Principal Duties v Desirable criteria on role

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Newbie!

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I recently went for a role and tailored my CV to meet the meet the principal duties. During the interview I was asked two particular questions around my staff management experience which was surprising because it wasn't in the principal duties. It did appear in the middle of a sentence in the desirable criteria but not on the essential. I've now seen my scores and I scored badly under that particular criterion. Have I argument here? It won't change the outcome, not even sure it's worth the argument but I do feel quite hard done by.
 
Rasputin said:
They don't want to hire you, move on. Knock backs are part and parcel of job seeking, don't waste any more time on it.
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I do hear you and I do accept that. But do you not think it is inappropriate to question someone, in interview, about aspects of a job which were not on the job spec duties?
 
Hi Newbie,

It seems to me that you just did not score well on a criterion that they stated was desirable for the role. Presumably the person who got the job did.

I can't see what case you would make against the process. There is nothing in your OP to suggest anything was done wrong.
 
Hard to see what the gripe is here to be honest. I’d move on and learn from the experience, i.e. prepare better for the next one.
 
Being off work for several years probably went against you too?

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Thanks all, appreciate the comments. I'm genuinely surprised that no-one finds it odd that a significant responsibility in a role wasn't in the job spec. If you turned up to an interview about X and found it was X plus managing a team of 9, would you not be surprised? Or is line management not specifically called out anymore? Maybe I am out of work too long. Taking this one on the chin and will learn and move on.
 
I’d expect staff management experience to be a KEY item for managing a team of 9.

And I speak as someone who’s current manager had zéro experience and is learning on the job and frankly we are all paying the price
 
I'm a bit confused...
These two comments don't seem to tally?
Newbie! said:
I'm genuinely surprised that no-one finds it odd that a significant responsibility in a role wasn't in the job spec.
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ClubMan said:
I'm a bit confused...
These two comments don't seem to tally?
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Apologies clubman.

So, for clarity, on the job spec, there is a list of the principal duties. These are the significant duties attached to the role. Staff management does not feature. Nor did it feature in the essential critieria. It was mixed in with 'desirable to have A or B or line management experience'. It is a substantial part of the job, so how does it not feature highly in the job spec?

I genuinely feel it is important to clearly articulate a role and all major functions. I didn't think this was pedantic but commentary here would suggest it is.
 
Its not always someone else's fault. Sometimes we fail, or get unlucky, have a brain freeze, or go up against someone that's better, more experienced, more charismatic, more full of it. But on the flip side, some day you will get lucky, be the better candidate etc. The situation you describe really doesn't sound off at all, presumably they know the role better than you and what that role might turn into down the line. As someone said above, the more interviews you do the better you get. Bin it, learn and move on - its gone.
 
Newbie! said:
I've now seen my scores and I scored badly under that particular criterion. Have I argument here?
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Did you provide a superb answer to the question by their assessment? If not then perhaps a low score is appropriate. Who's to say what weight that particular criterion had on their ultimate selection. Perhaps other candidates scored higher on the essential duties?

Newbie! said:
But do you not think it is inappropriate to question someone, in interview, about aspects of a job which were not on the job spec duties?
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It's common to question people on topics that are not listed, you want to get a full sense of the person, not learn how well they rehearsed some canned answers to the obvious questions.

Don't ever assume that role descriptions are all encompassing. Hiring managers are often busy people who don't spend hours trying to create the perfect description.
 
You have to be prepared to answer anything in a job interview. It seems like managing people WAS mentioned in the job spec. But even if it wasn’t, I don’t think it’s reasonable to take issue with it coming up. “Working well with others” mightn’t be called out in a job spec but if someone was asked about it and butchered the answer it would be reasonable to mark them down. These processes aren’t that prescriptive.
 
Was it a structured interview? Were you asked to provide examples in advance to illustrate your competency in particular areas? Was it pointed out that you would be scored solely against these criteria?

If so, you might reasonably have a beef if they marked you down on the basis of new criteria on the day.

But if not, there’s not much you can do. Most senior positions involve some degree of staff management and it isn’t easy. If you’ve no direct experience in this, it would definitely go against you no matter how well you otherwise came across.
 
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