FJR Group

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 days. I interviewed at FJR Group (London, England) in October 2019.

Interview

I am utterly shocked beyond all disbelief…

After an initial phone call, I was invited to an interview at Frazer John Recruitment at their London office, I was extremely pleased as the company appeared to be a place that matches my professional working values. Their website states that they are “Passionate about people” and “We invest in relationships first.”

However, what appears on the surface at this consultancy did not appear in any way, shape or form in a face to face interview.

As the interview started, the interviewer was fairly quick to put me under pressure and use very questionable interviewing techniques. The questions dug very deep in to my personal life and in regards to my partner. I was asked “What does your partner do?” and “How is your partner getting a Visa to live with you here?” Regrettably, I answered these questions in full as I felt pressure to do so.

I have since inquired as to why these questions were asked and I was informed:

“The question about a persons partner is a very normal one to find out where someone is going to be and any risks about their longevity / desire to stay in the country.”

These types of questions should never be asked in an interview as it is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Nevertheless, the interview pressed on and the subject turned to my professional experience. Again, the interviewer was using questionable techniques to put me under pressure, they admitted this as they said “I like to push back in interviews.” I don’t think I was once able to finish my answer before being interrupted as either they did not like my answer or they did not seem to know what they want in a candidate. I find this interesting as their website states “We listen well and get to know you.”

I would like to mention that I decided in my head that this is a company I would never want to work for, but out of respect, I wanted to complete the interview. Around 20 minutes in and after some very inappropriate questions, disrespectful comments, presuppositions about me as a person, an overall sense of feeling bullied, I had enough and decided to stick up for myself.

I wanted to make it very clear that this is no way to treat a candidate and they had been insulting and disrespectful. They clearly did not like this and again tried to stop me from finishing. I carried on and raised my voice (not shouting) to make this clear, but the interviewer was having none of it. For them it is okay to “push back in interviews” But it is not okay for me to do the same. To me, it seemed like the interviewer was having an ego trip, as they said “oh look… you are angry and shouting now.”

At this point I got up and left the interview. As I left, they told me I was being silly around 3 times which included “this is just silly isn’t it.” They have since denied this and said “it is not to their memory.”

There are some details I have not included in my review, as I do not believe they are relevant to the misconduct on the interview process.

My advice to people would be to avoid using this company if your business is seeking recruits, as they are using unethical interviewing techniques, for candidates applying for roles via FJR to report any misconduct they witness, and finally for people applying to work directly for FJR to avoid completely.

I am reporting this company, along with the messages received from the interviewer since to an overseeing body.