interview skills

I was thinking the other day about an ad I saw, declaring that they could teach you how to be a good interview, when job searching. There are a lot ads like that. But there aren't any ads aimed at employers on how to conduct a good interview. There should be. I've had some seriously wacky job interviews! Some of them were so bad that it took everything I had not to tell them what a jerk they were!! 

For instance, there was the job interview with a woman who asked me what the last book I read was. Then she asked me if I was a fan of Stephen King and proceeded to tell me all about her reading habits which included making her husband sleep on the couch when she wanted to read in bed. She could probably detect the "are you nuts" look on my face...I didn't get the job.

Then there was the interview for a company who wanted me to answer a 300 question psychological test before the interview. I told the receptionist I would do it after the interview if it were necessary and that I didn't appreciate not being told that this interview was going to take hours because of this test. Yep, didn't even make it to that interview!

Or, the one where I showed up to an interview for an Admin position and they wanted me to interview for an accounting position. After they figured out I wasn't going to do that, they said the person hiring for the admin. was out to lunch. I'd never heard of a bait and switch tactic for hiring!!

And my favorite bad interview, was a 2 parter. The first part, with the woman who I'd actually be working with, went so great. She even walked me around afterwards and introduced to me to everyone in her department! The 2 part was with one of the owners. He was a complete asshole. Oh, I should say that a head hunter contacted me about this job. So, this jerk was pissed off that his assistant hired a head hunter to find someone for this position. Mostly because he was going to have to pay them a fee if I was offered and took the job. She hired a head hunter because she wanted to interview qualified candidates. Anyway, he proceeded to tell me all about the last couple of people in that position and how awful they were. Blah, blah, blah. Finally, after he told me again, how unhappy he was with going through a head hunter, I told him that that didn't have anything to do with me and he should take that up with his assistant, but that I was worth it and how unfortunate it was that he would never know that and that I was sorry he wasted both our time. Yeah, didn't get that job either. Thank heavens, because really, maybe they were awful because he was such a jerk!!