Thoughts On Recorded Interviews

They are SHIT.

I had to do a recorded interview today for House of Fraser, and please do not get me twisted here I love that damn shop and it is probably my favourite department store of the ones that I ever went in (John Lewis shot themselves in the foot with the crappy, unfinished abomination in Leeds and the accompanying unnecessarily persistent wine glass touter).

But honestly, apart from interviews where I have quite clearly been passed over for stupid reasons such as "Yes you want the part time hours we've billed but we want someone who doesn't want them as a second job" and also when internal candidates have been chosen despite being less qualified and experienced than me (here's looking at you Wakefield College) that was the worst interview experience of my life.

• You have less than 15 seconds to read and consider the question. 
• You have too long to answer (1m 30s is too long for all these questions). 
• You have no scope to actually reveal what you are like as a person or how you are an excellent provider of good customer service. 
• You CAN'T RE-RECORD THE QUESTIONS APART FROM THE ONE THAT ASKS DO YOU WANT PART TIME OR FULL TIME WHICH ALSO HAS NO LIMIT ON QUESTION READING TIME.

There is a chance that I was just particularly shit at this form of interview despite actually being very together in a face to face interview setting. There is also a chance that this format was concocted purely for the purpose of torturing the interviewee and amusing the sadistic recruitment personnel.

I'm so put out by this that House of Fraser has actually fallen a little in my estimation, not the customer service advisors - no - I think they are actual saintly angels from heaven for completing that bullshit; but the central services team? I simply cannot believe that they have that little time to look through applications and hold phone or Skype interviews.

In short, it's innovative but lacks engagement. Having a web app for interviews makes you seem flashy and like you're not after uniqueness and dedication to customer service after all, because you can't even supply it for your candidates.