My answer to your question:
Don’t make up a false answer for why you left your job. I don’t see any reason you can’t tell the truth about the Community Employment Scheme. I would recommend that if you use the terminology “Community Employment Scheme”, it would be very important to explain what it is and what you did or accomplished as a part of the program.

As far as the advise you were given about sharing the CE Scheme as your last job, I believe that it is important to rehearse how you will present information about the CE Scheme job. In other words, if you present the job at the CE Scheme as a low end job, than you are already starting behind in the interview. “My last job was working for a Community Employment Scheme. I had the opportunity to learn, xyz skills. I had the opportunity to …. The things I learned that will help me in position are…

Lastly, at all cost be honest about your past. Dishonesty will cost you the opportunity to get a good job. Good Luck

Darlene
Interview Guru
darlingmcdaniel@gmail.com
http://www.interviewchatter.com

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/employment/unemployment-and-redundancy/employment-support-schemes/community_employment_scheme

Even if you were justly eliminated for whatever reason, take the advice with a grain of salt. If you know you could have done better and the interviewer provides you with similar advice or reasons why you were not selected, listen to their advice and your instincts and hone in on improving those skills for the next interview. If it is a particularly political situation, however, it’s best to realize that there may be other factors involved that have nothing to do with your skills and personality.

As has already been said on this thread, remember that you are looking for the person’s impression… regardless of rather or not you agree. It should not be a debate.

Think of a way to make it in their self-interest and you might get a good answer. Imagine the legal mine field that the interviewer is going to have to tip toe through in order to give you information that will help you and can only hurt them… there is just no reason to do it if you ask the standard question the standard way. BUT … what if you worded the question in a way that would give the company that turned you down a chance to win? That would be a whole different ballgame wouldn’t it?

What if you worded the question this way:

“Mr . X, thank you for letting me know that I I’m not in the running for the XYZ position. I enjoyed the interview process and really thought that the culture would be a great fit for me. My skill set seemed to be a great match for the position and I could really see myself making a long term commitment to helping move the [department, division, company] toward its long term goals. Obviously, I missed the mark somewhere.”

Option #1 – “Could you tell me what I would need to improve in order to make a successful application for employment, maybe not for this particular position, but for a suitable role within the company, one that matches me better?”

Or you could try

Option #2 – “I have developed a large network of talented professionals in this market niche. Perhaps if you could share with me where I came up short, I might think of an associate that I could refer to you who would better match what you are looking for.”

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A very complete piece of advice about getting a post-interview feedback; in this regard, I totally agree with Darlene about a self-feedback process.

I can’t ignore how interviewers and interviewees act and react from an international perspective particularly when recruiters carrying out interviews perform poorly: in Mexico this is a regular outlook when we attend a job interview: interviewers don’t know how to handle an interview properly in order to get the best from interviewees. On the contrary, they use a “police interrogation” style in order to annoy interviewees and make them contradict themselves.

In Mexico, most interviewees don’t do a self-analysis because they refuse to accept they could have made mistakes while been interviewed; it’s rather funny yet revealing, but after analyzing my performance, I experienced once a feeling of embarrassment because of the foolish mistakes I made after the recruiter tricked me with two rather illegal questions.

Thank you for the suggestion Darlene.

“My recommendation is that you wait the timeframe given to you by the hiring manager. If they told you they will be making a decision in the next couple of days, all you can do is wait. After the time frame has expired, it is ok to call the manager. If they have made a hiring decision, it is ok to ask for feedback about your candidacy. Be prepared for a “no” up front. Don’t let that stop you. Communicate to the hiring manager, your desire to improve you skills, your desire to improve your interviewing skills as well as any other area in order to gain an opportunity with another company.”

I believe that if you ask for feedback in the interview, you perceive that you did not do well and that could backfire on you.

Lastly, I believe you should learn to give yourself feedback after completing an interview. Set some goals before walking into an interview. When you come out of the interview. Evaluate the interview. Don’t allow yourself to say you don’t know how you did. You do know! You will know. Have an expectation that you will know how well or poorly you performed in the interview. What did you do well? List at least two things you did well. What did you do poorly? List at least two things. What would you do differently if you could interview again? How you answer these questions is the beginning of self-correcting feedback. What you do with the information will determine whether you grow and improve. That’s feedback!

“I am sad to hear that you selected another candidate but I understand and accept that you have difficult decision to make and must choose what you feel is in the best interests of your company. So that I may better prepare myself for seeking other opportunities at other firms I’d like to ask your help by giving me some feedback on how I could better present my case in the future. I’d really appreciate your time and promise not to try to change your mind. Would you be open to a phone call on ____?”

People like to help and will within the limits of corporate policy brought on by our litigious society. It can’t hurt to ask. The worst they can do is say no.

As Dan points out the best way is to ask for feedback during the interview by asking the types of probing questions he mentioned.
Mike