4 Ways to Deal With a Rude Hiring Manager During Your Job Interview
Congratulations! You’ve finally been granted a face-to-face job interview with the company you really want to work for. Moving forward through the phone interview, recruiter call, or initial digital application phase to the face-to-face portion of the interview process is a real feat!
You’ve worked hard with your job interview coach and have your professional stories polished and your questions are at the ready. Excitement builds as you put on your “interview suit” and present yourself to the office, adrenaline pumping.
It’s been 30 minutes and no one has arrived to escort you to the interview room. This doesn’t help your nerves one little bit. Suddenly, a nearby door is opened followed by a person hurriedly approaching, all slumped over like he/she has the weight of the world on their shoulders. He/She gruffly greets you by the wrong name, then commands you to follow them to the interview room, pointing to a seat expecting you to obey like his/her Rottweiler dog.
The hiring manager begins to blather on about random things that have nothing to do with your job interview. No effort is attempted to make a connection with you or to make you comfortable.
This is not an episode of the X-Files. You, my friend, have encountered the commonly experienced phenomena known as the bad interviewer. This happens to the best of us. You have practiced and prepared. It’s natural to expect an experienced, professional hiring manager to conduct your job interview. Don’t be flustered by this “alien” imposter of a hiring manager.
Here are some other indicators that the hiring manager is, in fact, a bad interviewer:
Random, unrelated, idle chatter indicates that they are “winging” the interview. They received the interview schedule from Human Resources and are probably just now looking over your resume. They are unprepared to interview you.
The hiring manager clings to the company’s prepared interview packet asking only the printed questions like they were gospel.
No eye contact. They don’t look you in the eye when they speak to you. You are just another candidate they have to get through to finish the day of interviewing. Why engage with you if they may never see you again?
Checking the phone, texting, answering emails is a sure sign you are not of interest to them. They just want it to be over with and by now, you do too!
The questions asked are not probing and they offer no follow-up questions to your answers. It feels like they are rushing you out the door.
Your answers are abruptly interrupted for no reason. Valid interruption of your answers is OK, but to rudely cut you off is not good form.
Stupid, aimless, unrelated questions. There are, however, some purposeful “outrageous” questions that may be asked in a job interview, like “What is your spirit animal?” But most of these types of unusual questions are asked to evaluate how you think on your feet. I have a client who was asked “Where do you live?” during an interview. The hiring manager was holding her resume, so he could clearly see the address! Additionally, a male asking a female candidate “Where do you live?” can be perceived as downright creepy. That information had no bearing on her qualifications or the position she was applying for.
Asking illegal questions. This is a whole different can of worms we will discuss in a future blog.
Some interviewers are just poorly trained. It takes additional financial resources as well as time away from productivity to properly train hiring managers on correct interviewing techniques and this training must be kept up to date. Some hiring managers just simply do not like to conduct job interviews. Speaking to strangers and asking probing questions requires a level of social interaction that some feel uncomfortable with. This being said, there is no reason to be rude or treat someone with disrespect. After all, this is your professional career this inadequate interviewer is playing with!
Staying calm is the key to handling this situation.
Luckily, in your mock interviews conducted by your job interview coach, you worked through some of these scenarios, so you’ve got this, right?
You have to decide if you indeed would like to work for this hiring manager. If all of the information you’ve researched regarding this organization still has you interested in this position, then you will have to deal with this manager. Take solace in the fact that managers come and go, especially if they are on the corporate merry-go-round of upward mobility. So your time with this manager may be limited until the next one comes along!
So what can you do?
Stay positive and confident. Don’t let one scintilla of doubt creep into your mind. Make it a point to inform the hiring manager of your unique, specific talents, experiences, and successes.
Make your work experience stories interesting. Everyone loves a good story, so play to that skill. The hiring manager may wake up and listen. If you feel that they are not paying attention, then just keep quiet for a few moments. Just like our elementary school teachers use to do with a noisy classroom, taking a quiet pause will not-so-subtly alert the hiring manager that you are keenly aware that they are ignoring you.
If you can, steer the conversation so that you can relay the information that you want to get across to the hiring manager.
Continue to be polite and energetic even if they are being a huge ogre. No sense stooping to their level, right? Politeness counts!
This is your job interview, so stay on course and own the time allotted to you if you possibly can. Use this experience as an opportunity to hone your interview skills for your next job interview. You may not be able to tame the bad interviewer, but you can tame your reactions to the experience!
I offer a free ½ hour introductory job interview coaching session. Contact me today to prepare for your tomorrow!