A report in Wales Online in the UK states that one major employer, Sir Alan Sugar (founder of electronics giant Amstrad) says that many employers simply bin the CVs of women of child-bearing age. At last – someone who speaketh the truth!!

This won’t come as a surprise to many employers, but should be a reality check for the social engineers who keep pushing to widen the scope of maternity leave provisions (don’t hold your breath waiting for them to admit as much though!).

While the interview panel is certainly going to be grilling you on your suitability for the job, this is also your opportunity to get a feel for the company and the role. After all, few of us enjoy the process of finding a new job, so it’s in your interests to make sure it’s right for you before you sign the contract.

All the more reason to ask questions during the interview; not just to impress your potential employer with the amount you have researched about the company, but also to decide if you would enjoy working there.
Ask broad, non judgmental questions about the team structure, staff and career incentives and so on to give the impression you are open to their working practices and policies, but also communicating the fact that you are equally discerning about the organisation you will be ‘adding value’ to.

To give you an idea, here are some questions from candidates that have really impressed me in the past:

• What made you decide to join this company?
• What is the staff turnover rate like?
• What is the organisation’s attitude to social events or work-life balance?

You see how these types of questions immediately shift the power balance? Now your interviewer has to think for a moment about how best to present themselves and the workplace to you – and as these questions are seldom asked (and less often prepared for) you’ll get a good sense of what it might really be like to work there. We’ll talk more about tells and body language giveaways in more detail in a later post, but you get the picture…

This approach should give you back the sense of control that we often feel we’re losing in the recruitment process and add to your confidence.

You will appear much more desirable as a candidate if you lose that air of desperation many of us inadvertently give off during an interview. It’s not a first date or a proposal of marriage: it’s a negotiation. So go forth and sweep your next interview panel off their feet!

Hired and Fired is a blog about recruitment, careers and finding and losing jobs, by people who have been on the green side and the brown side of the careers fence.

We’ll share insiders’ tips and tricks with you, give you the info you need to get hired and hopefully keep you from getting fired (or retrenched even… isn’t retrenched a beautiful word? It means you haven’t been fired, in the same way that the US didn’t invade Iraq… they just went there to help out!)

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Again, welcome and enjoy!

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