Common Mistakes During Interview Which You Should Avoid
Any job seeker may find the interview process scary since they never know what questions the interviewer will ask or how to effectively present themselves as a top contender. The most frequent interview blunders that might harm your chances of landing a job are listed here, along with solutions.
Wearing the Wrong Clothing
What you dress communicates your level of seriousness and how you want to present yourself as a candidate, whether you are being interviewed in person or digitally. When in question about what to wear, it is always better to be overdressed than underdressed. Make sure your clothing is wrinkle- and odor-free. During your interview, choose sober hues over showy ones, so dress in navy, black, gray, and dark brown.
Keep the same standards in mind for subsequent interviews, and refrain from dressing more casually unless the recruiting staff directly instructs you to do so.
Making An Early Or Late Arrival
Always come early for an in-person interview and schedule your time with traffic and other factors in mind. To allow for unforeseen delays, aim to arrive roughly 10-15 minutes before the planned time. To reduce the possibility of technical issues that might prevent you from attending the call, prepare for virtual interviews a few minutes in advance and test the platform.
On the other hand, arriving too early for an interview might cause a disruption in the interviewers’ plans. They could be distracted from other tasks if you come more than 30 minutes early, which is disruptive.
Giving The Wrong Impression Of Yourself
Your actions before, during, and after the interview will be assessed by the recruiting team, and this will affect how they regard you as a candidate.
Consider the following advice to prevent coming across negatively:
- When speaking, maintain good posture, be animated, and make eye contact.
- Pay close attention to the conversation the interviewer(s) has. It may appear uninteresting to ask them to repeat what they said.
- Don’t appear arrogant or try to dominate the conversation by talking just about yourself and your accomplishments. This information could be requested by the hiring committee, so don’t think about it too much.
- Don’t criticize your former employer or place of employment.
Not Making Advance Preparation
In order to rehearse answers to interview questions and put yourself in the mentality of demonstrating why you are the best applicant for the vacant position, preparing for an interview is an essential step in the recruiting process.
If you don’t do this, you can be caught off guard by a question and appear unorganized, especially if you take too long to come up with a response or just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.
Since many interviewers will ask candidates about their perceptions of the culture or the organization’s growth direction, be sure to research the company and look through its website. Interviewers are more likely to give preference to applicants who can speak intelligently about the company and seem genuinely interested in working there.
Not Asking Any Questions to the Interviewer
Not having one or two prepared interview questions for the recruiting team is another typical interview blunder. Top applicants should show their desire in working for the company by the question they ask their interviewer, since an interview should be for both the employer and the candidate to see whether they make a good fit. If they inquire and you respond that you have no queries, you can come out as disinterested in the position.
Try not to bring up topics that were already covered by the hiring team and refrain from asking obvious questions during the interview. Try to think of questions that are pertinent to the position you are interviewing for, such as what additional skills would most effectively translate for the job or what the most enjoyable aspect would be for someone in that position.
Follow-Up In An Improper Manner
One method to distinguish yourself from applicants who do not follow up with interviewers and thank them for their time is to do it promptly enough to avoid seeming to the hiring committee as a nuisance.
Your follow-up, which might be in the form of an email, should be sent the following day. Begin by expressing gratitude for their time and the opportunity to interview. To show your curiosity, mention anything about the interview or the firm that you were eager to learn about, and then end by expressing your anticipation for hearing from them.
Until the time the interviewer(s) indicated you would hear back on whether you would move on to the next stage of the process, you should hold off sending anything else than that message. Wait a few days and write a follow-up email asking for an update if you don’t hear back by that deadline.
If your circumstances changed, such as when you got a new offer from a different employer, that’s another reason not to seek out. In such a situation, tell the interviewer that you are interested in working for their company but only have a limited amount of time to analyze both offers. If you are a strong candidate, this will speed up the process.