I've been on a few interviews where it was clear they were going through the motions. It's sad and insulting. During the interviews, I was very tempted to cut the interview short and say that it was apparent that the position wasn't the right fit, and thanking the interviewer for his/her time. It takes balls to do this, but you can at least tell yourself that you didn't kiss a$$ for no reason.....

Anonymous wrote:The title says it all. What were some giveaway signs that they were just fulfilling their interview quota/equal opportunity obligation and had already decided who would get the job?

IMF, WB, IFC -- usually filled internally but need to "run a process" and "do a posting".

Anonymous wrote:I've been on both sides of this. It is pretty easy to tell in the interview if they're not really interested in you. It will seem almost robotic - they're just going through the motions - and it will end abruptly with a perfunctory, "thanks for coming in."

You are also likely to find out very quickly that you didn't get the job. If they are considering a number of candidates, it takes a while to check references and come to a decision. Obviously that doesn't take very long if they already had chosen the person.

Agree with the first part but not necessarily the second. Just because you hear a “no” right away doesn’t mean the interview was fake. It could just mean that you were such a bad fit/poor interview that they would never consider you. I’ve been doing a lot of hiring and people who are a definitive no hear back almost right away, within a day or two, we don’t like to leave them hanging.

Been there but I am an A-hole and I don't like to cede unnecessary ground so when I was in the situation (for a GS-15 job that I had no business making it to the final round, clue #1) I still tried to make it as hard a possible for them....

As Jim Carey said "So your telling me there's a chance?"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen it happen, and I don’t believe there wold have been any sign.

Interestingly, I disliked the true candidate SO much. And since it was unspoken between the bosses & myself, when they asked for input on the hire, I said, ‘Larla 2’ meaning the second and ‘fake’ interviewee. She actually would have been better. Bosses said, “really...” because they expected me to go along with their plan.

I ended up working with the real hire, the one they planned all along and boss could tell I didn’t want her to be there. He thought it was personal...until we got a new manager (from outside the company). You know how outside people can see things that inside people have been blind to? She could tell the hire wasn’t a good fit.

So I don’t know what happened with the real hire..if it was a promise made to her; but she really was terrible.

You mean you were fully engaged and interested during the Larla 2 interview? That's hard to do when you know it will not go anywhere.

You’re right, but I guess in my case they were both internal interviewees. The job description meant looking for someone who was already incredibly knowledgeable about the business. I suppose that changed things. It wasn’t as impersonal.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen it happen, and I don’t believe there wold have been any sign.

Interestingly, I disliked the true candidate SO much. And since it was unspoken between the bosses & myself, when they asked for input on the hire, I said, ‘Larla 2’ meaning the second and ‘fake’ interviewee. She actually would have been better. Bosses said, “really...” because they expected me to go along with their plan.

I ended up working with the real hire, the one they planned all along and boss could tell I didn’t want her to be there. He thought it was personal...until we got a new manager (from outside the company). You know how outside people can see things that inside people have been blind to? She could tell the hire wasn’t a good fit.

So I don’t know what happened with the real hire..if it was a promise made to her; but she really was terrible.

You mean you were fully engaged and interested during the Larla 2 interview? That's hard to do when you know it will not go anywhere.

I was in a fake interview once. It was scheduled for an hour. It took me maybe 15 minutes to realize it, mostly because I wanted it to be a real job. It was really obvious, but it's hard to explain it - just such an obvious and as someone said above robotic.

It was just the way they asked the questions and wrote down my answers - there was something so perfunctory in it. They were asking the exact same questions, but they didn't respond in a typical way to my answers. There was no tell me more about that or anything. I know they were sticking to a script, but it was more than that.

And, then when i had a chance to ask questions their answers were again just very rote. There was zero sense they were evaluating me as a member of the team, or for fit. I asked one or two short, typical questions just to continue to play along and then they wrapped up with just the thanks for coming in line.

It was weird, and I was a little bummed/mad at wasting the time, but about halfway through I just relaxed and decided to just treat it as a good experience for interviewing.

Anonymous wrote:I've been on both sides of this. It is pretty easy to tell in the interview if they're not really interested in you. It will seem almost robotic - they're just going through the motions - and it will end abruptly with a perfunctory, "thanks for coming in."

You are also likely to find out very quickly that you didn't get the job. If they are considering a number of candidates, it takes a while to check references and come to a decision. Obviously that doesn't take very long if they already had chosen the person.

Yep, this. It sucks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When they make fun of you...

Ouch

Yes...I went to one interview where they kept hammering my inexperience and even told me to "keep the faith, keep being hungry"
I responded, great, well I wouldn't be here if you didn't think I was worthy of interviewing. Awkward silence. Schleps.

^amyways, the fake interviewer would have had zero clue.

I’ve seen it happen, and I don’t believe there wold have been any sign.

Interestingly, I disliked the true candidate SO much. And since it was unspoken between the bosses & myself, when they asked for input on the hire, I said, ‘Larla 2’ meaning the second and ‘fake’ interviewee. She actually would have been better. Bosses said, “really...” because they expected me to go along with their plan.

I ended up working with the real hire, the one they planned all along and boss could tell I didn’t want her to be there. He thought it was personal...until we got a new manager (from outside the company). You know how outside people can see things that inside people have been blind to? She could tell the hire wasn’t a good fit.

So I don’t know what happened with the real hire..if it was a promise made to her; but she really was terrible.

I've been on both sides of this. It is pretty easy to tell in the interview if they're not really interested in you. It will seem almost robotic - they're just going through the motions - and it will end abruptly with a perfunctory, "thanks for coming in."

You are also likely to find out very quickly that you didn't get the job. If they are considering a number of candidates, it takes a while to check references and come to a decision. Obviously that doesn't take very long if they already had chosen the person.

Anonymous wrote:When they make fun of you...

Ouch

When they make fun of you...

The title says it all. What were some giveaway signs that they were just fulfilling their interview quota/equal opportunity obligation and had already decided who would get the job?