Written by Most of you will at least have heard of the BBC1 reality game show programme “The Apprentice” and for those of you that are more dedicated viewers, this week you will have seen the infamous interview round.
The remaining candidates meet with a series of interviewers who expose potential flaws in their business plan, uncover any embellishments or lies on their CV, as well as testing how well the candidates cope under pressure – all standard interview stuff, right?
Imagine arriving at a company, walking in to the room and having the interviewer refuse to shake your hand. Imagine that interviewer lacks the common courtesy to stand up when you come in to the room and also doesn’t offer you any eye contact. Imagine then that this same person swears at you and orders you to leave the room without actually ever interviewing you at all.
Let’s be serious for one minute, if this were a real business that was actively recruiting, would anyone actually want to work there?
Fortunately most businesses that are recruiting are better at remembering that interviews are a two way process, fail to impress in that first meeting and it’s highly unlikely that the candidate is coming back. As a business looking for the best talent in the market place, candidate attraction is at the top of our priority list for 2015… interviewing ‘Apprentice’ style is definitely not.
Interrogation and bullying tactics (shouting over a candidate’s response or not giving them the chance to answer your question) have no place in the real world of recruiting. Candidates should expect questions based around their professional experience, not a series of attacks that are so aggressive they reduce the candidate to tears.
‘The Apprentice’ is great entertainment; but any candidates who are job searching at the moment should expect much more positive interview experiences – rest easy, it’s only a game show.