High Tech Job Interviews: Way of the Future

Several years ago when I applied for my first job, I remember filling out the application, turning it in and the anxious days or weeks of waiting for a hopeful call back for an interview. Once I got that, I felt enthusiastic about dressing up, going in and wowing my interviewer with my positive attitude and enthusiasm to work. However, my recent attempt at a job interview showed a new side of technology - one that is rather dismal.

Nowadays, it seems that corporations are desensitized in regards to hiring people. Take the Christmas holiday, for example. Many places mass hire temporary help in order to have enough employees during what will hopefully be a very busy and profitable season. While this can cause some strain on managers to interview and hire, they've worked ways around interviewing to allow the managers more time to handle customers but still get interviews done in a timely fashion. They call these group interviews. This is where they have anywhere from two to twenty (or more) people in at one time who speak in turn as the manager asks questions. This gives the manager an idea of speaking ability, as well as social skills - something very important to those who may have to push products in order to sell.

Using a beauty store as an example, the manager can request each prospective employee to pick out a product in store and when it is time, explain to the others at the interview what it is and why they picked it out. Again, this gives the manager a wonderful idea of knowledge of their products. After all, they would want someone knowing what a product is good for instead of someone just picking out a product because it was cheap. Once this task has been completed and done, the manager may ask questions for the employees-to-be to answer, taking into consideration those who pipe in and those who remain quiet. After all, to sell items you have to be forward. A quiet person may not be able to get the job done.

Ater the manager is finished asking questions, he or she will do the standard "does anybody have any questions for me?" line. This allows the manager to also pick out who is more serious than those who are just standing around soaking up oxygen.

This, however, is where technology comes into play.

At the interview, after all was said and done, the manager stated there was a 'small and easy' test to take via telephone. In turn, each prospective employee is given a sheet with a number to call and when they get home they are urged to take the test as soon as possible in order to get results and hopefully be hired.

Having fully impressed the manager, I took this slip of paper home and prepared to take the test. When the computer picked up and took down my information, it merely stated that it was a telephone assessment and not only that, the SOLE decision maker of the hiring process. Perplexed by this, I listened carefully to a computer voice that was somewhat difficult to listen to, being reminded I can only repeat a question twice before it skips to the next one. The paper stated the assessment would take between ten to fifteen minutes to complete, so, I felt taking longer would help in getting me employed. The questions were varying levels of agreeing and disagreeing, just like most job interviews that make you fill out the papers like an old, high school multiple choice exam. They were fairly generaly, in which you would think nothing of why they want to know your opinion on laziness and obviously them wanting to know your take on punctuality. Breezing through the questions, I stumbled across one that I could not make out what the computer voice had said. Pressing the repeat button I awaited anxiously to see if I could catch it that time and the computer glitched, throwing me back 2-3 questions. I repeated my answers and progressed on, thinking there was nothing wrong with that, after all, I finally answered the vexxing question with ease.

However, as the assessment went on, the computer inquired about past work habits. Had I ever been late, how many times.. general questions that any employer would want to know. Then it asked one that I felt was far too personal and none of their business. Had I ever been fired from a job within the last 5 years. Having been terminated after a refusal for accepting a quit, I had to answer yes. That question would turn out to be my downfall. After the assessment ended, I called hte store manager per her request and in her anxiousness she stated she hoped I passed and that she would call me back as soon as she checked it.

Then it happened. The manager called back stating I had failed the assessment, even inquiring as to how long I took, were there any problems and even telling me that this type of hiring was new to the company. I told her my issues and she felt horrible. The face-to-face interview accounted for nothing, in the long run, wasting a good hour of my time when I could've been out applying for other jobs.

This made me even wonder why they performed the interviews in this order. It would have made more sense for every prospective employee to go in, call first and THEN be brought in for an interview upon passing the assessment. Or, if a computer is the sole decider, why even have an interview where the manager speaks to a prospective? I had done everything right, even dressing (unknowingly) as the store dress code requests. The manager wanted me, but she was forced to turn me away by a machine.

Technology is a blessing. It can help us find people over long distances or, in this instance make or break a job. However, there are some places that technology just should not be permitted - such as being a sole decision maker in a hiring position. After all, the machine isn't hiring another machine and as everyone knows, people can lie through their teeth on assessments. The sooner corporations realize this method of hiring is often times fallable, the sooner they won't have to worry about hiring constantly because those who truly desire to work and work hard won't be leaving due to boredom.