Here's a new one for me - the group interview

I applied last week for a senior financial analyst job. I got an e-mail today saying I've been invited for an interview the first week of January. The catch is it's a group interview of between 5 & 10 people. I've never had a group interview, but have to admit the idea makes me want to throw up.

I guess one good thing is I used to work in a highly competitive company, where I got lots of informal experience in competing to be alpha dog while simultaneously appearing nice.

You know it's bad when you feel nostalgic for job hunting at the height of the '91 recession.

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It's like a systems walkthru, only it's about you, eh? It will probably be with the people you would be having meetings with, if you were to be hired. So it's to see a) if you do know your stuff, and b) how big a pain you are in a meeting situation - are you a good team player and "get it", or are you clueless and insistent?!

You can SO do this!

Maybe I misunderstood, but I got the impression that it meant multiple candidates talking at once.

CantExlpain - you're exactly right - it's multiple candidates being interviewed at once. I've done lots of panel interviewers where there are multiple interviewers for one candidate - those I'm fine with.

I'm just not sure to expect the dynamic to be like for multiple candidates.

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paint me sugar-overloaded! okay - so like the US Presidential debates? Don't go all Rick Perry on us!

Hum, I was thinking you meant a panel type of interview. My hubby has had those in the past.

I've never heard of a multi interviewee interview! Sounds like they just want to compare everyone with each other right from the start??? Sounds very competitive. Good luck SI. You can make a great impression.

Bring your harp, play harp music as back ground. LOL

Oh man, that would be a nightmare for me, that kind of interviews.
I hope you will do well! Let us know how it went.

I went on an interview like that in 09 for a job in the public schools, working with kids after class ended for the day. They had so many candidates they did group interviews the way you describe.

I thought it was kind of degrading, especially since I was nowhere in the running. The other people who were in my group were ridiculously overqualified, so I made no impression, really. (The job paid $8.25 per hour, part-time, no benefits). I live in West Michigan though, so pretty much every interview is weird and depressing, just in different ways.

Good luck! You never know, you might enjoy it. (Probably not though.)

That is just unbelievable. I mean just so bad. Have you noticed, every time they show those SOBs in Congress on TV lately, they are wearing more and more expensive suits and ties? The tailoring, the fit, the fabrics are just ridiculous. It's turned into an old white guy beauty contest. Talk about your oxymorons.

Hankster, I finally gave up and was glad to get a part-time retail job at $7.40/hr. I've been there over a year now, and it's OK, but yes, the money is awful. But at least I wasn't up against med students and people with sociology degrees from the University of Chicago. So I make 85 cents less per hour. Sure it would be nice to have an extra 85 cents, but when you get that low it hardly matters.

BTW I have a BA and a masters degree in psychology. Also a property & casualty insurance license. Also eight years in the financial sector. I taught college for awhile, back in the early 90s. Now, I have to compete for minimum wage retail. But this is Michigan--I think it's worse than the rest of the country.

Still, don't you get the sense things are NOT really improving? I do, even taking into account that I live in the rust belt. I wish we could fire those fat cats in DC and replace them with some of the factory workers and teachers who were let go permanently for no good reason. They'd probably do a much better job.

My mom once asked me, aren't you glad you got fired before everybody else? I was like, Whaaa? How did that make it better, exactly?! Just so you know where I got my knack for asking bizarre questions! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that was a bad wage; I don't even KNOW what my net was as a nail tech, and it took me 16-24 plus to clean the beauty shop, where the previous girl maybe took 4-8? For the same total price. I know, I'm by Detroit. 1,000 people will show up for 1 job, that's what's heartbreaking, so bad.

Oh I didn't take offense at all! It IS a terrible wage!

I didn't realize you were in Michigan too. Yes, it's bad here. I don't know how people are managing. I think many are not managing. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, like, how can I do something about that? I can't do everything or even much, but I feel like I should try to help somehow.

I feel for all of you looking for work right now. After 2 yrs of unemployment, I finally landed a job but it is across the country from all family and friends. It was an awful choice, leaving me alone on the holidays (no vaca time yet). Keep plugging away, persistence does pay off.