[Misc] How much sucking up has to be done in a corporate company to get promoted?

[Deleted member 2719]

Today has been somewhat of a Sh+t day @ the office as they say.

Went for an interview yesterday, my first for 15 years and it was a group interview........no pressure there then! After that the one on one interview.

Fortunately pressure doesn't faze me in these situation and just excites me.

Round 1

The Group interview

From the off I felt poor body language from the recently promoted boss, but the HR girls were giving all the right signals, there were 3 of us with 3 shadowing us, I felt I had excelled in all that was asked of me, i didn't think i was over zealous in the tasks but took control at the same time, which was for a team leader role, something i have had 20 years experience in and to my knowledge i was out in and in pole position for experience.

Round 2

The face to face interview.

I was last to be interviewed an hour an a half wait, but didn't bother me as brushed up on some of the potential answers.

It was a quick fire style 15 ish question with me asking questions at the end.

Personally i thought i answered the questions all but perfect for the position with eye contact good body language and plenty of enthusiasm to the boss and the HR girl.

The boss didn't give me much eye contact and was slumping in his chair, whilst the HR girl was nodding agreeing with every answer i gave.

I came out feeling i had done all that was asked and could not have done much better, just a bit concerned of the bosses poor body language.

Today

Boss called early this morning to say I didn't get the position, I asked for feedback and he said I felt that your were not going to be able to motivate the team as i didn't feel the enthusiasm, eh FFS enthusiasm was coming out of my lug holes you **** and I didn't take lead in the group interview, eh yes i did, I persuaded the other two candidates to change their mind on the role plays we were given.


I should state at this point that a new company has just bought them and is re- structuring with big changes and cutting 14 field roles to just 6 and unfortunately there was no longer a role in my area, so it was this role or the dole.


I always had my eye on this position anyhow, so it didn't worry me.


Gutted.


So what went wrong

 

[Triggaaar]

Sorry to hear of your bad news.

Brace yourself for a new thread from Ernest.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Sorry to hear of your bad news.

Brace yourself for a new thread from Ernest.

Thanks but surely that would be too predictable even for Ernest!!!

 

[Triggaaar]

Thanks but surely that would be too predictable even for Ernest!!!

To be fair he did stop it a while ago, but you just know he's itching to do another.

On topic: I hate office politics. Brown-nosing so often victorious over productivity.

 

[robbobhafc]

If it is anything like the corporate I work in it would have been decided long before the interview stage and this was all a HR exercise

 

[Ninja Elephant]

The thing that I struggle with is putting in the necessary leg work to get the next job in favour of spending all my time doing my current one. I throw myself into my work and spend all of my available time working on something or other, visible or not, so when it comes to looking for something new internally, I've not really done the whole networking thing, or put my face about enough and I narrowly missed out on a promotion recently to a guy who had a MASTERS DEGREE (bit of a cheat, that!) in the field we were applying for.

All that said, big thanks to [MENTION=18774]Rugrat[/MENTION] for his help all those years ago - and then [MENTION=14254]mistahclarke[/MENTION] for being the best Team Leader I've had, or will have.

 

[RandyWanger]

If it is anything like the corporate I work in it would have been decided long before the interview stage and this was all a HR exercise

Same thing happens here.

 

[hopkins]

2 things

1) they’d probably earmarked the person before the interview stage anyway
2) we’re all gonna die anyway so it doesn’t matter in the long scheme of things

Chin up

 

[Weststander]

Today has been somewhat of a Sh+t day @ the office as they say.

Went for an interview yesterday, my first for 15 years and it was a group interview........no pressure there then! After that the one on one interview.

Fortunately pressure doesn't faze me in these situation and just excites me.

Round 1

The Group interview

From the off I felt poor body language from the rvecently promoted boss, but the HR girls were giving all the right signals, there were 3 of us with 3 shadowing us, I felt I had excelled in all that was asked of me, i didn't think i was over zealous in the tasks but took control at the same time, which was for a team leader role, something i have had 20 years experience in and to my knowledge i was out in and in pole position for experience.

Round 2

The face to face interview.

I was last to be interviewed an hour an a half wait, but didn't bother me as brushed up on some of the potential answers.

It was a quick fire style 15 ish question with me asking questions at the end.

Personally i thought i answered the questions all but perfect for the position with eye contact good body language and plenty of enthusiasm to the boss and the HR girl.

The boss didn't give me much eye contact and was slumping in his chair, whilst the HR girl was nodding agreeing with every answer i gave.

I came out feeling i had done all that was asked and could not have done much better, just a bit concerned of the bosses poor body language.

Today

Boss called early this morning to say I didn't get the position, I asked for feedback and he said I felt that your were not going to be able to motivate the team as i didn't feel the enthusiasm, eh FFS enthusiasm was coming out of my lug holes you **** and I didn't take lead in the group interview, eh yes i did, I persuaded the other two candidates to change their mind on the role plays we were given.


I should state at this point that a new company has just bought them and is re- structuring with big changes and cutting 14 field roles to just 6 and unfortunately there was no longer a role in my area, so it was this role or the dole.


I always had my eye on this position anyhow, so it didn't worry me.


Gutted.


So what went wrong

Based on your comments about the new boss and his body language, perhaps he'd made up his mind conciously or subconciously early on or even before the interview? In other words, not following the process and HR science. This is very common.

Their loss more than yours in the end.

Well done for staying (outwardly) positive during the process and after the bad news.

Hopefully you find something better in the near future.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

To be fair he did stop it a while ago, but you just know he's itching to do another.

On topic: I hate office politics. Brown-nosing so often victorious over productivity.

I just don't understand why you would pick a brown noser who is obviously one who you know is waving the sign behind your back as soon as your turned.

If it is anything like the corporate I work in it would have been decided long before the interview stage and this was all a HR exercise

Thanks for the insight because this hasn't been the normal environment that i have been around, i have yet to find out who has the job, but my money is on the pretty girl who asked at the previous meeting where does the role cover, to which he replied loud enough for all people who were chatting at the time, ideally someone situated near the M3, yep that girl lives 10 mins from the M3! She did have a knowingly look if i think about it prior to the interview, surely she wasn't tapped up was she

 

[AmexRuislip]

Today has been somewhat of a Sh+t day @ the office as they say.

Went for an interview yesterday, my first for 15 years and it was a group interview........no pressure there then! After that the one on one interview.

Fortunately pressure doesn't faze me in these situation and just excites me.

Round 1

The Group interview

From the off I felt poor body language from the recently promoted boss, but the HR girls were giving all the right signals, there were 3 of us with 3 shadowing us, I felt I had excelled in all that was asked of me, i didn't think i was over zealous in the tasks but took control at the same time, which was for a team leader role, something i have had 20 years experience in and to my knowledge i was out in and in pole position for experience.

Round 2

The face to face interview.

I was last to be interviewed an hour an a half wait, but didn't bother me as brushed up on some of the potential answers.

It was a quick fire style 15 ish question with me asking questions at the end.

Personally i thought i answered the questions all but perfect for the position with eye contact good body language and plenty of enthusiasm to the boss and the HR girl.

The boss didn't give me much eye contact and was slumping in his chair, whilst the HR girl was nodding agreeing with every answer i gave.

I came out feeling i had done all that was asked and could not have done much better, just a bit concerned of the bosses poor body language.

Today

Boss called early this morning to say I didn't get the position, I asked for feedback and he said I felt that your were not going to be able to motivate the team as i didn't feel the enthusiasm, eh FFS enthusiasm was coming out of my lug holes you **** and I didn't take lead in the group interview, eh yes i did, I persuaded the other two candidates to change their mind on the role plays we were given.


I should state at this point that a new company has just bought them and is re- structuring with big changes and cutting 14 field roles to just 6 and unfortunately there was no longer a role in my area, so it was this role or the dole.


I always had my eye on this position anyhow, so it didn't worry me.


Gutted.


So what went wrong

I don't think there's anything wrong with you personally, probably the employer interviewing.
My wife underwent a similar tale a while ago with Waitrose.
She went through the group interview, thought all was okay, then found out she didn't make it through.
During the group interview, she said this guy went overboard on the sucking up, all out love for Waitrose & John Lewis.

Guess who got the job!

 

[ROSM]

Really sorry to read this. Best of luck in whatever comes next. You sound a conscientious guy.

Given the option youve outlined is that this job or out, you have nothing to lose in asking for a formal feedback session with thw interviewers. If hr are involved and he makes the kind of comment he has to you already then politely ask for examples etc.

Doesnt do any harm for the company and hr team to think youre collating evidence of some form of procedural failing. They may lool favourably on you for another role or in the terms of your settlement

 

[Deleted member 2719]

2 things

1) they’d probably earmarked the person before the interview stage anyway
2) we’re all gonna die anyway so it doesn’t matter in the long scheme of things

Chin up

Thanks,

Any idea of my date of death It's just i have a few things to do first.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

If it is anything like the corporate I work in it would have been decided long before the interview stage and this was all a HR exercise

Indeed. In the same way redundancies are already decided long before the 'consultation' period.
[MENTION=2719]Mouldy Boots[/MENTION] - sorry to hear your news. In the last five years I've been made redundant twice and out of work for a total of 10 months - it's a shit time. Until yesterday Mrs W had been out of work for 10 months - thankfully she got a job yesterday. No idea what you do but we have vacancies where I work - drop me a PM if you want a link to them.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Based on your comments about the new boss and his body language, perhaps he'd made up his mind conciously or subconciously early on or even before the interview? In other words, not following the process and HR science. This is very common.

Their loss more than yours in the end.

Well done for staying (outwardly) positive during the process and after the bad news.

Hopefully you find something better in the near future.

Thanks for your kind words I am very positive and driven, i do sometimes wonder whether the age factor creeps in with these visionless companies.

 

[Munkfish]

I just don't understand why you would pick a brown noser who is obviously one who you know is waving the sign behind your back as soon as your turned.

Thanks for the insight because this hasn't been the normal environment that i have been around, i have yet to find out who has the job, but my money is on the pretty girl who asked at the previous meeting where does the role cover, to which he replied loud enough for all people who were chatting at the time, ideally someone situated near the M3, yep that girl lives 10 mins from the M3! She did have a knowingly look if i think about it prior to the interview, surely she wasn't tapped up was she

I went through redundency a couple of years ago, they moved my role to another part of the country and gave the job to the person based there over me, foolishly for them they didnt put us through an interview process and gave him a role, I kicked up a fuss, made them put us through an interview process, for well knowing I wouldnt get the role, in the mean time I had already contacted the a Employment law specialist who contacted the company in question with a settlement amount, as I said I didnt get the role, but I did get three lovely months of gardening leave and a decent pay off.

Anyway head up, you will soon realise change was probably for the best if you have been in the same place for a while. I dont know what you do, but I have plenty of roles going at my new place.

 

[happypig]

what on earth is a "group interview" ?

Bear in mind I last changed roles in 2001 and because the boss already knew me he told me not to bother to turn up for the interview.
The one before that was a chat in the cafe.
The only other one was in the 80's.

 

[Triggaaar]

I just don't understand why you would pick a brown noser who is obviously one who you know is waving the sign behind your back as soon as your turned.

Each situation is different no doubt, but a couple of examples would be:
management don't realise which members of staff are doing the work
management promote people who will put making the manager look good ahead of getting the work done

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Really sorry to read this. Best of luck in whatever comes next. You sound a conscientious guy.

Given the option youve outlined is that this job or out, you have nothing to lose in asking for a formal feedback session with thw interviewers. If hr are involved and he makes the kind of comment he has to you already then politely ask for examples etc.

Doesnt do any harm for the company and hr team to think youre collating evidence of some form of procedural failing. They may lool favourably on you for another role or in the terms of your settlement

Thanks for your kind comments, i would say i am pretty much the perfect employee!! I have always had to have massive job satisfaction and if i didn't i would move on i would only give 100% and achieved highly with all my past jobs, however i am approaching my mid fifties and there are some ageist Feckers out there!

There are a lot of over fifties that have moved mountains in this world but recruitment/Companies seem stuck on not employing these diamonds.

I may well follow up on this, however i was sub contracting for this firm not sure whether this is still possible

 

[Rugrat]

The thing that I struggle with is putting in the necessary leg work to get the next job in favour of spending all my time doing my current one. I throw myself into my work and spend all of my available time working on something or other, visible or not, so when it comes to looking for something new internally, I've not really done the whole networking thing, or put my face about enough and I narrowly missed out on a promotion recently to a guy who had a MASTERS DEGREE (bit of a cheat, that!) in the field we were applying for.

All that said, big thanks to [MENTION=18774]Rugrat[/MENTION] for his help all those years ago - and then [MENTION=14254]mistahclarke[/MENTION] for being the best Team Leader I've had, or will have.

Yes you're in a business that requires quite a lot of that kind of stuff unfortunately. Although I was pretty crap and disinterested in the whole 'networking' thing I had an influential boss who was a great help. In my case it was all about performance but when I lost him I was soon dead meat. I despised the whole ethos of getting on for what you were going to do (generally bullshit) rather than what you actually did (demonstrable output)!

Even if you don't reach heady heights keep pushing on and then make the jump when you feel you can't (or don't want to go further). The name on the CV will open doors for you without question

..... and I think Baldock is OK