My big one is that they need to stop asking why I applied for their company. The real answer is I want a new job, and I blasted out a hundred applications. I didn’t choose your company specifically.
The gap in my employment is NONE OF YOUR GOD DAMN BUSINESS.
It’s none of your fucking business that my kid required major neuro surgery at the age of 8 WEEKS and I needed to take a year off form work to care for him.
You and all the other idiot corporations decided to fuck around with the economy and didn’t hire anyone for several years because YOU fucked it up.
To be more flexible I decided to work a series of contracts instead of full time employment and fuckwits like you treat contractors like trash.
Do you really want me to go on? Because I fucking can…
BTW: The kid is OK and today (19 years later) is an accomplished figure skater that competes internationally.
Congrats on your child killing it at figure skating :)
The other thing businesses do that should be illegal is target “high cost” employees.
Their healthcare insurance provider will provide them a monthly report and if you suddenly start $1 million worth of chemo it shows up in next month’s bill. The insurance provider doesn’t tell them who it is by law, but they DO tell them it’s costing the company a ton and hiking their monthly premiums. in a company of 100 people it’s not hard to figure out who it is…
I’ve heard that.
His birth cost was around $20k with a stay in the NICU the first two days.
He was diagnosed before he even left the hospital. He had visible indications of Spina Biffida Occulta (Tethered Spinal Cord). Exactly 8 weeks after he was born he underwent the surgery. Which took a lot longer than expected because they couldn’t get a good MRI image. So the Neurosurgeon ended up doing exploratory surgery to find how far up the tether went.
Total bill for the surgery and a week long hospital stay was $40k.
Fortunately, my wife works for the same medical foundation that owns the hospital, and she still works there today. Plus they own the insurance company. So we were lucky to have the best health insurance available in our state.
Wow, congrats in the good ending!
I’ve had two jobs ask me about religious beliefs. That needs to stop because 1: it’s none of their business and 2: it’s illegal.
The only way I can think that would be relevant is if you’re applying to be a preist/rabbi/imam/religious leader of some sort
“Where do you see yourself in the future?” Who fucking knows at this point, hopefully ALIVE.
“What do you expect for compensation?” Just tell me what the low end of the job is because I know that’s what you’re going to pay anyway.
“Can you explain this gap in your resume?” Can you explain these gaps in your employing someone in this position?
I live in Canada and about once a year Trump remembers we exist and talks about invading us. Quebec and Alberta both keep talking about separating. I don’t know where Canada will be in five years time, let alone myself.
The compensation thing drives me nuts too. It’s like if nothing in the store had a price on it and when you went up to the checkout they were like “What would you expect to pay for a can of peas?” Just tell me the number and I’ll either agree or not!
I like this take from smbc
This.
That
This is gonna be more of a rant about recruitment agencies and the consultants working for them.
When I apply for one of the (probably fake) positions they advertise, it’s not an invitation for them to ring me, waste 15 minutes of my life and grill me about everything I did in my last few jobs, my responsibilities, duties, any employment gaps, people who I answered to in my previous company, etc; only for these assholes to tell me they have no positions available but will “keep my details on file.”
It’s on my fucking resumé, and you could save a lot of our time by not ringing me and asking me to verbally repeat this because you guys are too stupid to read…
When I was made redundant last year and was basically desperate to land another role, I genuinely had some of the worst cold-calls ever from recruiters when I made the rookie error of listing myself as open to work on LinkedIn and Indeed. One particular caller who I spoke to twice, maybe three times would genuinely pause for about 10 to 15 seconds in silence after I finished speaking then ask me some absolutely mundane follow-up question in a monotone voice. I genuinely couldn’t tell if I was speaking to a lady with a room-temperature IQ or some poorly programmed AI chatbot.
On a related note, posting ghost vacancies, using AI to screen candidates, and generally treating recruitment as a massive data harvesting operation should be made illegal.
Where do you see yourself in X years?
Just be honest: Will you ditch us for the next best opportunity?
And answer: it depends.
All in all, that question is useless.
“progressing within the company”
If there’s no progression they may not hire you but did you really want a dead end job anyway?
Oh right, there’s also the career people and the obnoxious Megacorps. I only apply for small to medium, like flat hierarchies, so i forgot that.
“Killed in the food riots.”
We ask why you applied to our company specifically to screen for candidates that are excited about the product and its mission. Granted, I do work in the space industry.
How often do you get an answer with aliens in it?
Heh, not yet, unfortunately.
Maybe a better question: how many of your applicants do you think are hiding their obsession with aliens from you? 😂
An even better question: How many of your applicants are actual aliens who are looking for a ride home?
Nah, they know we only have chemical propulsion that can’t even achieve a respectable %c. They know they are here to stay, and that we will extort their tech if we found out their true origins.
Ahh, subvert our efforts and keep their home environment sanitized of us. Makes sense!
They’re easy to spot. Their last job is always at a phone company.
I had a job cold call me for an interview. During the interview it turned out I’d be working for a guy I’ve already worked for in the past, but the company went under.
He asked me why I applied, I said “I didn’t, they called me and asked if I wanted an interview, I’ve never heard of this place before”. He didn’t like that answer.
I’ve interviewed people before, and am doing so again next week. I often ask why a candidate is interested in working for my org, because I want to known that their personal goals/ambitions are at least somewhat aligned with the org. Hiring someone and then finding out that they don’t fit sucks.
Many job ads receive tens or hundreds of applications. They want the best candidate. If you’re not specifically keen, they’ll probably go for someone who shows some interest. I know I have picked people who are interested over more qualified but disinterested people before.
So you favor dumb people over competent people?
Sounds about right for the average hiring manager. People don’t care about your organization. The incredibly inefficient system of capitalism they were born into requires them to exchange the unrenewable resource that is their time, the only thing they have in this universe, for arbitrarily valued currency which changes value constantly through no action they make, so they get the privilege of continuing to exchange their time for more of this currency, until their flesh suit is too broken to continue this exchange.
No one has ever been excited about working for your company. A few learned to fake it. A few simply aren’t capable of complex thought and treat working for your company the same way they’d treat a colonoscopy or birthday party because they literally can’t tell the difference.
It sounds to me like you have never worked some place exciting. You should give it a try. I was and am very excited about the work I do and for whom I do it.
Me too but it’s easier to find what they’re talking about and really hard to find what you’re talking about, and even harder to get hired. And 10x harder to know what you’re getting into before your first month in the job, so this answer is the most appropriate during the interview.
Yeah, that is why I was looking for a job for a year and a half before I landed this gig. I was ruthlessly picky. I am a damn good integration engineer/engineering technologist, and I asked a ton of questions in the three interviews I had in my search. I looked almost every day, applied to maybe 5 jobs, and attended 3 interviews. One job, I was a poor fit for them. One job they were a poor fit for me. The third job was a great fit on both ends, which was awesome because I had wanted to work there for years, but they never had a position open.
Ask. Lots. Of. Questions. Don’t just let them interview you, you both need to interview each other. you both have to live with each other.
If you think your only value as a human being is your capacity to produce, then I don’t know what to say to you?
Yes, capitalism sucks, but also, humans aren’t all just out here blindly doing capitalism and not thinking about anything else. Every person working a job has to interact with coworkers, and those interactions are not mediated solely through a lens of productivity.
I said the opposite, actually, the problem is your work is your entire life. Jobs are there to enable you to live life. They are not your life. They are not what you do, they are the necessary component that allows you to do what you want to do because we live in a world that does not value human life.
I agree with that. What makes you assume my work is my entire life? I only work 4 days, and I have a solid community outside work and various hobbies.
Crazy you get to hire people only working 4 days a week.
Why do you have that authority?
Why are you only willing to give 4 days a week of your time to your glorious employer.
Are you not serious about your goals with that company?
I … honestly have no idea how to tell how serious or sarcastic those questions are…
Sounds like you are not qualified to interview people for jobs.
No. See, most people ARE just blindly doing capitalism because it’s either that or die.
Listen to me very closely: Nobody gives a single flying fuck about your mission statement. Turning away more qualified candidates because you didn’t feel they were as interested in the company culture as others makes you a shitty hiring manager. Nobody gives a shit about the company culture. Every employee with two brain cells knows it’s about money, period. When times get hard, the company will not care how much you mesh with the culture, they will drop you like a hot turd if you aren’t producing enough or are costing them money. So why pretend anything else matters?
Mate I’ve got to spend 40 hours a week with these people. I would much rather hire someone who is socially competent but needs to learn a few things technically than hire an asshole who is just going to be a pain in the ass.
Honestly if you view every interaction through a strictly transactional lens you’re not gonna have a good time being a human. Most of our lives are spent doing things we don’t really want to be doing, be that work or cleaning or building/repairing shelter, etc. The thing is, most people find ways to find some joy or comradery in these tasks. If your only goal is to complete each of them as quickly as possible you’re gonna spend most of your life being fucking miserable.
But getting back on track - not every company is built the way you describe. Personally, I’ve been able to build a team at my company where everyone gets their work done, enjoys each other’s company, and goes home after 40 hours. If I hire people who don’t get along with everyone else I lose that balance. So I hire people that fit the culture, and teach them the skills they need technically. The offices with a bunch of individualistic assholes tend to work longer hours, have poorer quality, and higher turnover rates. And they are all fucking miserable. Personally that is not something I’m interested in.
Because working with people you like makes work so much more bearable? We have an AP lady who is a hotshot, does such a good job but so mean and hotheaded and thinks she is “honest” but is really just mean. Hates her husband , hates people, only likes her dog. Her manager is on her last straw because she criticizes everyone else all the time and dislikes half the people she works with, and she (the manager) has had to referee arguments she has with the rest of the staff.
You can train someone to do a job, it’s much harder to train someone out of being an asshole.
Just because you don’t care doesn’t mean there aren’t people who do care.
Also, not every company is a corporate hell hole.
The votes on your comment are enough to tell that your blanket “Nobody” is not a valid statement. It’s generally a smart idea to accept that there are diverse perspectives that exist, and not everyone who disagrees with you is wrong.
Is that question at the end of your comment actually curiousity, or just a boring rhetorical?
Lemmy ahh comment.
Feel free to go back to reddit, where you ‘people’ belong.
What do you specifically mean by putting people in quotes like that?
And you’re acting like a jealous ex of Reddit’s?
Dude is what happens when you ask chatgpt for “Lemmy user”
My least favorite is, “where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
“Ummm, getting your job after I push you in front of a train for asking me this stupid question.”
Usually via photos or videos of myself and the good old mirror of course. Just as I have always been able to see myself. /j
“Who are you and what are you doing in my office?”
I’m a locksmith, and I’m a locksmith.
Honestly I just hate personality based questions. I’m here to do a job and get paid. I’m not here to make friends and honestly don’t care enough to try working my way up some corporate ladder that requires connections and kissing ass. If the job just has me pulling around slabs of meat or cutting them up, why are you asking about my personal life? Ask to give examples of me doing similar work.
Because working with people you don’t like is not fun?
I work in a slaughterhouse in the middle of nowhere of a deep red state. I’m surrounded by people I can’t stand and have to listen to hateful rhetoric in the locker room every day. I don’t care cause I get paid to keep coming in and spend most of my time listening to music/podcasts.
That sounds fucking shit, my sympathies.
To be clear, I wasn’t trying to provide THE answer to your question, just a possible answer (that’s not necessarily applicable in all contexts). But also, I suspect my answer might still be applicable in your context from the perspective of your boss/hirer.
It’s not supposed to be fun. No one is at work to have fun. People are at work because they die if they do not work. It’s not really possible to have fun with a gun to your head unless you’re mentally incompetent or a psychopath.
Having a good bunch of coworkers whom you become friends with makes the work a lot more enjoyable.
It can, sure, but that isn’t the point of work or where most people fulfill their social needs. That is called finding community in suffering. During bank robberies and other hostage situations the victims also find ways to trauma bond and take their mind off of their current suffering, to the point where trauma bonded people are far more likely to be lifelong friends and partners than just random strangers.
In an ideal world where people magically get to do what they want to do and not worry about getting paid, your view point makes more sense. We don’t live in that world though, and selecting applicants based on how much they’re willing to fake being your friend just results in less competency and more work for everyone.
I get it. It sucks being forced to work to fulfill your basic needs.
But jeez, your perspective sucks. I bet you’re a lot of fun to work with. 🙄
You know, even without capitalism, we’d all have to work to get something in return somehow. We all have different needs.
OK, but consider this: I do have fun at work. And most of my friends do to, at least some of the time. I know that this is a privileged position to be in.
I’m sorry that you don’t. And I agree that lots of people don’t, and that that sucks. But that’s not a universal truth.
And for the hirer, there’s a choice between working with someone who might see work as at least tolerable and maybe even an enjoyable and fiendly place to be, or working with someone who hates every minute of being there. If you were in their shoes, which would you pick?
I’d pick the person that is most competent for the job, personally, as that means less work for others on their team, and less work overall that needs to be done in order for a day to be over.
I’m not at work to make friends, normal humans have a life outside of work for that. ‘Work friends’ are not real friends, they’re hardly real people. They are entities you have to interact with in order to continue living.
I doubt that I’m the only person here who has good friendships that started as co-workers…
You are not.
Working with a great team and boss can make it seem a whole lot less like work. Still friends with a team that formed 30 years ago. Two marriages came out of it as well. We all worked together for about 10 years before people and the company went other ways but we all remember it as one of our best work environments we were ever part of, and we still get together regularly.
Yeah pretty sure you can go back as far as you want in human history and people will tend to be friends with the people they work with. Gathering partners, building partners, scouting partners, etc. Befriending others to complete mutually beneficial tasks is a big part of the special sauce that defines our species. This idea that we shouldn’t befriend those we work with is absolutely wild to me. Like, you don’t need to be best friends, but you should get along and enjoy each other’s company.
I get along and enjoy the people that don’t make my job harder. Which is why I’ve been a lot happier at work lately cause I started working alone.
It must be the worst living this way. I’m 47 and have never had a job where I haven’t at least had a little fun. Maybe I’ve just been lucky. I’m genuinely sorry you have to live that way.
Tbh, most of the time they’re not listening to the answer, but instead how you answered it, whether you come off as gruff, assholish, etc
It’s a production line, workers are dependent on each other, particularly in an abattoir. They also don’t want crazies for obvious reasons and it’s food production so personal hygiene is required. It’s not a suitable job for hermits.
The skills in sport for instance, are relevant to a production job.
I guess this place is different cause they have no standards for who they hire. If you can reliably show up and move your limbs easily, then that’s good enough. I have seen all kinds of examples of the people you say they wouldn’t want in just the 9 months I’ve been there.
“Wanna get out of here?”
Also a bit weird to ask what hobbies i have if its asked early on int interview and for a very in and out job like supermarket staff
Yeah. As someone who has done interviews I think a lot of it is bs. I generally was mostly asking questions around their experience to see how genuine it is. When going over the resume I mostly tried to verify it was authenticate.
Why are people here so negative about interviews? Companies and candidates interview each other. You should have an answer prepared to these standard questions.
My only gripe about job hunt happens before any interview: Any barriers unrelated to the candidate, intended to reduce the number of candidates. I don’t see it that often, but some positions have way too many candidates and candidates cannot be judged fairly
Got questioned if we’re ok working overtime without pay. We asked for clarification and they wanted us to work 60h/w and only paid for 35h so they can keep us as a part time. Obviously we laughed in their faces and walked out.
That’s what I mean. The candidate also interviews the company
Going to be honest, never had an interview where we liked, let alone had any respect for the employer.
It’s great they admitted such illegal assholery before going any further. At least you didn’t waste anymore time.
Verily, such atrocities are not in our interests
