CASE STUDY

By Rahul Mummalaneni

Introduction:

In the provided comprehension, we are presented with a hypothetical situation wherein an

engineering graduate who goes by the name of Maria is subjected to casual sexism by five
men, in a job interview for a company she has been aspiring to work for since the time she
was a student.

At the end of the comprehension, we were asked the following two questions:
1. How would you explain the nature of the panel interview Maria had to
endure? Specifically, do you think it reflected a well-thought-out interviewing
strategy on the part of the firm or carelessness on the part of the firm’s
management? If it were carelessness, what would you do to improve the
interview process at Apex Environmental?
2. Would you take the job offer if you were Maria? If you’re not sure, what
additional information would help you make your decision?

In order to answer the aforementioned questions we will be conducting a

thorough case study in order to identify the problems within this scenario by
 Discussing the key issues
 Formulating and evaluating alternatives
 Providing a feasible solution

Key issues:
In the given essay, as per my opinion the following were the key issues:
1. The panel putting an extremely talented potential recruit in an uncomfortable position
by asking them questions irrelevant to the interview, for their job.
2. The company’s lack in training their recruiting management, showing overall lack in
attention being paid to the company’s HR department.
3. Lack of research in interview techniques.
 Alternatives:
For Maria:
1. Getting hired by another company: It has been mentioned several times in the
comprehension that Maria is a talented and bright student which alludes to her
having a lot of learning experience in the field she wishes to go into. Maria being
interviewed by several companies, and then having landed a job offer for such a
decorated company such as Apex as soon as she graduated also tells us that she is
desirable as an employee in the open market and would surely be able to secure
jobs in the same bracket as the one she was offered at Apex, with possibly better
working environments.
2. Pursuing a further education: If the principles of the other companies that Maria
might look into working at fall short of what might have been at Apex, there is
always the option of freelancing. By freelancing Maria will have the opportunity
to become her own boss, while being more independent in terms of the projects
she takes on. Of course, in order to freelance as an environmental engineer
however, she must be willing to study further to be fully qualified for her role.

For Apex Environmental:

1. Research better interview strategies: It could be argued that the interview method used
at Apex is actually very effective since only individuals with a tough mindset would
be willing to endure such humiliation and stress for a job, showing the recruiter that
the potential hire has a strong mental fortitude and would work well under pressure
while on the job. Therefore, maybe resulting in a second round of an interview with
only two members of the panel. However, reality is that abusing a potential hire by
asking them personal and sexist questions irrelevant to the role they will be fulfilling
in the firm not only showcases the company’s values or if they pay attention to
employees’ mental health, but it is also highly unprofessional. It is quite dangerous
for a company to adopt such skewed interview practices when hiring star recruits.
Such interview practices not only damage the company’s reputation, but in the long
run the percentage of new recruits might drop considerably and while it is not directly
related to the information presented in the comprehension, it could be speculated that
this company has a high employee turnover rate if we were to assume the interview to
be a reflection of how the hierarchy gives unnecessary power to upper management,
resulting in their subordinates to have to deal with abusive language frequently.

2. Updating their HR department: Behaviour exhibited by the panel in the essay shows
that the recruiting managers sitting on that panel are ill qualified for their job. The HR
department in most companies consists of the recruiting department as the job entails
discovering and brining in talent as per company requirements. As such, a well read
and smart recruiting officer would have to have a good understanding of how to
ensure the employees are not discriminated against on any level. If that’s the case
 however, one can only assume that the recruiting manager should have stopped the
panel from asking futile, personal and sexist questions at the interview and should
have steered the interview in a direction that was more professional. Which is why it
could be said that updating their HR department by hiring more competent staff or
providing further training to all employees in the company might be a solution.

Solution:
In my personal opinion I think Maria should not take the job at Apex and should consider
working for another company that would value her presence more.
Apex should consider improving their interview strategies by asking questions that would
actually evaluate whether the potential hire would be good for the job and not personal
questions that have no relevance to whether or not an employee would be suitable for a
job. In Marias case the questions they asked were futile as her being a waitress previously
was could have been relevant work experience as well as a source of money for her,
looking down on that insinuates that Apex as a company does not value the labour of an
average employee; furthermore, whether or not Maria chooses to give birth had she been
an employee at Apex, is completely her decision which she is free to make, in fact in such
cases the company must provide the employee with maternity/ paternity leaves to ensure
that they are successfully able to start a family, as major decisions like this are a part of
life. Encouraging the employees by providing them with the comfort to make those life
changing decisions ensures that the employees have a good work life balance.