10 Cardinal Sins within a Job Interview

Preparing good answers to the specific questions within a job interview may provide you with a great foundation for the success of a meeting with your possible employer. But many candidates make mistakes by committing some cardinal sins of interviewing. In this article, we share with you the most common mistakes that candidates make.

Make sure that none of these happen to you!

1.    Being late

Being late for an interview is a huge mistake. Recruiters may have a schedule of interviews for the day, and certainly your delay will get them irritated even before getting to know you. Always carefully plan your route to your interview and make sure you know how to get there and plan in plenty of time for contingencies: unexpected things may occur in traffic.If you arrive early, you can stop for a coffee and you can read a newspaper with news from the local community. If you’re being late, let the interviewers know as soon as possible.

2.    Dressing inappropriately for the interview

Physical appearance says who you are. Turning up to an interview and realizing that you’re dressed inappropriately makes you feel incredibly foolish.If you are dressed in appropriately,the recruiter may think that you are not professional enough for the job in question.If you don’t know how to dress, choose a stylish outfit. Suits, shirts, ties are suitable options.

3.    Being rude to the personnel

You’re being observed and evaluated from the moment you arrive at an employer’s location. Every single person from the organisation who interacts with you – or even sees you –can potentially feed information back to the interviewers. And you can be sure that any rudeness from you will be taken into consideration by the interviewers.

4.     Creating the impression that you are an hesitating person

First impression matters! If you appear nervous in your first few minutes, you make it much harder for yourself as you’ll be fighting against the interviewers’ initial impression of you.When you enter the interview office,smile broadly,say hello and something like It’s good to meet you or Great to meet you – and say it with enthusiasm. You should maintain eye contact while saying hello and give the interviewers a firm hand-shake; and then follow their lead by sitting down when they do. Create the impression that you’re a self-confident and optimistic person. Compliment the interviewers about their company or make a positive comment about anything that comes to your mind you:

• I’m very impressed by this location – I really like your reception area.
• It’s great to be here. And, by the way, your receptionists are so kind.

Make sure that all your statements be authentic and sincere!

5.    Monopolizing the conversation

Long answers are tedious. If you talk too much, the recruiters will surely get bored. Remember that you may be the sixth candidate the interviewers have seen today or the twentieth over the course of several days. Even if the interviewer may seem to be focused on what you say, check with them half way through a lengthy answer by asking: Is this useful? Shall I go on? Interviewers are generally polite enough to maintain eye contact even if they are incredibly bored. But they often fail to nod when they’re not interested.So pay attention to these details and either speak more briefly or inject a bit more energy into your performance if no one’s nodding.

6.      Answering in Monosyllables

Failure to provide sufficient detail can be another cardinal sin.Avoid giving monosyllabic answers. Even if you have been asked a simple question like: Have you get to our company easily? , your answer should include one or two sentences. Simple answers such as “Yes” or “No”will make the interviewer believe it makes the interviewers feel as if speaking to you is like trying to get blood out of a stone. Speak for a couple of sentences for every question that you’re asked. For most questions – especially those asking you for examples of situations that you’ve been in – aim to speak for at least five or six sentences.

7.    Forgetting who is leading the interview

One of the unspoken rules of interviews is that the interviewers are in control, and you must follow their lead. No matter how strange an interviewer’s question, try to answer it. Even if the interviewers ask you to talk about your childhood or tell them a joke, you must attempt to do your best.

8.     Don’t disparage your previous employer

A negative attitude doesn’t attract anyone.In addition, the world is a small place, so take care what you say about your for employers.Regardless of why you left the previous job, there are more diplomatic ways you could explain that, even if the atmosphere there, the manager or conditions weren’t so great. You may say that you are interested in new responsibilities and more challenges, or you could just say that the job you are applying for seemed irresistible for you.

9.    Talking about money too early

Mostof uswork toearn aliving.Of course, itimportantto enjoyyour work, but the truth is that many peoplewould notworkif they could afford this! However, interviewers often see candidates asking about thepay and benefits too soon in the interview process as rathergauche. If you need to pass through several rounds of interviews, only talk about money in the final round.The best time to talk about money is after you’ve been offeredthe job. Should the circumstances be different, only talk about money if theinterviewers ask you about it first.

10.  Not having questions to ask

If you say you have no questions for the interviewers, you send out the clear message that you are not overly interested in the job. And, if you aren’t that interested, why will they offer you the position? Always ask at least two or three questions. If you feel all your factual questions have been answered during the course of the interview, you can ask the interviewers why they enjoy working for the organisation.

References:

Rob Yeung, Answering Tough Interview Questions for Dummies