Avoid these common mistakes at your next Job Interview

One of the most important parts of my job as a Recruiter for the Candidates I represent is, the “Interview Prep” or Interview Preparation. In this conversation, which occurs in advance of any scheduled interviews, I help prepare my Candidates so they can go in knowing what to expect and arming them with tools and strategies they can use to help them win the interview.

One of the parts of this interview prep is where I go over common mistakes made by candidates at interviews based on feedback I’ve received from Clients (i.e. Hiring Managers) over the past couple of years. As you read through these, do not underestimate the simplicity of these: I have seen senior level candidates and the occasional executive make these fundamental mistakes and flunk their interviews.

Going over this list, don’t feel bad if you are making any of these mistakes. Take note of it, adjust, and keep moving forward. These are in no particular order of importance, but are definitely the most common complaints I’ve heard from Hiring Managers post-interview:

“The Candidate wasn’t very familiar with their Resume”

One of the most important reminders I go over during my interview prep is: refresh yourself on your Resume. Its YOUR Resume, so you need to be an expert on it. Your Resume might not be everything, but it’s the only thing the interviewer(s) has in front of them, so you can expect them to refer to it. You need to be able to elaborate on and expand on each and every bullet point on your resume – especially anything in recent years; but even relevant items from a few years back. You don’t want to waste any time at the interview trying to remember or recall things which may capture the interviewer’s attention and therefore miss out on opportunities to showcase your value.

“Their responses were very surface-level and couldn't provide detail and specifics”

Maybe you were nervous. Maybe you were aiming for being “to the point” - but to the point of coming across as vague or uncertain about the topic. Interviewers are finding they basically have to drag a response out of you. You certainly don’t want to go into a long, drawn out rant for each and every response – but at the same time, you don’t want to be very abrupt in your responses consistently either when a greater level of detail is required. Provide specific details in your responses. Certainly be concise, and if unsure, you can always ask “Would you like me to elaborate further on that?”

“Responses were very long-winded and they kept going off-topic”

This is the opposite of the previous point. Look – its easy to get excited talking about your accomplishments, I get it. Couple that with feeling slightly anxious or nervous, and you can find yourself talking more than you need to, going off-topic, or having your response go on for longer than expected and end up not even answering the question in the first place. Its normal and natural in a conversation to get slightly off topic or go on a tangent every now and then, but stay focused and stay the course. You don't want to come across as trying to avoid answering the question by speaking about a whole bunch of stuff and circling around it.

“They kept interrupting”

Don’t let your excitement get you coming across as rude. Nobody enjoys a conversation with someone who constantly interrupts. I’ve spoken with Candidates every now and then who have a habit of starting to respond to questions before the question has been completed, trying to finish sentences on behalf of myself (and with Hiring Teams), or talking over, cutting-off mid-sentence – and all other variations of interruptions. I understand this is mostly due to excitement, nervousness or feeling a little anxious – but you need to be aware of this and get it under control, as apart from being annoying and impolite, you might be interrupting a question or statement with multiple parts to it. Get this handled and under control – wait for the interviewer (or anyone else in life you interact with, for that matter) to complete their question or statement before you start responding.

Be sure to not make these common and basic mistakes which I have seen cost people the ability to move further along an Interview process.

Wishing you the best at your Interviews!

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Coming up later this week:

• Live Stream: Why your Interviews aren't converting into Job Offers . I'll be sharing some insights as to why you might be getting Interviews, but none of them are materializing into Job Offers. Click the above link and hit "Attend" to get the notification. See you Wednesday @ 11AM ET!

From last week:

• Networking Events: 7 things Job Seekers need to remember
• Why Recruiters seem to be very inflexible about the requirements for a job they are recruiting on .
• LinkedIn Poll Results: how long do Job Seekers generally take in landing themselves a job? See the results here .

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Dean Kulaweera - IT Recruiter | Director, Recruitment & Sales |?Tech Recruiters 360

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