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fhunter

An interview from hell...

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by
fhunter
, 02-06-2012 at 09:33 PM (819 Views)
I am currently searching for a new job, and so I was interviewing with one of the companies. They are outsourcers, so first I interviewed with them (which went well). And today was a phone interview with the customer representatives. Over the phone. From Israel to Russia. Supposedly in English. Can one spell disaster?

First I spent about 20 minutes on the phone, waiting for the interviewer. It didn't help with the anxiety (and remembering, that last time I used spoken english was 3 years ago, didn't help either).
Then was another problem - the line quality - I do not know, what was messed up in the whole setup (may be a VOIP part of the call, or may be my hearing), but I heard properly and understood about 2/3 of what interviewer said + there was noticeable delay. I told about that, and after about 20 minutes of attempts with proper communication, we switched to russian. Still I was half guessing the answers, but reasking some of them helped. I do not know, how I survived to the end of the interview. It was really stressful.

So now I hope that the interview went more or less well, and await for results (with dread).
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  1. erikboy's Avatar
    You could allways blame bad line quality. I hope your interviewer understood that. Waiting for 20 minutes for the interviewer sounds insane. It leads me to think, that this was done intentionally, to see how interested you were. So, you might expect something attached. Most important of the speech quality are answers if you replied correctly.
    These interviewers are clever and squeeze many details out about your personality. I think it is most wise to be honest in every answer, it assures your loyalty and make them feel you have been honest with all your answers.
    I hope you succeed!!
  2. Milkman's Avatar
    Good luck with this one.. I worked and taught in Russia and am always amazed at how many people speak excellent English....
  3. purpletomato's Avatar
    in my experience, you have to apply to a lot of places... best of luck.
  4. fhunter's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Milkman
    Good luck with this one.. I worked and taught in Russia and am always amazed at how many people speak excellent English....
    While working in IT (and probably other high-tech fields), at least reading English is a survival need. A lot of literature is translated with a delay of 2-3 years (from translation to publishing) and in IT and technical fields it is unacceptable. And some of the translations are not accurate, which is even worse.
  5. fhunter's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by purpletomato
    in my experience, you have to apply to a lot of places... best of luck.
    It was the second one, of the currently four places I applied. I do not have much experience with job searching, it was only two places. The first place, kid of co-opted me (it was one of the departments of the university), the current one was suggested by one of the coworkers at the university.
  6. fhunter's Avatar
    Some update... first of all, looks like everything is okay, and the interview went well. At least I was promised a job offer soon.
    I am going to another job interview for one more company, just in case .
  7. Danya's Avatar
    Sounds like very encouraging news!
  8. fhunter's Avatar
    It is probably the last update here: I've got the offer from the place, and I accepted it.