Worst mistakes you can make in a job interview

MOST of us should know how to avoid stuffing up a job interview, but we’re still making some obvious mistakes.

SO YOU’RE smartly dressed, you’re on time and you know the names of the people interviewing you.

Well done, you’ve made it past the first hurdle in scoring a job interview, but the hard part is just beginning.

Most of us know the basics for coming off well in a job interview, yet we can still find ourselves left unemployed and wondering how another candidate beat us to the prize.

Christine Khor, a recruitment director at Chorus Executive and author of Hire Love, told news.com.au promising candidates are still making surprising mistakes and cheating themselves out of their perfect role.

Here are the common errors to avoid.

1. TELLING LIES

Whether it’s pretending you are an expert in a certain field, trying to conceal a long period off work or claiming to be more senior than you were, Ms Khor doesn’t agree with the “fake it ’til you make it” mantra.

“Be really honest,” she says. “Don’t lie on your CV, you’ll always get caught. If you have no degree, you were made redundant or you didn’t get along with your boss, just say so.”

But know how to tell the truth in the best way ...

2. LEAVING OUT THE CONTEXT

Make sure you paint the full picture when explaining anything that could sound like a negative.

“If they ask why you left your job, don’t say, ‘I didn’t like the boss,’ full stop,” says Ms Khor. “Say there was a change of management, you wanted to develop your career and that role wasn’t going to be available to you in the near future. It’s a really different way of saying the same thing.

“Don’t just say you got made redundant. Say the global financial crisis happened, they closed a department, 78 people lost their jobs and unfortunately you were one of them.”

Recruitment company director Christine Khor says you can easily shoot yourself in the foot.

3. NOT KNOWING YOUR CV

Ms Khor says it’s surprisingly common for people to not remember what they’ve written on their CV.

You should be able to confidently run through what you have achieved and when. “People get the details wrong, the dates wrong, their financial achievements,” she says.

If you managed a budget or you achieved a certain group market share, you need to understand and be able to explain that.

4. NOT UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE

Many candidates don’t know enough about the organisation or the position. Make sure you research both thoroughly before the interview.

You also need to be clear on why you are the ideal person for that role. “There’s a difference between wanting to leave your job and why you want to work for someone,” says Ms Khor.

“It’s not about what you can or should do, it’s about what you want to do. If you’re not passionate, you might be good, but you’re not going to be great.”

5. RAISING ISSUES EARLY ON

Try not to mention any possible negatives at the start of the interview. While flexible working hours are becoming more widely available, if you bring them up straight away, you make yourself sound more like a problem than a solution.

“I’m seeing this more and more, especially with women,” said Ms Khor. “Single mums and dads both need flexibility for pick-up and drop-offs, but women will say it very quickly at the beginning.

“You need to be honest if you need flexibility, but you don’t need to say it straight away. Biased or not, it puts in the employer’s mind that it’s not going to work.”

Don’t undersell yourself, but don’t go too overboard either.

Hannah Horvath from Girls is known for saying the wrong thing in interviews.

6. UNDERSELLING YOURSELF

People typically go for jobs when they fulfil 80 per cent of the criteria, and that’s OK.

But some candidates will talk themselves out of a job by focusing too much on the 20 per cent they can’t do. Again, says Ms Khor, it’s often female jobseekers.

“Women are putting up barriers for themselves,” she adds. Concentrate on what makes you valuable, both in terms of the role and what you can bring to the team.

7. OVERSELLING YOURSELF

But don’t go too far the other way ...

“There’s a fine line between underselling and overselling yourself,” says Ms Khor.

“Interviewers want to know how passionate you are and your achievements but they also want to know your faults. None of us are perfect.”

8. MAKING BAD JOKES

Interviewing for a sales role, Ms Khor asked candidates what they would do to drive the business forward.

“One said, ‘I have a lot of dirt on a lot of people, so I use that’.”

To the recruiter, it sounded like he was suggesting he would blackmail people. He laughed it off, but it wasn’t appropriate, and the seed of doubt was planted.

9. ASKING ABOUT MOVING ON

The opportunity to ask questions at the end of an interview can be a minefield, and can see people implying they are lazy or they don’t want the role.

“How long are the work hours?” is one red flag. “It suggests you’re a clock-watcher,” says Ms Khor.

Another risky one is asking, “What’s the next step?” Unless you make it very clear you’re thinking way down the line, it suggests you might want to move on too soon.

“People want to know you want the job,” says Ms Khor. “Talk about wanting the job, not just wanting to be at the organisation.

“If you want to work at Mecca, but you don’t want to do data entry or stacking boxes, the shine is going to fade very quickly.”

Christine Khor’s book on finding the best employees, Hire Love, is available at bookstores or through most online stores now for $24.95.

Originally published as Worst mistakes you can make in a job interview