Applied online. Had general chat on phone about role, arranged telephone interview, passed that then went for face to face interview. I thought this went well (despite the recruiter giving me the wrong address so I ended up being late) however I never heard anything back. I sent a polite email to the recruiter who kept advising “you will hear tomorrow” and she eventually ended up ignoring me. How unprofessional and if anything I am glad I did not get this role if this is how I am expected to act towards candidates.

Had a group interview with around 12 other candidates and had to work together to accomplish different tasks, as well as working with different groups to see how we all work with different people. After hours of the group interview 6 of us were selected to progress (passed initial phase) then we would go over our CV. This is where the interview took a turn. We sat down and went over my previous experience where he would ask me how much I was earning in previous jobs. One of my jobs was low paying and his response to that was “what did your mum think of you?” Is this a suitable question for an interview? No. I barely got through this stage and was invited to come in for a trial day the following week, as they were unsure of me. This is where it got worse.. Turned up for the trial day and was given 2 minuets worth of training (what questions to ask candidates to get them to fill job roles we had going on that day) despite having NO experience of telephone handling. They would then monitor me and see what I would get up to, listening to my calls, testing my ability over the phone. This, in my opinion, was un-constructive as they was testing my current ability to undertake the job, despite them knowing I had no experience and I was applying for a TRAINEE position where training takes up to 12 months NOT 2 minuets. Despite this i had found someone to fill a role. The second part of the day was to call up site managers and ask them questions about what site they’re working on, and asking if they needed employees for the project. Again, having NO industry knowledge in this at all, never the less I rung the phone and spoke to them. I felt like this part of the day was extremely unnecessary as they know a lot of site knowledge that i knew NOTHING ABOUT. Again my ability to speak to them was being judged, with it being my first HOUR in the sector. I was then put into a room with the Manager that carried out the whole interview process where he said “we need someone who is good from the ground running” I was confused, was I applying for a normal position or a trainee one? And said that they was “expecting someone more confident”. That he wasn’t sure if it was lack of knowledge that was the cause or just not enough confidence in general. I told him it was obviously the knowledge as my previous low income job was door-to-door sales and I have no issue talking to people in a cold manner. After that he said “I’m not going to offer you a position now, but if you come back in 16 months when you’ve developed yourself more and gained more confidence we’d hire you”. Couldn’t walk out that room fast enough, and i definitely will not be returning to Randstad if it means working with people with that mind set.