A fellow career expert has posted an article on her blog about reasons why interviews go wrong.

That topic, in itself can easily fill this space, however, what struck me about Cathy Goodwin's blog post was her reference to pseudo-interviews.

Cold comfort that pseudo-interviews exist amid the range of emotions that job seekers experience, which is otherwise known as the "cycle of unemployment." This cycle refers to ebb and tide or emotions that plague the unemployed, the downsized and those who have been fired from their jobs. The cycle represents emotions like shock, anger, fear, sadness, denial and acceptance.

If you are unemployed, you may have analyzed why you were not successful with your interview(s) at the detriment of your self-confidence and self-worth levels.

Cathy referred to a sometimes misunderstood issue in interviewing-the "pseudo-interviews."

These interviews, masquerading as a legitimate hiring strategy only exacerbate job seekers' experience with the cycle of unemployment. Not only is it jarring to have participated in an interview and to have not received a (prompt) response (for reasons that are misunderstood by job seekers), but the unfair tactic of the pseudo-interview persists. And the characteristics of pseudo-interviews, in my opinion, are sobering and downright unfair.

Have you experienced a pseudo-interview? Here are the common features of one:

1. The interviewer(s), visibly, are inexperienced and/or uncomfortable with conducting the interview in the first place and do a disservice to the job seeker, who is eager to restore his/her self-esteem and self-confidence.

2. Because of point number one, the inexperienced interviewer has often been "mandated" or ordered to conduct a pseudo-interview, to eliminate any bias (an oxymoron, since interviews ALWAYS have an element of bias) and to minimize the company's practice of not casting "a wide net." In other words, the employer did not have the genuine or sincere intention to interview for a "real" position in the first place.

3. Because of point number two, the pseudo-interview was conducted for the sake of activity. The employer conducted the pseudo-interview to see what talent is available. (Remember that recruiters are searching for active and passive job candidates).

Typically, these are the core features of pseudo-interviews. Beware of them. To borrow a phrase, pseudo-interviews are a "symptom pool" of skullduggery of hiring practices. Though they may give a quick glimpse of the so-called "talent pool", they alienate job seekers further from a transparent hiring practice.

Job seekers do not need another reason to feel disenchanted and disenfranchised from a company's hring practices.

This obliges me to repeat what I tell clients frequently, you have just as much of a right to evaluate an employer as the company does about you.

I would welcome any comments or to discuss any experiences you may have had with pseudo-interviews.

Melissa Martin, bilingual career coach

www.careercoachingbyphone.com