When Interviews Go Bad

job-interview2

job-interview2

I spent the first 3 months of 2014 looking for work getting really frustrated by it. I wasn’t even being particularly picky about what I applied for. So I spent a lot of time in interviews, but I had one particular interview that irritated me a lot. And here’s why:

The position was Executive Assistant to a CEO. I applied for the job, had a phone interview three weeks later, and an in-person interview two weeks after that.

They wanted someone with an interesting background and liked my non traditional experience; then spent the interview quizzing me over why I didn’t have the traditional experience. They wanted me to provide examples of how I would tackle tasks, but gave me no specific examples or questions to answer, instead relying on me to provide generic examples. Unfortunately, generic examples don’t really work in an interview.

After listening to some of the broad possible tasks I may be faced with, I came to the conclusion what they really wanted was two CEOs for the price of one (plus a little). But they wanted someone with the decision making ability, responsibilities & knowledge of a CEO.

But if you have that knowledge, why would you want to be second fiddle to someone else? Why wouldn’t you be a CEO yourself? Or working exclusively for yourself?

It’s more money, more power, more risk, more reward and more about you/your company goals if you are the CEO.

And this is where I get stumped. Do I tell them my plans for the future? Do I tell them I want to use them, learn from them and do my own thing? (Well I kind of did anyway.)

Do they view you more kindly for a senior role, knowing you might want to take on an entire company yourself one day? Or is that ambition “above your station”?

Maybe they want someone with the brains but not the ambition. Is that a combination that truly exists?

And if you do have that combination, brains but without a driving ambition to work for yourself, are you selling your Intellectual Property short by working for someone else & giving them your time, knowledge and skills? Surely your brains will work forwards and see that you’re under selling yourself?

A few times during the interview, the CEO said “Oh, I’m just trying to work out if you have the analytical skills and intelligence to do the job”. I could see a lot of more sensitive people being offended by that. But once again, there weren’t any specific questions about situations that would let me actually show my intellect!

I was more annoyed than anything. I don’t respect someone asking me generic questions then judging how smart I am based on nothing.

It’s one of those things that is a bit hard to describe unless you were there. The best example I can think of is when the CEO asked me if I would go to a networking lunch if he had to cancel last minute, but the company still needed to be represented. I said yes, that I enjoy meeting people from other companies in the same industry.
“Even if they were other CEOs?” he asked.
“Yes, other people’s job titles don’t intimidate me.”
The two people interviewing me kept looking at me, as if they wanted me to say more. What more can I say? It wasn’t a complex question, it wasn’t a situational question, it wasn’t an open… It was a yes or no question!

Towards the end I stumped the CEO by asking him why he works there. He started on about how he doesn’t really need to work, how he loves the community the work was in, and bringing projects to completion in ways that benefit the community. Then he said something to the effect of “When you get to my age you can behave more ethically”. I disagree. You can behave that way at any age. Is that a generational difference?

How do you cope in interviews where it seems like they don’t really know what they want? Do you think an Executive Assistant should show the desire to work for themselves one day? Do you think ethics are age driven? How do you deal with a bad interview? 

Image by

  • Casey

    I hear you. I’ve had more interviews than I can count over the years, ranging from low level temp work to more senior roles. The only thing I can say is, conducting interviews from the hiring side is a real skill that needs to be taught and learnt. It’s a two-way street and there’s a lot that both parties can do to ensure a successful outcome.

    • 26 Years & Counting

      Sounds like me – interviews for nearly anything, having pretty much always been a contract worker. It’s rare that I can’t connect and talk my way around situations in an interview. And I usually aim to make them laugh too – I’ve had so many interviews it’s kind of now a personal challenge, like improv…

  • Maryann

    Ethics are not age driven. I think there are some industries that attract people that do not act ethically and that some people just don’t care, age has nothing to do with it.

    It souds to me like your CEO doesn’t do interviews very often amd needed to think more the qualities he wanted in the right applicant. However, questions are usually generic it is up to the applicant to bring it down to an example or ask the rght questions to discover what they are really asking. I have had heaps of bad interviews and I just beleive that the job wasn’t for me.

    • 26 Years & Counting

      True, interview questions are often generic. Maybe that’s why it was so hard, because I’m not an EA, so there was little I could pad out the answers with.