I had a terrible interview experience yesterday

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I too have had the horrible experience of a group interview. I decided after that that I didn't want to work for any company that thought group interviews were a good way to hire people.

I've had a 6 of those types of interviews, and worse yet-the whole department was there.

What it is...

Is...

They figure everyone there is equally qualified for the job. What the group interview is doing is finding out which out of the 15 people is a good fit for the group. This way everyone can put their two pennies in before Tawaki gets hired, and decides they hate her.

It is supposedly saving HR boat loads of hassle.

I might have walked out of that situation, you did better than me staying all the way through.

Consider it that you dodged a huge bullet.

If I get called to do another group interview I probably will not take part in it. It's obviously not a type of process I can pass without acting and it's not a situation I am use to.

And they are looking for a certain type of person to hire, which means if you somehow managed to "trick" them into giving you the job (by acting as much more of a social animal than you probably are) then everyone else you work with would be that type of person. Probably not a very comfortable environment.

I know but I need some sort of job. I thought about taking up programming, something more simple PHP perhaps and try to freelance, or take up after effects or photoshop and freelance.

I don't know what it's like where you live but here in Aussieland most interviews are not group interviews, they are pretty rare. I think they are mostly used for graduate positions and other "generalist" type jobs where they have a large intake of new employees each year or similar. So here at least, ruling out jobs where they hire based on how noisy you are doesn't put you too far behind.

What a nightmare! I feel for you. Group interviews sound like a joke. Like the company doesn't want to bother with one-on-one interviews, just have them all meet at once, then pick one or two of their favorites and scrub the rest.

I was at a job fair for a coffee shop chain once and it was very stressful. I managed to stand out and impress the managers thoroughly, but almost no one came out of there with a job, including me. In retrospect I'm glad that was the case. I was using this fake sociable persona the whole time and it would have been impossible to keep up.

There may be no worse career path for people like us than sales and customer service, but they're some of the easiest jobs to get, so it's not unusual to have some of them on your resume.

I have another interview for a similar place now... I'm not sure if it's group yet but it may very well be.

You need to be in a positive frame of mind, so just assume that it's not a group interview and go out and do your best. Act confidently and concentrate on the person asking the questions. In worse case scenario and it is a group interview, learn from the last experience. If you get the job you're going to around people. In a group interview you're around people. Same thing only in a group interview you're the centre of attention, so eliminate the centre of attention bit from your mind. Focus only on the person asking the question and ignore the rest of the people in the room.

I decided against it already.

They require you to be able to lift 75lbs and I used to be able to but I got a virus that causes arthritis for anywhere from a few months to a few years and I just can't do that presently.

Another lucky escape, Scanner.

I hope you find the right job soon. I know when you need one, it's awful to have to turn something down or miss an opportunity, but there has to be something better out there for you.

I'm applying to data entry jobs. I'm extremely quick and accurate so I mention that in my cover letters.

Scanner you probably know this but here's a reminder:

whatever they ask you, whether it's what are you like or what you are aiming for in 5 years' time or what your favourite films are or whatever, always answer in a way that is relevant to the job.

People forget this and go off on tangents - I have done it myself too.. so I am speaking from experience! I got the jobs that I stayed 100% focused on, resisting any attempts to lure me off course.

I've decided to take a step back from all this as it's stressing me out. I do need a job, but for now (since i'm with parents) it's mostly because I want to be more independent.

I've reevaluated everything and decided a week ago that I needed a special interest I am obsessed about. Without one I feel very unproductive and I can't stand that. It didn't take me much time to decide upon programming. I was rather obsessed with php for a while, but I couldn't focus because I had too many distractions around me (not the case now). Now I am quite obsessed with Ruby and I am considering learning as much as I can over the next month or two and try applying for a few bootcamps, and see where that takes me.

I've applied for a job with a company, that I just found out does group interviews (wonder if it's the same one you had an interview with Scanner?) Don't know if I even want to bother with it.