ESSAY QUESTION: LEARNING ABOUT INTERVIEWING

Imagine you are applying for a supervisory position in a local healthcare provider organization.

You know that interviewing will be an important part of the supervisory job, but you have never interviewed anyone and have yourself been interviewed only a couple of times early in your working life and you did not remember much about those occasions. Therefore, you made up your mind to pay close attention to the interview you were about to experience to see what you could learn about interviewing.

You were scheduled to interview with the middle manager to whom you would report should you be hired. Hitting just certain high spots of the experience, your interview proceeded as follows:

• You showed up at the manager's office at the appointed time. The manager was not there. A phone call by the secretary revealed that he had forgotten the appointment. You were rescheduled for the following morning at 9:00 AM.
• The next morning you waited from

8:55 until 9:35 for the manager to see you. No reason for the delay was offered.

• The manager, facing you across a broad expanse of conference table, spent several minutes looking for your application, then asked what position it was you were applying for.
• The manager then said, "Well, tell me all about yourself."
• Over the following three-quarters of an hour the manager took two incoming telephone calls; made one call, having "just remembered" it was important; rang the secretary to ask for a copy of the job description of the position for which you were interviewing; and consumed 30 of the 45 minutes talking about himself and the value and importance of the department.

Instructions

In essay form, identify what you believe was right or wrong about the interview situation, and describe in detail what you believe you learned about the interviewing process.