HR's Bias?

I applied to the same company which I applied for at the beginning of last year, but this time through a friend who knows one of the directors of the company. However, I'm not really using my connections to get an interview because the director forwarded my application to the HR director who then scheduled an appointment with me.


The person who interviewed me this time was the same person who interviewed me last year and apparently, she remembered me! Her English is terrible with very heavy Cantonese accent. One of the questions that she asked was a common question of what I think my weaknesses are. I briefly told her and tried to make it seem as positive as possible. From my experience, interviewers would normally just move on to the next question. But this woman kept dwelling on the same "weakness" question and she even repeated the exact same question twice! So this means that I gave her the same answer, phrasing a bit differently TWICE!!


I suspect that she has a bias against me and thus the persistent focus on the "What's your weakness?" question.


The interview went on briefly, with her ending with a sentence like, "Well, I remember you and your background so I don't need to go into that anymore. Obviously we'll need to interview other candidates too and proceed with the more suitable candidates. We'll let you know the results within two to three weeks."


What do you think? Do you think she has a bias against me? I do have very good reference letter from the director of my previous company this time (but of course, I did not have his reference, yet, last year).

What do you mean, 'bias'. If she just didn't like you enough to hire you the first time, and then you reapplied for the same job, that's not being biased against you but considering that if you were unsuitable the first time you probably still are.

Of course HR people are generally biased against whole groups of people, so if you are one of these unfortunate groups (too old/too young/too foreign/too female) then that's just tough. I am super qualified for what I do but cannot get a job interview - companies these days are looking for drones rather than people that can think for themselves, it seems. Keep trying (but not the same company).

But they really should not be wasting a candidate's time like that! In such cases, shouldn't they ask another HR employee to interview Purely? I'm sure there must be more than one person in the HR department. A company like that is not worth working for anymore, is it?


Sadly, HR seem to be given too large a responsibility as they are also asked to assess (and screen out) people who are indeed much more qualified than themselves.