There was a period of about 3 months I applied for about 60 jobs, of which I attended about 20 interviews. These were the same type of job. The jobs were in different organisations and locations. It got to the point where I knew “the problem is me”, maybe not in a “personal” way. The person they expect, and the way this person would work, was not the way that I was, at least not at the interview. It could also be the way the interviews were conducted.
Confused, lost, angry. I didn’t know what to feel. One good thing was that I got to travel to many places, by car, train, ferry, and bus.
There was another part-time job that I got, where every few years the job would come to an end and I had to apply for new ones. The wierd thing was that colleagues got to know me but we had to go through the application process in order to appoint me (or another colleague in the same position). Usually they try to keep me by prioritising vacancies for my consideration. The stress was always there, that I might not get another one when the current one finishes. While it was not my “main” job, the cost of not applying for new job is that to get back into the organisation would be near to impossible.
Matching a person to a job is a cruel process.
This organisation eventually started a process to update this recruitment process. At the time of writing, the new ways of appointment are beginning to kick in, and it is nice to know that my knowledge and experience can be utilised in a much more flexible way, than having to go through an appointment checklist.
There are increasing number of organisations where they provide a short period of time for you to work, following an application process where the face-to-face interview is not used, or used in a very minimal way. Then, a majority of their assessment on your “match” to the job is at the job, rather than exclusively at the interview.
Of course, I would say I would do well in the “achievement-based” job interview. But I’ll never know until I come across one. There is a point that for decades organisations want to “invest” in human capital, but they may have selected that capital loaded with capital in the first place. Different from an apprenticeship, an acheivement-based interview process is not about training you for the job, since you come “loaded” with the skills you said you have in your application form. A key characteristic is that it is work achievement first rather than the “person”.
That has to be a good thing.