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

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

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

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.

it's absolutely true!

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

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 ?

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

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.

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

They may be after your job.!!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Please strike the first 'being interviewed' above!

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.

Totally agree Iam

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

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.

Tough*

It's not hard to get an interview, but getting the job is what's hard. Particularly with competency based interviews. It's hard for a newly qualified social worker to have higher competency points than an experienced social worker with years of experience in the same role.

In which case, what ways are there to get the job? It may all, or mostly be about experience rather than anything else?

The one person who got full time employment, what were her credentials? [you have to bear in mind though with a large field, that you may have done nothing wrong whatsoever].

I didnt see your last post.
And do not have experience of hiring social workers.

Some interviewers love to use trick questions - the secret of answering a trick question is to think fast and work out what they are really asking!

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

I don't think you can call an experienced social worker like some on this forum naïve do you?
Perhaps this sort of dismissive attitude has come across in the unsuccessful interviews?

No. It's hard to get a job in today's job market. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. It is not easy to get a social worker job and to say it is is insulting to those thosidans of newly qualified social workers who are desperately trying to get their first job.

There's very touch competition.

The only person I know who has got a job so far is someone with years of experience in nursing.

The main way to get a job now is to take a lower paid job and hope a social worker job comes up and apply with experience of the company and being a familiar face.

The fact that most social worker students now have to take jobs as support workers just to try and get a foot in the door shoes just how touch the job market is.

Thought you had a job anyway?