Just let those other candidates know next time.
