How you bombed your job interview before it even began

YOU may not even realise you’re setting yourself up for failure. Here’s how you bombed your job interview before it even began.

JOB interviews are mysterious things.

You go to one and are convinced you nailed it. And then you hear ... crickets. But you and the interviewers got along so well! You thought you had a connection! And yet they ride off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.

Now, interview-ghosting is rude, inconsiderate and totally unprofessional, but there isn’t much you can do about it. You can, however, make sure your interview game is solid and avoid some of the most common (but not necessarily the most predictable) mistakes. We spoke to human resources executive Greg Giangrande (a k a Go to Greg, who answers your most pressing work-related questions here in The Post each week). He gave us five interview mistakes to avoid like the plague.

YOU WERE INFLEXIBLE WHEN SCHEDULING THE INTERVIEW

The actual interview is only a small part of the larger interview process: Every interaction leading up to it counts, and speaks volumes about what type of person you are. So when you’re actually scheduling the interview, make sure you’re demonstrating that you’re flexible and available. “It’s really annoying if you’re not gracious and accommodating,” says Giangrande. “If you’re unable to accommodate the times that they’re suggesting, you need to be responsive and flexible in suggesting other times.”

YOU SHOWED UP TOO EARLY

Hey, wait, showing up early is a good thing, right? Sure — unless you’re really early (a half-hour to an hour) and having the reception desk call your interviewer repeatedly, as if your interviewer has nothing else at all planned that day. If you’re super-early, it’s better to just go sit in a nearby coffee shop with a book, then head back to the reception desk five to 10 minutes before the appointment. Obviously, the opposite of this is true too. “If you’re more than five minutes late, and there isn’t a phone call before you were late with some explanation about why the tardiness is beyond your control — that’s a killer,” says Giangrande.

YOU ACTED LIKE A JERK IN THE RECEPTION AREA

Everyone knows it’s important to be polite to receptionists; they are the gatekeepers to the company. But the need for good behaviour extends to the reception area in general. “When you’re in the reception area, you’re on the interview,” says Giangrande. “You could walk in and be cheerful [to the receptionist] and then act like an idiot, talking on the phone loudly with your friends and slouching in your seat. That’s going to make a very poor impression. How you conduct yourself in this area is how you should conduct the interview.”

YOU PARROTED YOUR RESUME

In an actual interview, your resume should be considered a conversation starter, but definitely not a script. The meeting is an opportunity for the interviewer to learn more about you than the bullet points on a piece of paper, and if you’re unable to give them anything more than that, it will set off alarms. “If you don’t engage in a conversation — an interaction — and you make it difficult to extract information from you, I’ll shut down an interview after 10 minutes,” says Giangrande.

YOU DIDN’T ASK ANY QUESTIONS

“Do you have any questions?” might seem like a mere formality to wrap up the interview, but this isn’t the case. A smart question should be seen as a must, not a maybe. “If you ask a question or two, it demonstrates curiosity, preparation, and that you were listening during the conversation,” says Giangrande. “There’s no way everything you could want to know about the company was answered. This is an opportunity for you to extend the interview and take it wherever you want to go. Ask something that demonstrates you’ve done your research.” Just don’t go nuts with the questions — one or two is great, anything more than three is pushing it.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as How you bombed your job interview before it even began