Twice a week we publish the problems that will feature in a forthcoming Dear Jeremy advice column in the Guardian Money supplement so that readers can offer their own advice and suggestions. We then print the best of your comments alongside Jeremy's own insights. Here is the latest dilemma – what are your thoughts?
I have done three interviews in as many months for positions that are not there. In two cases, I was told through the grapevine that those positions were earmarked for someone internal.
In the third interview I was able to determine that a candidate had already been selected, based on a few observations:
• They did not ask me why I wanted the role
• They did not ask for a summary of my career
• They did not ask what qualities and skills I could bring to the role
• They spoke almost entirely between themselves
• They behaved in a manner that suggested they were inches away from death by boredom. But most importantly, they fired questions at me that only people who worked there could comfortably answer to any degree of accuracy.
Are organisations forced by law to advertise externally? The harm that causes when they have already selected an internal candidate is palpable. I find it destructive to be tricked into job interviews that I have no chance of succeeding in. Is it rude to simply ask whether or not someone else has the job already?
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy's and readers' help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally.
