Biggest Mistakes You Can Make During An Interview

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With jobs being as hard as they are to come by, I can't believe some of the stuff on this list. Here are a few of my favorites:

  • Candidate wore a Boy Scout uniform and never told interviewers why.
  • Candidate referred to himself in the third person.
  • Candidate told the interviewer she wasn't sure if the job offered was worth "starting the car for."
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On the way to the interview, the candidate passed, cut-off, and flipped his middle finger at the driver who happened to be the interviewer.
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LOL
 
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These are the things you are supposed to NOT do? No wonder! :p
 
On the way to the interview, the candidate passed, cut-off, and flipped his middle finger at the driver who happened to be the interviewer.
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This is the one that made me laugh the hardest. lol!
 
I've pulled some boners myself, like talking about how I like to teach concepts so they understand what's going on rather than face my back to the students and write equations all period long... I'm guessing a few of those on the hiring committee were guilty of that.
 
The trickiest point was the one about talking negatively about the past employer. Reasoning being: What if the reason you are at the interview was because your previous employer was a jackass or just bad. I have had to talk around the situation so much.

"Management and I had different ideas on some protocols."
"I think that the last place wasn't the best fit for me"
"My last boss and I had to agree to disagree more than usual."
"My last boss/company had rather interesting ideas on how to run things."

Anyone else have some examples?
 
I made a mistake for programmers job once, I shook the hand of the interviewer so firmly, that I heard a loud "pop" from her knuckles. :eek:
 
The warrants one and the driving one were L-O-L-tastic. The rest of the "Do not do's" seemed rather obvious.
 
I laughed so hard at the guy road raging against the interviewer by mistake.

That said, I am flying out for a job interview in a few hours.
 
Kardonxt said:
If he was a scout leader or something and he had to rush to the interview after saving a scouts life on a hike or something and didn't have to change maybe?
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In that case, I'm gonna purposely leave my shirt slightly unbuttoned and have on a tight superman t-shirt underneath. I also need to sound out of breath and mumble something about trees and cats. =)
 
Ripperjack said:
I made a mistake for programmers job once, I shook the hand of the interviewer so firmly, that I heard a loud "pop" from her knuckles. :eek:
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I hate shaking hands with people for this very reason...sort of. My middle knuckle pops if I clench my fist and a firm handshake will do it....makes me think the other person is like "OMG I crushed his hand!"
 
LOL at the most unusual mistakes. Other than what some here listed, this also cracked me up:
"Candidate put the interviewer on hold during a phone interview. When she came back on the line, she told the interviewer that she had a date set up for Friday."
:D
 
USMCGrunt said:
I hate shaking hands with people for this very reason...sort of. My middle knuckle pops if I clench my fist and a firm handshake will do it....makes me think the other person is like "OMG I crushed his hand!"
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I wonder if fist-bumping the interviewer would be considered an unusual interviewing mistake. :D
 
beowulf7 said:
I wonder if fist-bumping the interviewer would be considered an unusual interviewing mistake. :D
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No but chest bumping would be :D.

I remember one time seeing someone come in for an interview at a retail store dressed in shorts and flip flops. Really people!? Really!?

Remember people, when in doubt, suit it up!
 
USMCGrunt said:
I hate shaking hands with people for this very reason...sort of. My middle knuckle pops if I clench my fist and a firm handshake will do it....makes me think the other person is like "OMG I crushed his hand!"
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I hate shaking people's hand because I always seem to have clam hands w/e I go to do a handshake. ;(
 
I've got another one, wearing perfume or cologne you can smell from the next room. I don't care how expensive it was, that's too much.
 
XamediX said:
The trickiest point was the one about talking negatively about the past employer. Reasoning being: What if the reason you are at the interview was because your previous employer was a jackass or just bad. I have had to talk around the situation so much.

"Management and I had different ideas on some protocols."
"I think that the last place wasn't the best fit for me"
"My last boss and I had to agree to disagree more than usual."
"My last boss/company had rather interesting ideas on how to run things."

Anyone else have some examples?
Click to expand...

Those are actually ALL terrible and ill advised.

Absolutely never talk ill about your previous company / boss.

Lie if you have to.

The narrative is "Everyone was great, we all got along and I really miss those guys"

And then come up with a good reason for changing jobs - make it about opportunity and personal growth:

"It was really hard to move on because (gosh golly!) we were such a close knit group - but I know that to grow in my field, I need more opportunity and you have to be prepared to take some risks."

*** It does not matter how much of an ass your old boss was - what matters is how you talk about him. ***

They have absolutely NO WAY to verify whether your boss actually was a jerk - there is no evidence at your interview to support this assertion.

However, bringing it up presents two possibilities:

1. You are an oversensitive princess that can't get along with anyone and can't respect authority
2. You are totally right - your boss was horrible.

From the stand point of a manager, neither one is provable, but game theory will compel them to *AVOID RISK* which means they have to act as if #1 is true.

"Hello, Ms. Picklepuss? This is Jennifer in HR! How are you? Well, Tom wanted me to call and thank you so much for interviewing with us - it was a pleasure, but we found a candidate who had more experience (at not being a whiny loser) and we have moved forward - we wish you all the best! (sounds of your resume being shredded)"
 
XamediX said:
The trickiest point was the one about talking negatively about the past employer. Reasoning being: What if the reason you are at the interview was because your previous employer was a jackass or just bad. I have had to talk around the situation so much.

"Management and I had different ideas on some protocols."
"I think that the last place wasn't the best fit for me"
"My last boss and I had to agree to disagree more than usual."
"My last boss/company had rather interesting ideas on how to run things."

Anyone else have some examples?
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This is one that always gets me. For instance, if you are employed when interviewing for a new job you are looking at changing jobs for a reason and employers want to know why. You probably aren't wanting to change jobs because everything at your current job is amazing......so you have to say something. If you don't come up with something about what is causing you to look elsewhere or they specifically ask what don't you like about your current job or what do think you will like better about this job you seem dishonest.

At any rate, the never say anything negative about current/former employer thing is a bizarre one that interviewers say is the worst thing you can do, but is really a big part of the interview so if it is so bad the interviewers should probably stop asking about it.
 
"My last company was bleeding money so fast I wasn't sure how much longer I'd have a job."

That work for ya? Worked for me.
 
DoubleTap said:
Those are actually ALL terrible and ill advised.

Absolutely never talk ill about your previous company / boss.

Lie if you have to.

The narrative is "Everyone was great, we all got along and I really miss those guys"

And then come up with a good reason for changing jobs - make it about opportunity and personal growth:

"It was really hard to move on because (gosh golly!) we were such a close knit group - but I know that to grow in my field, I need more opportunity and you have to be prepared to take some risks."
Click to expand...


I have interviewed a number of people over the years, and if you said that in an interview I would circle file your resume in a heart beat for what I said in my last post....you are being dishonest and while YOU don't think I know that as the interviewer I do know you are being dishonest. You may think it doesn't matter because you think I can't prove it, however that doesn't matter. All that matters is I think you are dishonest so you don't move on. It's just like the turning a positive aspect about yourself into a negative (I just work too hard, etc) when asked. You aren't fooling anyone and you aren't getting the job.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1038418658 said:
No but chest bumping would be :D.

I remember one time seeing someone come in for an interview at a retail store dressed in shorts and flip flops. Really people!? Really!?

Remember people, when in doubt, suit it up!
Click to expand...

You can never be overdressed at an interview. Having had the privilege of interviewing people lately, I'll say that I didn't necessarily notice those who were wearing suits, but noticed those who were rather more casually dressed - and not in a good way.
 
USMCGrunt said:
I hate shaking hands with people for this very reason...sort of. My middle knuckle pops if I clench my fist and a firm handshake will do it....makes me think the other person is like "OMG I crushed his hand!"
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Then you get a "pity" hire. Win-win.

Marduk77 said:
this plus saying "good looking out dawg"
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These are pros at Chik-Fil-A.

DoubleTap said:
"It was really hard to move on because (gosh golly!) we were such a close knit group - but I know that to grow in my field, I need more opportunity and you have to be prepared to take some risks."
Click to expand...
Problem for him is anything he says is invalidated as soon as they call his last employer.

Best advice? Don't bicker with your boss in the first place. If you disagree, you tell your boss your objections with his ideas and let it go if it's going to cause personal issues. If your boss is truly an idiot, you move on.
 
I never bring up the reason why I'm looking for a new job of I'm already working. But as others said, its unavoidable so its best to be honest and as PC as possible. I mean, it worked for my current job. If they like you, they like you.

as far as the whole what's your weakness question... Pick a real simple to fix weaknesses that could also be considered a strength and provide ways you are actively working on fixing it.
 
I once went to an interview in shorts and a T-shirt and I could tell the interviewer viewed that negatively but the only reason I was dressed that way was because I didn't have enough money for even bus fare so had to get there on my bicycle and it was a hot day. Can't ride a bicycle in hot weather wearing a suit and it was for a crap manual labor job anyway.
 
kontact said:
I once went to an interview in shorts and a T-shirt and I could tell the interviewer viewed that negatively but the only reason I was dressed that way was because I didn't have enough money for even bus fare so had to get there on my bicycle and it was a hot day. Can't ride a bicycle in hot weather wearing a suit and it was for a crap manual labor job anyway.
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Let me guess... you didn't get the job? Amiright?
 
I have only had one bad interview. I was desperatly trying to get out of a BS management job that I hated. So I was interviewing for anything with decent pay. So one of the places that called me back was Progressive Auto Insurance. For a call center job. I took aptitude tests, did in person interviews, and phone interviews. Wasted hours of my life, so they had me do one last phone interview. Keep in mind I'm real monotone, like Ben Stiller. So the last phone interview ran 3 hours long, and the interviewer kept asking me redundant questions that were pretty much the same thing over and over. Tell me a time when... questions. Finally after some time she says: You are well qualified, your aptitude test came back well, and all the interviewers liked you, but you just don't sound interested in the job. I told her "listen I'm interested in the postition, I like the pay, the benefits, and the hours. But, no one is excited about sitting on their ass all day listening to people call in and complain about their insurance." I never got another call back.

Now that I have a state electrical license no one interviews me they just say "when can you start."
 
I made the mistake of opening my mouth and something sarcastic came out. ~sigh~ Sometimes its better for me to just keep my mouth shut..and my fingers from typing apparently.
 
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