Don’t Do’s in Job Interviews
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
While the resources in the previous post about interviews provide a lot of good advice to prepare for interviews, it’s important to be aware of common faux pas in job interviewing that could negate all the hard work you put into getting an interview. You don’t want to unwittingly commit an error that eliminates you from further consideration and then realize afterward that you did something wrong without realizing it. So, here’s a post and some helpful sources to inform you about things you should avoid doing in a job interview.
- Top job interview faux pas
- Reframe things that tempt you to commit a faux pas
- Put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes ahead of the interview
Top job interview faux pas
Across the four articles from three sources given below, they mention many different things to avoid doing or saying during job interviews. While it’s worth reading through each article and noting each critical mistake to avoid, four were mentioned consistently enough to be identified up front:
- Tardiness
- Lying
- Disparaging others (such as past colleagues or employers)
- Interviewing unprepared (not preparing questions to ask or researching the organization beforehand)
You can think of these four as the top faux pas to avoid, but remember that part of being prepared for an interview is to also know about other “don’t do’s”, as enough of the more minor ones could collectively sink your chances of advancing as well. Here are the four articles reviewed for this post, but feel free to look around the web or elsewhere for others:
Reframe things that tempt you to commit a faux pas
If you know you might struggle to resist any interview faux pas, try to address that before an interview, not on the fly during the interview. Simply telling yourself beforehand to not do it and not preparing any further could cause you to accidentally commit the faux pas in the heat of the moment; you’d be surprised at how easy it can be to forget or abandon decisions like that when you’re put into a stressful situation like a job interview. Instead of simply telling yourself, “Don’t do it!”, figure out how you can handle the issue in a more positive way.
One example might be if you’ve had a negative experience or relationship with a colleague or boss, past or present. Instead of criticizing them in an interview (even stumbling into it when you didn’t mean to), find one positive thing to note about that person and one thing you learned through your difficulty working with them. Refusing to mention the conflict or tension you've had with them is avoiding conflict, and that’s not going to score points with the hiring manager, either. Instead, acknowledge that you’ve struggled to get along with this person but explain how you made the best of it and mention anything you can think of about how the other person tried to help the situation. Giving credit where credit is due to someone you’re struggling to get along with will impress your hiring manager!
Another example could be reframing to prevent tardiness, if you tend to run late a lot. Many people end up late for appointments because they are trying to maximize their productivity; they try to do just one last task before leaving for the appointment. Then, they hit a traffic slowdown or some other delay, and punctuality slips out of reach. Reframe this by thinking about how tardiness kills your chances of advancing past that interview, thus making that interview a likely waste of your time (not to mention the interviewer's). The last task or two you cram in that makes you late for the interview almost certainly can wait until after the interview, and they probably aren’t anywhere near as important as succeeding in your interview. Make an alarm on your phone to stop doing other tasks plenty early and allow ample transit time, with an explanation on the alarm to remind you why you set it.
Put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes ahead of the interview
As you review and consider all the different interview faux pas to avoid, think ahead about how the interviewer would feel if you committed any of them. They are trying to assess not only your qualifications for the job, but also how well you’re likely to get along with them and the rest of the team. Practicing empathy by putting yourself in the interviewer’s shoes will give you strong motivation to prepare well and avoid faux pas, because you’ll better anticipate how anything you say or do in the interview, good or bad, will make the interviewer feel.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
~ Maya Angelou
Yes, the interviewer(s) will probably take notes on what you say and do, but how you make them feel is every bit as important as anything they remember about your words or actions.
Conclusion
Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to job interview faux pas. While there’s no exact number of them, there are probably a total of one to two dozen noteworthy ones you should at least be aware of to consider yourself prepared to avoid them. Some will tarnish your reputation in the interview more than others. Try to identify the ones you’re most vulnerable to and look for ways to deal with them in a positive, constructive way. Finally, take a short time to imagine you’re an interviewer and the person you’re interviewing commits a major faux pas against you; how would that make you feel?
Review the sources above, and others if you want, to learn what interview faux pas to avoid today!
The next step on the roadmap: Networking: People Helping Each Other