I’m thinking of joining the massed ranks of the job hunters again at the moment; not because I’m unemployed, but because I want to get back to working in warehousing.
When the recession really began to bite, the company I was working for went bust and I was left without a job. With no suitable alternatives, I secured employment in a different industry.
Now I feel the time could be right for me to get back in charge of a warehouse operation, so I’ve been scouring the jobs pages – well, websites – recently.
It will be weird to be on the other side of the interview process again having more recently been one of the people conducting interviews.
Interviewing is a tough experience, whatever side of the desk you are on.
I’ve always treated it as a two-way thing, so even when I am the interviewer I am trying to impress on the candidate just what a good job it is I am offering, as well as expecting them to ask questions of me.
It’s very frustrating to find an ideal candidate, only to find when you offer them the job that they are no longer interested; a situation not as unlikely as you might think.
I would love to be able to advise about the magic formula of what to look for in a prospective employee, but it’s not that easy.
There are the obvious things to look for such as qualifications, experience, and fork lift licence, but these things are normally whittled down before getting to the interview stage.
I always tried to give them some kind of practical tasks to see how they could handle the work – you might be surprised at how many well-educated people can’t operate a pallet truck.
However, without wanting to belittle the job of a warehouse operative – the only position I have interviewed for – none of the practical tasks are that difficult, so often this is no way to separate candidates.
Thankfully for me I never had that many candidates to choose from, and it normally just came down to which candidate showed me the most interest in the job.
With unemployment levels as high as they are at the moment, I imagine there are many more people applying for warehousing jobs now.
Perhaps not a good time for me to be applying for jobs then, but I do have the advantage of knowing some good questions to ask at interview – and I know how to use a pallet truck!
Warehouse & Logistics News
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