First, unless it was a mass interview for multiple jobs, why would an employer ever mention the identity of other candidates? That’s stupid, and I’m not sure I’d want to work for such a company.
Second, my reaction would be “are you telling me that I don’t know how to interview effectively? If I hire you would you do the same for colleagues or me?” I might well escort such a person out the door as not being good enough to spend time on. If not, the resume goes in the trash immediately.
They shouldn’t be asking and you shouldn’t be telling. If they did bring it up, I would say something vague about working in teams and as mentioned, turn it into talking about ways you’ve succeeded in collaborating with others, or asking about the new position in that light.
I was thinking more about when they say “tell me about a time at your last job when you had to fix something” or “tell me about when you’ve had to work with a difficult person at your last job.” But after reading all this and remembering how I so have this one won, I know I don’t even need to do that.
I would not mention anything about her. Gum-smacking and walking barefoot, while annoying and odd, aren’t exactly shooting offenses. If you aren’t seeing customers, a lot of bosses don’t even want to deal with that kind of thing.
As for her being sick all the time, that’s a minefield I wouldn’t get near. There are too many issues with FMLA and ADA and HIPAA that could go badly for you (and the company, if don’t hire her based on you telling them that she takes sick days a lot, and she’s covered by the ADA). Difficult to prove, yes, but still a bad idea to mention personal stuff like that about another candidate.
It’s not the '50s anymore, where you can retire at the first place who hires you.
Whether it’s true or not, I’m always gone into every single interview with the mindset of convincing my interviewer that their company is my best fit, and I’m their best fit. Many lack the luxury to choose a truly mutual best-fit situation. That’s a phrase oft-parroted by interviewees, but I’ve never really cared about it. I’m looking for the best (as in, highest-paying/lowest-stress) job, for me, for now.
And as soon as you hear that - Up goes a red flag
I know that, and I’m not even sure why you’re mentioning it in the context of interview - i.e. specifically not staying in the same job.
If you’re unemployed and looking for any job that will pay the bills, or if you’re in a job you hate and the one you’re going for looks like you could hate it less, then sure, you have to make the best of the situation.
Understood, but on the other hand, many are looking for career advancement, personal development and a job that they can enjoy doing very well.
I’ve been in this situation twice. The first time, I didn’t mention that I worked with another candidate and they never brought it up either. In the second instance, I was actually the supervisor of the other candidate. When asked if I knew her, I told them that I did and that I had really enjoyed working with her. I was hired in both instances. Now, I’m in a position where I do the hiring and there’s no way I would hire someone that had said derogatory things about another candidate,. I would be inclined to not hire either of the involved parties.
Amber-You would seriously pass over the best candidate for a position you presumably need to fill, because they had less than glowing experience working with another candidate?
I don’t know about Amber, but I would, not because of their bad experience but because they were not smart enough to shut up about it. If the candidate were two orders of magnitude better than anyone else, maybe.
When I left my previous job to come to my current job one major reason was that my boss was a nutball - and I wasn’t the only one who thought it, since 12 of the 14 people on his staff when I started left in a year and a quarter - and I was number 13. I just emphasized the positive.
The candidate may be sure they are right. The interviewer isn’t, and may well think that the hated person is actually reasonable and the interviewee isn’t - especially based on the evidence of the interviewee bad mouthing the other person.
That’s just crazy talk.
Works for me.
The main thing that a boss needs from a candidate is someone who makes them look good. That is their primary concern.
If you bad mouth anyone at an interview, you are showing that you make people look bad, not good. You always want to be positive at interviews. Because if you were previously working at a dysfunctional place, they aren’t going to really care who started it-- all they are going to see is that you are a part of it.
Same here. Idiots who enjoy running people down are not qualified candidates in my own opinion. A candidate moaning about other people while in a job interview, particularly a rival for that job, is just someone who is probably going to have to be fired for disciplinary problems not too far down the road.
But the best candidate wouldn’t be putting someone else down to make himself look like a better fit for the position. I want to hire people who are confident enough in their own abilities to let their strengths speak for themselves. If someone has to say negative things about someone else in order to strengthen their own case, it comes across as if they’re not confident in their own capabilities.
Also, it’s important to me that the people I supervise are team players, capable of working well with others. Saying negative things about another candidate would indicate that the person probably isn’t very good at the team player thing. As for the candidate being bad-mouthed, I think I’d give them a higher rating than the person doing the bad-mouthing, but I’d be worried that there may be a grain of truth to what was said, and therefore would be very unlikely to hire them either.
Had my interview this morning; the subject didn’t come up, thank goodness.
Stayed positive!
I didn’t really expect them to say “rag on your former colleagues,” but knowing that they knew we both came from the exact same position at the exact same job, I was unsure. It’s kind of a small world around these parts.
I’m still reading your comments and picking up hints for when I’m hiring people again myself. I came here because I know this is a tough crowd who wouldn’t pull punches and would slap the sense back into me.
Not Amber, but yes, I have. Not another candidate per se, but running down their co-workers in general from a previous job was the deal breaker.
Cool. Hope you got the job.
Yeah. Keep us posted on your progress.
BTW, at the “have you any questions to ask us?” bit near the end of an interview, I have found that a good question to ask is: “At this point, do you have any unvoiced reservations about me as a candidate for this role?”.
This hopefully does one of two things - it either cements their view that you’re the right person, or it offers you the opportunity to resolve/answer any doubts they may have before you walk away.
That’s interesting. I usually ask some form of “what are the most important things you’re looking for in the person in this position” but hadn’t thought to make it more specifically about me.