I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Saga Group (Sandgate, England) in Dec 2016
Interview
This was by far the worst professional interview in my career, and the approach adopted at the outset should be a warning siren to all potential employees. If general attitude displayed through interview continues to employment, I am not surprised at the alarming levels of staff turnover this employer experiences.
1. Submitted CV on Saga careers website.
2. Invited to attend HQ at Sandgate.
3. Attended interview in small office with (assuming) line manager and HR representative.
4. Interview lasted about 15 minutes, as very clear that they didn't think I fit the role (I actually did fit the role advertised, very well), and from being in the building and the first ten minutes of interview I no longer wanted to work for the organisation and gave terse answers to questions. Given no opportunity to ask my own questions and left to find my own way out.
5. Received rejection via email few days/a week later.
AREAS OF CONCERN:
1. When greeted at reception, the (assuming) line manager made no attempts to conceal looking me slowly up and down. (I was wearing formal black businessware). When she reluctantly offered to shake my hand, she not only made no eye contact, but she looked away, only engaging contact for 1-2 seconds. She walked ahead of me to the lift and wasn't interested in my responses to the small talk she made.
2. Walking through the office, a lot of staff were clearly miserable and stressed. I actually saw one employee discretely crying at her desk.
3. During interview, it was clear that the line manager hadn't taken time to read my CV fully.
4. The line manager interrupted my answers for no good reason (e.g. relevance/clarification/time).
5. The line manager discredited my previous experience, and was unable to draw any parallels with the industries of healthcare and insurance.
6. The line manager didn't regards academic/study experience as in any way relevant and only accepted employment as a source of experience, so good luck graduates!!! E.g. the role required SQL knowledge. She asked if I "had actually used SQL in employment", I said no, but attempted to explain that for 5 years I'd conducted research using advanced SQL in study and in voluntary positions and was at advanced level, having designed multiple databases and installed SQL servers for charities. She cut me off halfway, by raising her hand (as in "silence").
7. Clearly no regard for education. E.g. My Open University education was described as "an attempt to better myself". In the tone delivered, this was designed to be insulting.
8. Clearly no regard for work undertaken in charities. E.g. when I explained that my background is knowledge management within a national healthcare charity, her response was "ok, but we're about making MONEY". She wasn't interested in understanding that finance is a key concern to charities and just as much (perhaps more) creativity and skill is required to break even.
Really worrying.
Hello there,
Thanks for taking the time to leave your review and for remembering your interview from 2016 in such detail.
I can assure you that this is not the interview process that we follow as a business and I would like to talk to you further to learn more about your experience so we can rectify this immediately.
Please contact me directly on gary.nice@saga.co.uk
Kind regards,
Gary
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