Can I go with a friend to an interview

One-in-a-million

I was wondering if I am allowed to accompany a friend in an interview as support?

My friend has learning difficulties and shows this in her behaviour she can come across quite child like and I feel this may be the reason why she isn't having any luck with job interviews.

She is not entitled to any benefits or support worker although she did attend skills for life at college. She is on job seekers but really wants a job.

I would love to go with her for support and to help her where and if She needs it.

Any help guys

Former Member

I wouldn't reccomend going to the interview with her, as I personally feel that would shine a different light on her, you could always head down with her and wait outside, that would not be an issue, but it's more informal if you have a friend with you there. But you could always try mock interviews, and look into jobs that are looking for people more her personality, like hospitality is a big industry looking for bubbly loud, talkative individuals, who are dedicated to working, guess it varies on the jobs she's applying for.

Former Member

I also wouldn't recommend going in to an interview with her. I think it's great that you wan't to support your friend and by all means go down with her and wait outside, but, as someone who has sat on the other side of the interview, I have to say, my first thought, if someone brought their friend along for support would be "If she can't handle an interview by herself how could she possibly handle working here by herself". I know it's not the most sensitive or pc view to take but generally employees need someone who can just buckle down and get on with it without someone watching over them all the time. I would assume that anyone who needs someone to support them through an interview would also need a lot of support in order to do their job and we just wouldn't have had the time or staff to do that. Sorry if that sounds harsh, obviously that's not always the case but in an interview you have to rely on first impressions and bringing your mate along doesn't give the best first impression.

Also unless she had specified when she set up the interview that she would need support you might not even be allowed in to the staff area, especially as she isn't entitled to a support worker.

She could ask for written feedback from the interviewer, which they are required to give if requested, this should give you a pretty good idea as to why she wasn't successful at that interview and you could work on that with her through mock interviews etc. That way you could target the specific issues that she's having. Maybe she could bring a note pad with reminders on how to behave, what to say etc, so she can have a visual reminder, and that way she can also write down any questions she might have for them at the end.

Good luck, hope she finds something.