How Not to Turn Off Your Job Interviewer

How Not to Turn Off Your Job InterviewerDon’t raise red flags during your interview.

It’s a must to prepare for a job interview. Know the basic etiquette—This includes bringing an extra copy of your resume, not bad-mouthing your previous employers, and arriving on time. However, it doesn’t hurt to be extra careful during the interview if you want to leave a positive impression.

Here are five ways applicants may turn off an interviewer without even knowing it:

1. Addressing only one interviewer. If you were invited to a panel interview, make sure to look and speak to everyone. Make eye contact with all your interviewers to avoid looking rude and appearing dismissive. (You don’t know who the final decision maker is.)

2. Being too formal. Don’t be so formal that the interviewer can’t get a real sense of you. Try to be calm and relaxed. Don’t use an interview persona. From a hiring manager’s point of view, it’s hard to hire someone without knowing what they’re really like at work. Be conversational and show your personality in order to stand out.

3. Offering fake weaknesses. There are a lot of interviewers that now avoid asking the strengths and weaknesses question, because most candidates give a canned answer. Be willing to have an honest conversation about your strengths and weaknesses to let the interviewer get a glimpse of how you are as an employee.

4. Sales pitching instead of asking questions. Once your interviewer asks what questions you have, make sure to have some in mind that are related to the work or the company to help you determine if the job is right for you. Don’t use the given time to sell yourself to the hiring manager or share your achievements.

5. Not paying attention to the interviewer’s cues. Remember that your interviewer is analyzing how you manage the conversation. Take note of the interviewer’s cues so you can organize your thoughts properly when answering questions. This will likely result in a better overall impression and a stronger conversation.

Read 3344 times Last modified on Tuesday, 02 May 2017 04:50
Alan Carniol

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 80,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.