Seven sins, hundreds of tales: TheLadders.com takes a look at common (and some not-so-common) interview blunders, mistakes and gaffes.
The person sitting across from you – who may be your next boss – identifies more with your past bosses than she does with you. Badmouthing old colleagues will leave a terrible taste in your potential employer's mouth.
Sure, your old boss was a disorganized, credit-hogging, incompetent jerk. That said, the person sitting across from you – who could be your next boss – identifies more with your past bosses than she does with you. She wants to see how you'll handle yourself in her organization. If you shoot down your old colleagues, won't she fear being the next person in your crosshairs?
Instead of criticizing people from your past work experiences, find common ground with the interviewer by addressing issues common to all companies, like poor communication or ineffective meetings. Let her know how you've attacked these problems in the past, and what you can do to help now.
Just interviewed an applicant who spent half of the one hour alloted for the interview telling me how terrible her current job/boss are, how underappreciated she is, how stupid they are, etc. She was so negative you could feel it seeping from her every pore! When asked what contribution she felt she could make to our company, she went back into her routine about how unappreciated and undercompensated she has been throughout her career. Too much of a project for us - we're looking for positive energetic applicants who can really make their mark.
Years ago I interviewed a young man who had recently graduated from college. The job was for an entry level stockbroker in a call center environment. He had interviewed with 2 of my colleagues for an hour each immediately before me. One of the first questions I asked was "tell me why you like people". He went on for 5 minutes about how he doesn't like people and how they really annoy him when they want things. The interview lasted 5 minutes, 30 seconds and he was shocked. I spent 15 minutes with him at the elevator explaining why he would not get the job!
Interviewing for a role several years ago, I was still upset about what had transpired at my last company to a degree, and towards the end of one interview, I was asked a question that triggered a negative response on my part, albeit a minor one, towards someone at my previous firm. You could feel the chill in the air as it killed my chances for the role.
From an interview: Have you ever been fired from a job? Yeah but it wasn't my fault. See I was dating this woman and work and she made me mad. I broke her arm and the company said I couldn't do that at work.
I would never do that here though, I'm still dating her and she doesn't want to work here.
I was interviewing for an entry level position withen our company. The role requires a great deal of customer service skills, for both internal and external customers. The individual proceeded to tell me about his past experience with customer service, and proceeded to badmouth both employer and customer alike. Not the type of individual required to be a part of my team.
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