For those of you who have interviewed people. What do you look for in a candidate?

Tough*

Anyone who is surprised that a qualified social worker can't get a job needs to do some research and stop being so nieve.

It's hard to get a job as a newly qualified social worker. Once you've got experience it's not that hard, but getting your foot in the door is touch.

Of my friends that graduated with me only one has found full time employment. Th test are like me and still searching. The competition is very touch with a lot of applicants for each job.

Totally agree Iam

When writing a job description it should be sufficiently exact so that essential/desirable weed out unsuitable applicants. Sloppy thinking otherwise.

Most LA's in my experience, don't interview every qualified applicant. They do use fairly rigid essential/desirable characteristics when short listing, qualification for a sw post would be 'essential', previous experience 'desirable' for example.

Given the great difficulty children's services haven recruitment and retaining staff, I'm surprised hat a well qualified person, who sees themselves as being a very good sw isn't being offered employment.

Please strike the first 'being interviewed' above!

In the 60s I was being interviewed, in my 20s, for a senior post when an elderly school governor asked 'Are you courting?' (Older GNs - remember Wilfred Pickles?) Surprised and a little shocked, I raised an eyebrow and some interviewers suppressed smiles but another man on the fairly large panel quietly said to the dinosaur 'We can't ask that these days!' I'm sure the old chap didn't fancy me but was trying to ensure I wasn't going to get married and leave being interviewed after a couple of years in post.
In the 80s a friend being interviewed by a shiny computer firm read (upside down as it was on the desk) a printed check list which included 'Beard?' and 'Clean fingernails?'
OP Could you not get any of the 5 missed interviews rescheduled for a convenient time or date? It's always worth asking.

MawBroon at that age I was very shy, and a complete virgin! So definitely not giving out wrong signals!!

Not necessarily mutually exclusive, often the opposite in fact.

sarahw not sure why you're picking up on my very early and pretty basic post at this stage and not sure what you're getting at!
No-one will be taking over my current occupation. I worked long and hard to reach this happy retirement!

Mawbroom at that age I was very shy, and a complete virgin! So definitely not giving out wrong signals!!

i don't think a man would be accused of giving out wrong signals if a woman was acting like that.

I think that interview affected me for a while. Made me nervous.

MCEM
Observations of OTT confidence,extremely and irritatingly knowledgable. and with more than a hint of competitiveness

They may be after your job.!!

I think the feet on the desk was supposed to denote what a relaxed company they were to work for.
However, DD thought it was rude and arrogant.

Maybe consciously or otherwise you were putting out the wrong messages only 27? (Bearing in mind your experience on your deleted thread.)

JessM you don't specify what kind of job you were recruiting for. If it was a job where written communication, especially with the public or training junior staff , was required, I'd be unlikely to appoint someone who made grammatical and spelling errors! Mind you, their application wouldn't have made it through the short listing process!

Only27, preparing for an interview many years ago, I read an article that described interviewers' tricks. One was to leave a book lying on the floor where the interviewee would walk to the table to sit down. If they picked it up, that suggested they were observant and thoughtful, respectful of others' property, tidy etc. If they didn't pick it up....

Anyway, guess what! I walked in to my interview and there was an A4 sheet of paper on the floor just where I needed to walk. Did I pick it up? What do you think? Reader, I got that job ?

Perhaps it does vary by area. I've only worked in the West Midlands and in front line children's teams, and it has always been quite hard to recruit

it's absolutely true!

Jakima ???

I went for a job interview for a support worker job where the interviewer made comments about how attractive I looked in my interview outfit, said he liked my facial features and then got my number and started messaging me asking me on a date!

I wonder how many female candidates dates he's done that to before. I doubt I was the first.

Many of my friends have had several unsuccessful job applications and most are only invited for a small percentage of jobs they apply for. Around here most jobs get between 200-600 applications and they interview 4 per job on offer for multiple roles and 5 for individual positions.

They could never interview everyone that's qualified. Some less popular councils may guy do but competition is tough these days do I think most jobs get a lot of interest. With the exception of best interest assessor jobs and manager jobs

DD went for an interview once and the person interviewing her sat with his feet up on the desk.

Most LAs will interview every applicant who's got the qualification.
That seems rather time-consuming.
We always did a sift first because there could be 200 candidates, all qualified and some over-qualified, for a couple of jobs.

I havent got time to read your post properly right now.

But one thing that stands out to me is 5 interviews that you did not attend out of 10.

That seems awfully high?

I always think that if a person keeps getting to interview, there is not much wrong with their cv and qualifications. Else you wouldnt be shortlisted in the first place.

During my time as a Practice Manager, I was responsible for hiring numbers of admin and secretarial staff. I would also sit in with the partners when they were interviewing more senior staff. My main criteria was always to find a candidate who could hit the ground running in terms of relevant experience, but who, like others have said, would fit into the existing team. I agree with JessM "^Also try to manage your body language. Turn up looking suitable for the role your applying for. Clean and shiny from top to toe. Shake hands firmly Sit up straight, smile at the interviewers and try to appear energetic and cheerful^". Eye contact was always very important with me. It surprised me how many people stared at their laps or looked elsewhere while we were talking. Try to know something about the company you are working for before you go to the interview. We were a niche market company, so it was usually very little apart from the basics, but at least you knew they'd taken the trouble to look us up! I only made one error of judgement - a lady I interviewed twice, who seemed very pleasant and was obviously competent to the role. I took up references with her current employer - a bank- and they were fulsome in their praise of her. She was offered the job and from the word go, turned out to be a complete nightmare but none of us could have seen it coming. I think the bank, too, were anxious to get rid of her! You live and learn.

Many years ago I applied for a head of music position. At my interview, a governor of the school asked me if I could read music. I had to ask her whether she read CVs. No, I didn't get the job!

I also have much better grammar and spelling than I show on here. I'm writing from a tiny,broken iPhone!

It's a shame because I'm great at the job. Very competent. I know people who always excel at interviews but are horrendous at the job. I also know many people who are dreadful at interviews and great at the job. I don't think it has much reflection who actually competency.

I'm going to introduce a slightly lighter touch - when interviewing for new assistants in my business where we worked mostly in my home office, I always had my cocker spaniel in with us. If he stayed under my table I knew that, if everything else was OK, then that candidate was a possibility. But if he got up and went to the other side of the office until they left then they had no chance. And he was always right! I ignored his indicating at first and she didn't last long as she soon started telling me how to do the work!
But I did also give all candidates written work to do and their attitude to people was very important which I guess is what some of you refer to as the culture of the busindss/company.