Body & Soul (UK) interview questions

Time consuming and elongated recruitment process with multiple rounds of extended meets. (The below is a reflection of my experience & subsequent thoughts/feelings). The interview process could do with more thought in my opinion. Definitely takes a more personal approach, as it’s made quite clear that ‘personality fit’ appears the priority. This is fine, but there needs to be an awareness that interviews are still constructed situations with power structures, where people naturally bring their best professional self & it’s not a safe space to show your full personality. So I think personally probing or making personal assumptions based on first impressions isn’t effective and doesn’t tell you how someone may or may not fit in. In the final stage, I seemed to be being told I probably wouldn’t be a good fit because it was assumed I wasn't emotionally available enough. Never experienced anything like it before. A protected characteristic of mine was mentioned during my interview (which surprised me), and personality traits were attributed to it, and further assumptions of behaviour based on these traits were made. This may show some unconscious bias, which doesn’t reflect well on the company. I left the interview feeling quite uncomfortable, deflated and no longer wanting the role. My main personal goal was to be in a non-toxic work environment, however some of the assumptions made during the interview had me feeling like I was being judged by a problematic stereotype, where behaviour traits were assumed about me and fed back to me in the final stage as a reason not to hire me. I’m not saying this was overt, but that is the impression I left with. Better structured interviews wouldn’t allow for the sweeping statements made to me, (which I felt lacked planning, thought & compassion) which protects both sides. No exposure for the company and no hard feelings/dented confidence or feeling personally dissected (based on limited interactions) for the candidate.