After my long stint of being a stay at home mom, I was finally being rewarded with a real live face to face interview. The prospect of this job thrilled me. Not only for the expected compensation added to the household. But also I would be in the corporate environment again with other A-D-U-L-T-S. This idea of this made me bubble with excitement. I studied and was ready to show how I could be a perfect fit in their organization. This was going to be perfect, or so I thought.
My phone interview went off without a hitch and I was immediately asked to come to their office and meet with two managers for a group interview. True, the interviewer did ask me if I had ever been in a situation where I had to compete with others. This in hindsight should have led me to question further. My only thought of competing was in undergrad and post grad classes doing group presentations. This is where each group would compete with the class for the best presentation. We were graded as a group and we were also graded individually. Usually, if your presentation and research was on key, everyone in the group made a high score.
As the interview date drew closer, I was looking forward to meeting the managers for the group interview. In my mind, I still pictured a group being more than one manager with only one interviewer. Before leaving college, I had been on group panel interviews before so I knew what to expect. I understood that the second interview would be more in depth. So my answers had to be more polished more concrete and more relaxed. However, a couple of things went wrong.
When I arrived at the interview, it felt like a rock fell straight down into my gut. Usually this is a sign from my instinct to back away but I just chunked it up as nerves. As far as my attire, since this corporation was conservative in nature, I decided on a blue business suit and basic heels as my interview attire. At that point, I noticed either was either one or two options. One, either, I am dressed very well and they will notice me. Or two, I am way too overdressed and I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb. As time went on, however, I felt like the thumb. Ordinarily when I arrive at an interview, I am escorted to the lobby immediately. However, this was not the case. Instead, I was told to stand over there with a group of 9 other people. The group stayed in the foyer, waiting. The receptionist, who was actually a security guard, hardly acknowledged us. Hospitality was definitely lacking here. No one questioned if we would like anything to drink or told the locations of the restrooms while we were waiting. I felt that was strange but was still ready to get started. The person that greeted the group asked for everyone’s name. I wondered how she would be able to remember and retrieve those names so quickly. She gave everyone a quick handshake and marched us all to the room.
After that, they took the group to a very nice conference room with mirrored doors. All of us took our seats. Before taking my seat, I quietly wondered. Do I sit next to someone or do I sit alone? I chose to leave a seat empty from the closest interviewee as did most everyone else. After we waited a few minutes, more people began to be even more social. I didn’t mind being social in the lobby (I mean foyer) but I was mentally preparing myself for the interview. I am aware being social at all times comes naturally to many people. However, I know personally with me it just doesn’t. I was cordial. I wanted to concentrate and remain focused.
Before the interviewers came in, we were met by a person who did the initial greetings. She had worked for the bank for many years. She didn’t offer business cards. That was odd too. She told us more about the job. She was informative but I felt my heart beating in my ears I knew then, I didn’t like this format. I also knew if we are graded as a group in a question answer format chances are I was not going to do well. Okay, I was waiting hear when we would get an opportunity to meet the interviewers separately. But she never said that. My worst fears had come true. We would have to participate in the same interview with 10 people. What I heard was to remember to answer all the questions and to remember it is still a job interview and everyone is competing so do your best to distinguish yourself from everyone else. And then the interviewers came, ready to dish us out. They both looked ready and willing. But I felt like running out of the door.
The interviewers began to ask questions for the group. The first question was: Tell me what got you to this point in your life. What I heard from others were lengthy answers about working in the food industry and customer service. I also heard descriptive answers about working in retail. My heart raced at this point. Because it seemed everything that was said closely matched the job description.. Then I took my turn. I said I am a stay at home mom who is also a substitute teacher. As soon as the words fell from my mouth, I knew my answer was weak. Wait! I yelled silently in my head. I instantly realized, I could have said from this point in my life, I have always believed in constant personal improvement because as a stay at home mom I have worked to enhance the lives of others and I also have earned credits towards my Master’s Degree in Special Education. I also am helping the community by volunteering in many different forms. Since your company has a strong emphasis on helping the community I would fit well here. That would have been a better answer. However, it was too late. My turn to dazzle them had passed. I didn’t dazzle. I didn’t even make a fizzle. I fell flat as a rock. What I knew and what I was saying were not matching.
Presentations and speech are not my strengths. Although, I have been a member of Toastmasters and actually won a few awards from speeches, I know this is not my strong suit. So in order for me to do well in an interview I have to study by first writing the questions down and kind of knowing what to expect in the interview. I did my studying before but my failure was not being totally aware what a group interview meant and feeling overwhelmed by the process. My other answers were better than that but I still felt like I was lacking in engaging conversation. During the process, I didn’t open up. I didn’t refer to another person’s answer. I didn’t click with anyone there.
I don’t think I considered myself too important to converse with anyone there but in fairness, this was not a true gauge of how to identify someone’s strengths and weaknesses. A better way to test group interactions before hiring might have been letting the group work together in a project to observe how a person functions with others. Or even have each person in a real work situation to assess skills. There has to be a different more fair way to assess job candidates than group interviews. Even though I felt I prepared and was ready to set my best foot forward, I stumbled and fell. I missed the mark.
After my interview, I consorted with my friend who is also an HR Manager. As an HR Manager, she had never heard of this format, she wondered what they were evaluating in the interview. She further questioned if they were testing how well you could socialize with others. This might not be a productive asset especially if you have to remain focused to meet constant quotas for the job. She also did not think it was fair to those who did not have a dominating personality. True. I knew my personality was not dominating but in this time in life I was aware of how to be assertive when it counted. However, it did not come across in the group interview discussion.
In the end, I was not offered the position because I was to overqualified. But I knew it was because I didn’t shine in this group setting. All in all, it was a different experience and for those who were chosen from my group. I wish them the best of luck. As for me, I’ll keep looking. I now know to think twice when I hear the dreaded words group interview.
