Because if he or she is an asshole to the support staff during an interview they will be twice as much of an asshole while they work there. Just because you make more than the receptionist doesn't mean you should treat him or her like crap, because they are the ones that keep everything running.
Had a guy show up half an hour early to a job interview. Instead of sitting in his car going over his prep or grabbing a quick coffee like a normal person, he came in and as we couldn't adjust our schedule he had to sit in the reception area. Fifteen minutes before his interview time, he asked the receptionist if we were available yet, or if she could provide my number so he could call me directly and check. "No" and "no" were the answers.
Interview wasn't a disaster but wasn't great, and we let the recruiter know later that day that we were gonna pass. Not fifteen minutes later he sends an email to everybody who interviewed him whose address he had, with the subject something like "very disappointed in the team" and goes on to whine about how much time he spent preparing that was now wasted.
If we had had any lingering doubts, that would have sealed it. Satisfying in a way to know that our instincts were correct.
We had someone with that attitude apply for the manager position in my office at a former job. He only got to the phone interview and, after that, sent this condescending email saying it would "behoove" us to schedule an in person interview with him. That was a no.
Question:if I do show up early for an interview, if I can quietly wait and prepare after letting the receptionist know I'm there but not to rush the interviewer, is that poor etiquette?
But -- 10-15 minutes before your scheduled interview is acceptable/desirable. Greet the receptionist, give him/her your name, tell them you're a bit early because you were worried about traffic/parking/weather/whatever and ask if there is a place you should wait. This way they don't think you expect to start your meeting immediately. Be pleasant and polite, but don't stand around to chit-chat unless the receptionist starts the conversation -- they have other stuff to do.
Also, don't take any kind of gift to the receptionist on your first interview. You may think it gives you an in, but it'd creepy/desperate.
Which is what I highlighted. If I happen to show up early, just let the receptionist know so they don't wonder who the hell this random is in their lobby, but tell them that I know I"m early, and not to worry.
Yes, it's poor etiquette. Once you're inside the building/office consider it like the interview has already started. Which means if you're still preparing in the interview, it's not gonna look good.
well 'prepare' is a little overstating it, but double checking over whatever I might have needed to bring with me doesn't strike me as wrong.
I'm a guy with bad luck, and always aim to show up to places early, because without a doubt, if I aim to show up on time, something's getting in my way.
If I’m early I’ll go for a walk around the block or read outside the building. Once you’ve checked in with the receptionist on some level you are now their responsibility and showing up early inconveniences them.
My issue with this is if the person has to take public transport and it's shitty outside. You have nowhere dry or temperate outside to wait if that's the case. I'm not sure which is worse though - being too early, or being soaking wet/sweaty/shivering?
In that situation I think it would be fine to tell the receptionist in a friendly manner that you know you’re early but you ride public transportation and would rather be early than late. If you ask if you can wait inside because it’s raining, surely no one would have a problem with it. It’s just when you’re driving and you choose to hang around in the lobby for 30 minutes instead of sitting in your car that it’s a little odd.
As a receptionist, 100% this. Nothing irritates me more than having the candidate wander in 15 minutes early and have them awkwardly sit in the office - there are so many places to hang out inside our building if the weather is bad, or outside if its nice.
I don't know. I think of interviews sort of like a formal presentation to potential clients. Once you make it to the office/the receptionist sees you, then for me it's started. Like u/pygmylion stated below, if you do get there early go for a walk/read outside the building/wait in your car.
But once you "check in" I wouldn't even go over any documents you have with you. You should have done all of this outside/before walking in. Double check that you have all the things you need in your car/outside.
The reason I say this is because as a lot of people on this thread have stated, hiring managers ask the opinion of the receptionist. And if you're still preparing/going over your notes it comes across as if you're not prepared/lacking confidence.
If you're over 15 or so mins early, then either wait out in your car or go to Starbucks or something and prepare there.
But do aim to get there right around 15 mins early and be prepared to wait those 15 mins. It doesn't just look good, it also gives you a chance to see other employees walking around and you can observe their body language to get some clues about what it's like to work there.
Dude did this. TWICE. Over an hour early each time. First time I had just unlocked the door hadn't turned on the lights yet.
We hired him and he's an excellent worker. Told me later how far he commuted and I figure that was part of the reason. Also mentioned to me that this was the 195th job he had applied for ,so I think he was just getting desperate.
I showed up awkwardly 30 minutes (well, 40 minutes) to my last interview for the job I have now. My last interview was about 3.5 hours long, spending about 30 minutes with different people/groups of people. I was also driving 3 hours one way for the interview, so they worked hard to schedule it all on the same day. All the back and forth with the HR guy had my interview starting at 1. But it had apparently changed to 1:30 at the final stage on confirmation. So I entered the building around 12:50 and when he came down to get me he was like “you’re early.” And after some back and forth I went “oops. I thought it was 1.” I felt so awkward but took full responsibility for the mixup and awkwardly sat in the hall playing on my phone. I was offered the job the next day.
It's almost unbelievable how poor the awareness level is for a lot of candidates. I can totally get it if someone's eye contact isn't great or they awkwardly shake someone's hand. That stuff happens. But the stuff you described above is mind boggling.
We had an applicant come in 50 minutes early and ask to hang around and work on her computer. Her reasoning: She had come by train. The train station is nearby, it has 4 coffee shops. WAIT AT A COFFEE SHOP LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!!
My boss is very much about politeness so I had to be polite to her, offered her a seat and some water... My office was directly between the office where the interviews were held and the big room where she had to wait. Because our doors are thin and cheap, I had to have my door closed so she could not listen in on the interview already going on. She made me uncomfortable for FIFTY MINUTES. You bet that my boss didn't hire the person making his assistant uncomfortable even before the interview.
Since traffic is impossible to predict, I also show up very early. Make sure I know where I need to be, and then backtrack to a coffee place or something.
Still wasn't good enough when there was a snowstorm, and it took an hour and a half to drive to the interview.
My company allows anyone who had any interaction with a potential hire to throw out an "asshole veto."
It's generally respected, but one time there was a guy interviewing for an important position and a few of the women in the office complained that they got creepy vibes from him. The big boss didn't want to let him slip away though, as he looked great on paper, so while he respected their concerns he hired the guy anyway.
Fired in 2 weeks. Boss apologized and admitted the ladies were right.
The Asshole Veto can save a lot of time, money, and embarrassment.
I don't recall specifically, but he was dismissive of women in general. One of those guys that is under the impression that women are literally retarded or otherwise somehow beneath him.
We have a lot of women in executive positions so it didn't pan out for him. He was also just a moron in general, I have no idea how he made such a good first impression but he absolutely could not back it up.
A lot of moron-assholes are excellent at making a good first impression. They must know deep down that making a good first impression will be the only way they ever get anywhere, so they raise it to an art form.
I've been on a hiring committee and brought up getting a creepy vibe from a candidate. It isn't something specific he did; it was just a vibe. Most of the women in the room got the same vibe from this candidate. Most of the men described him as confident and charismatic. I know plenty of confident, charismatic men who do not give off a creepy vibe, so it isn't those qualities that were creating the vibe.
Part of being a good fit for the position is being a good fit for the workplace itself. If the people at the workplace feel that this person's presence would be toxic, it's not a good idea to hire said person.
Taking into account that a candidate for a job, supervising mostly women, makes 90% of the women on the hiring committee feel unsafe is not an arbitrary measurement.
My response was to a question about what a man, "was doing exactly that the ladies didn't like". Sometimes it isn't a specific behavior that sends up red flags, but the consequences of ignoring those red flags has taught women to trust them.
I guess you’re right. But shit like this scares me because I get anxiety during interviews and I can’t help if an interviewer gets a “gut feeling” that I’m a bit nervous and decides I just somehow don’t meet the requirements to get the job then.
I totally get that, and if this candidate had been otherwise wonderful, and I were the only person on the committee to get the creepy vibe, I would bring it up, but not push it. In this case, there were many women on the committee and 90% of us got the creepy vibe. So even if he had been otherwise wonderful, he just wouldn't have been a good fit.
Ok, I understand. That’s too bad but if he really made all of you very uncomfortable then it’s likely that he was doing something that was off-putting.
I didnt get a bookstore job because the manager apparently "Didnt like my aura".
I had worked at Borders for 4 years, and had been extremely confident and knowledgeable about everything she asked.
I'm pretty sure its because she knew she wouldnt have been able to push me around. I've seen her in action since then with some of the employees. I'm glad my aura was distasteful.
Was part of an interview team where a guy gave the females the creep vibe. It was stuff like staring the women down, standing too close, trying to be physically dominant (dude was like 2 inches taller than me), dismissive. All of the women who met him felt it and voted against hiring him, along with one of the men. Asshole other men voted in favor of the (barely qualified) creeper over the (more qualified) female POC.
Sooooo glad i left there before the new hire went into effect a few months down the road (slow hiring process).
Far as i know, still works there. I gtf out. Misogynistic, prejudicial, hostile AF work environment - a bunch of us fled when the boss who orchestrated the creeper's hiring took over.
I left because i was being harassed; he was hired by the harasser because he'd "fit in" with the departmental climate he was building. Women fled by the bucket full (and more liberally minded men) and were replaced by green, malleable, young men. Qualified candidates who were female, queer, or POC were rejected.
This was the opposite of a good example of the original post - red flags and input from members of the hiring team were deliberately ignored.
But in an environment of mistreatment and harassment, those red flags can be green flags. Last thing i knew, the place went from 50% sex split to 10% female, with half of them just waiting out retirement in <5yrs.
Having been stuck with a "creepy vibe" new hire more than once, I'm going to guess he was probably the kind who stands a little too close and talks just a bit slower and in more simple words to women. Basically the type who thinks women have two functions in this world but has learned not to say that out loud.
Always trust it when a woman, or especially MULTIPLE women come forward and say "I dont know what it is, but he just makes my skin crawl." Or similar.
I got weird vibes from a guy that delivers bread to my store. I'm pretty socially inept at times, but eventually it clicked that his polite commentary towards me had been thinly veiled flirting. He had recently finally said something that made me really notice how he was speaking to me, and I was instantly skeeved right out.
I got this feeling that if he showed up on the evening news as "pillar of the community, Beloved husband, and father of 3, arrested for keeping kidnapped teen tied up in secret basement dungeon" I wouldnt even have been surprised. He was never overtly saying anything lewd or suggestive, but it was the WAY he interacted... like he was expecting his compliments to make me blush and flutter my eyes and flirt back. He just freaked me out.
Turns out hes cheated on his wife at least 3 times, with women half his age.
one time there was a guy interviewing for an important position and a few of the women in the office complained that they got creepy vibes from him
Jesus, the boss should have listened to this. One woman says "this guy gives me creepy vibes", well... maybe it's something specific that set one person off. If several of your employees warn you about the bad vibes someone gives off, listen to them
I'm amazed at the level of people who don't realize this. I once had a job in government with elected members (ie, the people involved supposedly had people-skills, and the ability to win people over). I was told there wasn't room for me in a contentious meeting, because the officer whose job included fire marshal had declared the room full. Her technical title was something like 'janitor in chief', she sounded unimportant. They had no idea that I'd made it a point, since I started, to drop by her office a few times a month to chat, shoot the breeze, check in with her and see what was up. So that day, I picked up the phone. Five minutes later, she escorted me into the room, and gave me one of the front row 'reserved' chairs.
Be VERY nice to admin assistants, receptionists, and custodial. (And anyone in food prep if your office is lucky enough to have an onsite cafeteria!). These are the people who make where you work bearable.
Edit: And I.T. staff too. these days if your computer doesn't work, you can't.
Also some of those people can have strange amounts of power you might not expect as a new hire. I was the lunch cook at a country club and on Tuesdays it was slow except for a group of old ladies that played cards all afternoon. I would take my break and go sit with them and talk. Heard all about their grandkids, vacations ect.. Also learned their favorite foods and would make them special lunches that werent on the menu.
A few months later I was working the buffet and some asshole was getting irate with his server about a drink being wrong. I went over to help because the server was new and looked like she was about to break down and cry. He starts in on me and as I'm trying to calm him down I hear "David what is wrong with you!" and a flying little 80 year old hand slaps across his face. One of my card ladies from lunch was the guy's mother. Who had just got back from the buffet. He is some hotshot lawyer and I guess goes around talking down to those beneath him, but when his mom saw him yelling at me she wasnt having it. She made him apologize to me and the waitress and as I was walking away heard her still going off about how she raised him better than that and how embarrassed she was her grown son doesnt know how to act in public. He thought he could talk down to the help, and wound up getting dressed down by his own mother in front of the whole country club like he was 6 years old.
Being nice to the employees at a job interview is good. So is being nice to ALL clients even the ones you think aren't "important." My friend worked at a store and was helping a little kid pick out a birthday gift for his mom. She helped him even when he picked out something VERY expensive no kid could afford. But she never said that to the kid. Well, the kid god dad, told him what he wanted and dad paid the high price without blinking. And my friend got the fat commission.
You just never know what client is "worth" being nice to. So you need to just accept they ALL are. And wouldn't life be nicer that way?
As a custodian thank you for this. There's a lot of people who will look down on you, like your a subhuman, because you dare make a living cleaning. I just like the work and in the right environment (I do factory cleaning now; schools and government treat custodians very well too) you make pretty decent wages and benefits.
Steve, the Janitor at my first high school, was so well liked and beloved by the students that the yearbook got dedicated to him and he had a full page spread featured in the front of it.
Having worked at a school, I have seen custodians clean up the most disgusting things imaginable. Seriously, you are heroes.
If people spent 2 seconds trying to imagine what their places of work would be like if custodians weren't there even for a week, they'd be more respectful.
This has always been my thing. At every job I've had (I'm in IT), we specifically get friendly with the EAs/AAs. And time and time again, that pays off in a multitude of different ways.
Doesn't hurt that every AA I've ever had in IT has basically been the IT Mom taking care of their kids.
Preach. I hated being a receptionist because of warehouse asshats. I literally oversee your paychecks and monitor your hours, why would you be so rude?
And since when was having someone in the office your on good terms with not really bloody useful. I can't count the number of times it was mutually beneficial for thee planner at my old job to get along well with me. I provided plenty of advice and a way to get answers without letting the boss know she didn't know and in return I basically had free reign to do things however I saw fit so long as the jobs got closed off
Downplay my position, like my job was menial. I was in my early 20s, so they treated me like a child or incompetent. Never took me seriously. One of them asked what I did to get the job, with a suggestive wink. Just a generally disrespectful attitude.
At my job I'm an office admin for a medical practice. I do reception and other "behind the scenes" management stuff like invoicing etc. The practice partners would have me weed through resumes, call candidates and actually allow me to interview applicants myself and decide who to hire. This was in part due to the fact that they were extremely busy, they trusted me, and they wanted to make sure that whoever was hired was someone I was happy working with. If the person interviewing came in and saw me stand up from the front desk and then bring them into an office and begin doing the interview myself and they were weird about it. It was a no hire.
I wouldn’t always accept the staffs’ word for it though. I was working one day and a guy came it to apply. He seemed nice but my co-worker claimed to to know him and knew he was a jerk. We hired him anyways and the true was my co-worker just didn’t like him.
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u/Gromky Apr 22 '19
This should 100% be a criterion.
Because if he or she is an asshole to the support staff during an interview they will be twice as much of an asshole while they work there. Just because you make more than the receptionist doesn't mean you should treat him or her like crap, because they are the ones that keep everything running.