Today we have a contribution from Jen, who writes at The Money Mail, a multi-author personal finance blog. She focuses on topics related career management and productivity. You can follow her posts on @the_money_mail
It’s true that smart people learn from their mistakes but it’s also true that smarter people learn from mistakes of other people. Don’t make these common mistakes candidates make in interviews. Often people are not able to crack interviews not because it was tough but due to silly mistakes. I have experienced this first hand when interviewing candidates for an internship position. Here are some of the mistakes that are often made by candidates.
1. Dressing inappropriately for the interview
It is very difficult to change the first impression you set and your dressing weighs in a lot on the first impression you create. It is the first thing the interviewer notices when they see you. So it is important to dress up appropriately for the interview. Not all jobs may require you to wear a suit every day; however business suits are the best attire for most interviews. If you are not sure, talk to your head hunter and ask them, what would be an appropriate attire for the day? Wear something that is comfortable and looks professional.
2. Lack of preparation
At times people fail to prepare for some of the common interview questions that always get asked. This shows that you have not done your homework. Preparing for questions like “Tell me something about yourself” and “What are some of strengths and weakness” can you an opportunity to present examples that can let you convey some of your qualities in your much better way. Lack of interest reflects when you are not able to answer a question regarding the company. Prior to any interview, it is expected that a candidate will do some research about the company- its history, products and business purpose. You can find all the information on the website of the company or by talking to people who know about the company, like current and past employees, and clients of the company
3. Lack a positive attitude
An important criterion for any job is positive attitude towards work and life in general. You should never talk negatively regarding your previous organization, your teams and people who you have worked with as it reflects your negativity. And your interviewer will wonder if you would talk about them in a negative light if you move on to something else from here?
4. Hiding information
Do not lie about your work experience, education or skills on your resume. An experienced interviewer can see through your lies easily. Questions during an interview will uncover your lies. If you get by, a background check can easily uncover the truth. Even if you get by during the initial stages and get an offer, the truth may surface at a later point, putting your job, career and reputation at risk. State everything right about your qualification and experience as hiding any information is considered as lies.
5. Discussing salary
Getting paid the right salary is important and you should always negotiate for it, but everything has to be done at the right place and at the right time. You can discuss your salary once you have proved yourself the right candidate. In many organizations, salary negotiations are done with the HR professional, so wait for them to bring up the topic and then you can share your expected salary. If the topic comes up in the interview, it would be wise to say that you are more focused on the work but you expect to be paid a competitive compensation.
6. Arriving late
Arriving late is a mistake that will make you look irresponsible in the eyes of the interviewer. The employer may form an impression that you may also come late for your work on a regular basis. Ensure that you know the place you are asked to reach and how much time it will take you to get there so that you can start your journey accordingly. Keep some buffer. If you do happen to get late for some unavoidable reason, make every effort to let your interviewer know before the schedule time.
7. Being too casual
You should never be too informal with your interviewer, even if the interviewer is taking you out for lunch or meeting you in an informal setting (a common practice at many companies). They may be very relaxed with you as they want to see how you are in normal situations. They may ask questions which are not strictly related to the job, for example questions related to your likes and dislikes. These questions help an interviewer decide your fit with the team. Maintain the balance between being causal and too informal. Answer in a relaxed tone but maintain professionalism.
Avoiding these common mistakes will help you focus more on your skills and abilities and gain an advantage over people for fall for them. Being well prepared for an interview can make all the difference to your confidence and help you crack the job interview.
I think a lot of it depends on the company, the job, and who you’re interviewing with. For my current job, I went in for what I thought was an informational interview, and the CEO created a position and hired me on the spot. He asked me how much I wanted for pay, and gave me exactly what I asked for. (In hindsight, I wonder how much more I could have asked for…)
But I was meeting with the one and only decision maker, so he would have been annoyed if I had hemmed and hawed over the salary question. He wanted to make a decision at that moment, not put it off and needed a number to do so.
You make a good point, yes these are general guidelines and there will be exception.
If you said what you thought was fair pay and you got that then I see no issues. If you would have asked for lot more, may be he would have not made the offer. He is a businessman after all.
Great list! I would add “smelling like smoke.” At my office, that is a big problem!
Cannot believe someone would do that, , can be a big turnoff
So many people make these interview mistakes. Arriving too early is another mistake. You don’t want the interviewer to feel like you are bothering them by showing up an hour early.
@Michelle: Arriving a few minutes early is advisable, it gives you time to settle in, may be visit the restroom, get some water. I would say 5-10 mins before the schedule time is good. anything more that that, you are putting pressure on the interviewer.
Do you really think it is a good idea to prepare by talking to past or current employees of a company? I think it’s one thing to research them on the web, but to reach out to employees seems pretty drastic and might come off as too much, in my opinion.
You have to strike a balance. Its one thing reaching out people you have no connections and asking them questions but if you have someone in your extended network ( i.e. someone you know personally or someone who you are introduced to) then I think it is a good idea to reach out to them.
Unless your a bluecollar dude in which case there are rarely interviews and you certainly don’t need to dress professionally! They’ll wonder if your planning on wearing such nice clothes to the actual job sites and think you’re a weirdo, haha.
What always amazes me about common interview tips is that they seem like they’d be common sense things, but so many people don’t do them. Arriving on time and wearing appropriate clothes seem like no-brainers. I work at a very professional, conservative bank (suit and tie kind of place), and a guy came in for an interview in jeans and a polo shirt (not even tucked in). Needless to say I never saw him around again… must not have got the job.
This is a great list of mistakes that many fall prey to. I would agree with Michelle that showing up too early can be an issue as well. I generally shoot to show up 5-10 minutes beforehand, but not beyond that.
One thing to keep in mind if you have more than one person conducting the interview is to keep eye contact and answers directed toward both people. Even if one person is doing a majority of the talking, you want to make sure to make eye contact and talk to everybody in the room. This can be difficult and it can be easy to slip into a groove of the person you get most comfortable with, but everybody in the room will have input on whether you get hired, so make sure to ‘stay in touch’ with everybody present.
My sister recently moved and was going to job fairs to look for work. She said how out of place she felt standing in line wearing a dress suit when everyone else is in jeans and shorts. It’s no wonder why so many are unemployed. If you can’t make the effort to even get the job, will you make it once you have it?
It’s a job interview and it’s still uprising that a lot of people fail to dress appropriately or come unprepared. If they want the job, they’ll do these things.
As a guy who’s been late for stuff in the past, this is still my hot button on interviews. If you aren’t in my office ready to go at the time we arranged, how will you be different if I hire you? Also….let’s save the salary discussion for later. I’ve had a few people who wanted to talk “what’s in it for me” before we even discussed the job.
I have two interviews next week: one on Tuesday, another one on Thursday and I have already started doing my homework. But the biggest problem I always have is with one question: why we should hire you? 😉
I think some people can easily forget to research about the company as part of their preparation for the interview. One question I was asked in a past interview was “tell us what you know about our company.” Good thing they had a website. And most companies today do. Also I think it’s pretty obvious but don’t use profanity in an interview, even if it’s to emphasize your *beep*ing enthusiasm 🙂
I interviewed someone last week who had a fantastic resume. Five minutes into the interview, he admitted that he had his brother write his resume and he “kind of exaggerated” his duties. Turns out he barely did any of the things mentioned on his resume. A complete waste of my time and his.
Seems like common sense that you should know your resume inside out before going for an interview. You should go prepared with accomplishments and examples.