Job interviews - how to go wrong
September 13th 2010 08:06
The first thing to remember about job interviews is that it is important to be an individual. Prospective employers don't want to hear people giving answers just because they sound right, and don't want to see people behaving in rote, cliched patterns.
The second thing to remember about job interviews is that it is important not to be too much of an individual. Businesses are organisations where processes are systems rule, and where results can be compromised by idiosyncratic behaviour.
It isn't hard to understand the relevance of both the above statements. It is sometimes hard to find the middle ground between them.
What follows is a list of examples of job applicants and applications which strayed from the middle ground.
Role models
Identifying with the role's functions is generally considered essential rather than optional. An applicant for an accounting job told the personnel manager he was “bad at managing money”. An applicant for a customer service position told the interviewer, “I don’t really like working with people.”
Team player
Team work is obviously important in all sorts of employment situations, and a demonstration of your understanding of and experience in such things is recommended. There are inappropriate ways to go about this, however, such as the man who boasted about his many successes at Dungeons and Dragons.
Dressed to fail
It is on record that one man attended a job interview wearing a suit and sandals. Hear this: the most common reason - 52 per cent - cited by employers for rejecting a job candidate is inappropriate dress.
Answers: not so simple
Answers are never simple. The information they contain may be, but the manner of delivering that information can see you out the door in a flash. Wrong ways to answer questions include: not answering the question - going off on a tangent, rambling because you think you sound good; beginning your answer before the question is finished; talking too much; and talking too little.
Keep it together
It is on record that one interviewer had a candidate throw up on him, while another had an applicant laugh nervously and spit out a false tooth. It should be noted that such actions are considered negative.
The eyes have it
Make eye contact - it's polite and honest. Don't stare - it's impolite and aggressive. We know, life's complicated.
Eye contact is important in interviews.
Don't say: "This is my dream job"
A survey showed that 69 per cent of interviewers can recognise this as a cliche. Why the other 31 per cent don't realise this is a cliche is a mystery. "I think outside the box" is just as bad.
Tie your dog securely
An interviewee, who had brought his dog for an outing and tied her up in the office car park, had to leave the meeting in a hurry when the dog got loose. Several negative messages are delivered to the employer here.
www.careerbuilder.com, theundercoverrecruiter.com, cnn.com, cosmopolitan.com
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