ACE THE INTERVIEW
15 Rookie Job Interview Mistakes
Be confident in your interviews.
Having interviewed at Apple and Google, I am happy to share with you some tips that will help you ace your next interview!
“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.” — Bill Gates
Often we forget that an interview is as much about your personality as it is about your knowledge.
I’ve had interviews where properly dressing up, showing up on time, and being really confident and composed made the manager waive off the questions mid-interview and offered me the job.
“What someone may lack in talent can be more than made up for in self-motivation, self-direction, and follow-through.”― Miles Anthony Smith
The test of knowledge has already been cleared by you when you were attending your school exams. It is now the demonstration of your experience, honesty, integrity in the face of adversity, passion, and communication skill that when done in the right way can bring you the success you want!
So, coming back to the topic...
Fifteen Rookie Job Interview Mistakes You Probably Don’t Realize You’re Making:
1Not talking energetically. That’s a downer. Without a good night’s sleep chances are less you’re gonna exhibit the right enthusiasm.
2Not being direct in your answers. What you’re asked, answer that precisely. Then stop and give the interviewer a chance to speak. An interview should be a two-way conversation, not a one-way presentation.
3Don’t make up an answer to even the smallest of the questions. The interview as I said is a check of your honesty. By digging deeper into a topic, the interviewer immediately knows what you’re saying has flaws.
“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”― Bill Gates
4Don’t talk casually like a conversation, respect that this is an interview. Think about each word you say. Tales about what happened to your relationships and how bad was your previous boss are not expected. You’re there to talk about the future not the adversities of your past. The past is gone for a reason.
5Don’t judge how well the interviewer is doing during the interview. Don’t explain how you’re right, the manager knows if he’s right or not.
6If you know the answer but are not confident about it, that might also cost you the interview. Not having confidence in what you say displays a lack of complete knowledge on the subject. Shallowness is a no-go area. Be confident about what you say.
7One of the most common mistakes is exhibiting a lack of focus on what you want in your next job. If you’re not clear on what you want as your next job, the hiring manager can take this as a negative. For example, by listing more than one skill on a resume, you might have been awarded an interview but during the interview a lack of a clear answer to “What do you want exactly?” might cost you a lot, without you realizing it.
8Don’t ask things like “Do you offer home office?”, “How many hours can I spend outside the office during work hours?”, “Can I take more than two months of vacation?”, in your first interview. Questions like these represent your lack of seriousness towards the next role. Showing commitment is a good start towards a successful interview.
9Don’t show desperation, no one gives sympathy votes! After showing up at a job interview, one must present a consistent integrity ethic no matter how desperate or needy one is for that job. The greed for reward can wait for those two hours of the interview.
10Dress however you like as long as it gives you the confidence you need. Putting a hair wax that causes you to sweat all the time on your forehead, or putting on a long jacket during a snowy bicycle ride there and not taking it off during the interview; mistakes like these show a lack of attention to detail. Putting on a nose-gripping perfume would not convince the interviewer of your skill or knowledge. In work contexts, perfumes must be kept at a low.
11One question nearly all interviewers ask is this: “What makes you want to join us?” This can be asked in many ways like “What are you looking for in your next role?” Or like, “Have you read about the company, etc.” Not knowing why you want to join a company might indicate a lack of interest.
12Most interviews start with, “Tell us more about yourself.” Not preparing for this question before-hand means you’re missing out on an opportunity to impress. Your profile is present in your resume and already known. This question is a chance given to you, to show off your presentation skills on a topic you’ve known before the interview, that it would be asked.
13There are some frequently asked questions. Not knowing these is a mistake. The interviewer’s time is precious. For example, for a developer, hiccups on very basic questions like “What is good code according to you?” or “write a BFS algorithm” can cost you the interview not because you didn’t know the answer but because you failed to prepare for the most frequently asked questions.
14Know the interview lingo. If the interviewer asks you, “Is there a way to improve the answer you’ve given?”, what this technically means is that the answer you gave is not the one he’s looking for. Of course, they’re having a list of answers they expect. Having the common sense to identify the cues and hints that the interviewer is giving you during the interview, is also something you must acquire by researching or experience of interviewing.
15Talking too much about yourself? Think again. Don’t put yourself first and the company second. “You want to learn, you want the challenge”, but that’s all about you. You might be tempted to say such to show determination. The company wants to know what’s in it for them.
An interview is like a minefield. — Michelle Williams
That’s it. We’re done studying the 15 most common interview mistakes. As a bonus, you can read the following sections to help you in your next interview.
Bonus Tip: What to do when you don’t know the answer?
Some of the questions are designed for challenging you into a ‘not-knowing’ situation. As a newbie, the first mistake a candidate makes is to get stuck in a long awkward pause while trying to answer a question which was meant to record their feedback on a doesn’t-know-the-answer scenario. In the face of not knowing the answer, there are ways to handle the situation. “Aaaa mmm ahem mm hmm yeah, okay, hmmmm, well….”, you’re nervous.
Learn how to handle such situations. Prepare for it. When you don’t know the answer, first buy yourself time. Pause and breathe and calm down. Evaluate the question. Gather your thoughts. Say “That’s a great question, let me think about it for a moment.” or ‘Wow that’s a really good question, and I've honestly never thought about it before. Let me take just a moment to think”.
.. or you can say as last resort on something you have ZERO ideas about, “That’s a question I really need to think about, can I take some time with it and come back to it later in the interview?” — and ensure that later in the interview you do remember to come back to it, after thinking on it during the other answers.
You can also buy time by saying, “I want to make sure I understand the question correctly, do you mean
The interviewer knows that you won’t be able to answer every question. Interviewers want to see how you respond to those difficult questions and how do you think through the process to get to the final answer. That’s one of the reasons they ask you the hard questions. Thinking out loud is a great way to demonstrate your process of evaluation and solving a problem.
How can you best think out loud in an interview question? Use signposting for clearer communication. When you’re feeling stuck and don’t know the answer. Use “Firstly, Secondly, Then, After that, Finally” etc. This will help your answer flow smoothly.
When you’re feeling stuck: Focus on what you do know! Instead of simply saying “I don’t know”, think about something that is similar and you are familiar with. This is crucial. Connect the dots to what you do know.
On a rare occasion, if you didn’t know how to answer something in the interview and left it blank, you can say something like this in the follow-up thank you note in an email: “I appreciated your question about
Hope the above helps you avoid the most common pitfalls for your next interview!
Furthermore: 5 Common sense tips on what you should never say in a Job Interview:
- Never talk bad about the past companies, people or say that you didn’t like it.
- Don’t ever say, “it doesn’t matter what it is, I’ll do anything”. Too desperate. You’re there to say what you can do, the value you’ll bring and that you’re excited to do it! Hold tight to your values. Don’t take anything for a job.
- When asked, “Tell us about yourself?”, don’t tell them you’re a self-starter, quick-learner, and are results-oriented. No, not these labels. Say how you can do that thing you’re there for. Put it in context, for example for a management position, talk about how you’ve led people or the teams you’ve built. Talk about projects you completed on-time. Context matters. The facts lead the interviewer into awarding you the label, not the other way around, where you tell them the labels to be awarded to you, without giving them the requisite facts.
- When they ask you a question, I repeat: Don’t tell them you don’t know how! Say, “You know what let me think about that for a second”. Connect it to something similar to what you’ve done. “I haven’t done that exact thing but I've done something similar”. If you show no level of understanding about the question that’s a big ‘Red Flag’ against you. That’s most likely a competency question that can wipe you out right there in the interview. Connect the dots for them.
- Don’t ask them, “..so what does your team do here?”. It hints to them you did no prior research on the company. If anything, ask specifics about the project and study the role extensively before the interview day.
That’s all folks. Summing it up.
Not realizing that an interview is a competition, is the #1 big mistake you can make. There are so many hungry job seekers out there, who want these positions. And they’re going to beat you over ten-times-fold, tenfold. They’re gonna be so much sharper than you. They’re gonna be on their game. They’re gonna be talking about their experiences and how they relate to that job. They’re gonna have prepared for the interview and you can too.
Lastly, don’t fret upon it too much. Stay cool. After all, in interviews, it is all about luck.
