Aahh the interview room. That mystical space where complete strangers meet for the first time to see if they are compatible, where nerves are par for the course and people’s dreams are made and shattered.
Whether these meetings are successful or end in disaster, there are certain things you should never see in an interview. We joined forces with the team over at Novo ltd, a UK leading recruitment company, to discuss…
1: A potential employer “flexing his/her muscles”
We’ve all met one of these characters. The type of chap or lady who walks in with a sneer on their face, delivers a handshake that crushes every bone in your fingers and dresses in a suit so sharp it could cut glass. The meeting usually commences with a monologue about how great they are, what car they drive, where they holiday and the fact they have had to work 27 hours a day, 9 days a week to get to where they are now. And if you are lucky, you could be like them.
No thanks.
2: An applicant trying to pass off a weakness as a strength
The old classic.
Interviewer: Have you got any weaknesses?
Applicant: Well I am a bit of a perfectionist so it does mean I can take a bit of extra time to get the job done, but when it is done it will be perfect.
If you were a perfectionist, you would have realised by now that this is a stock answer people have heard millions of times before and it sounds crass. Far from perfect. What’s wrong with a bit of honesty? Tell an interviewer how it really is. Christ, only a handful of us are perfect!
3: An interviewer getting personal or over familiar with an interviewee, or vice versa
There can be a surprisingly fine line between a bit of light hearted banter and being massively inappropriate but it is a line that must never be crossed, particularly in an interview situation where neither party can be sure of the boundaries. And we’re not just talking about unsuitable comments here which might be deemed derogatory or offensive, but also long winded stories of woe and affliction which are better placed in an episode of Jeremy Kyle than in an interview situation.
Yes the interview might be going well and you might think that you are hitting it off with the interviewer/applicant but nobody should be going war and peace in to their deepest darkest thoughts.
4: Poor preparation (from either side of the interview table)
There is no better way of putting off a potential employer or applicant than being massively unprepared for an interview. People automatically think of a candidate not preparing properly for a meeting but it works both ways.
Nothing sells a business or screams professionalism like an interviewer walking in and saying “Sorry mate, Dave just flashed your CV on my desk 5 minutes ago and to be honest, I haven’t really looked at it but tell me what role you are here for and a little bit about yourself”!
Really?
Conversely, in what world does a candidate go in to an interview having conducted zero research on the business they are looking to secure employment with. I am constantly staggered by the amount of people that tell me their biggest bugbear about the recruitment process is the fact that candidates have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about the role they are interviewing for or the business they could potentially be working for. Even if you fluff the rest of the interview, you should surely at least know what opportunity it is you have missed out on and what company you could have been working for.
Simply inexcusable and quite frankly, ridiculous.
5: Mobile phone distractions
We live in a society where people cling to their mobile telephones as if they are life support machines, fearing that if they are away from social media for 15 seconds – or don’t immediately give a big blue thumbs up to a dog riding a unicycle – the world will crumble. Dear God turn off your phones. Or better still, don’t take it in to the interview room at all.
I have sat in meetings where I have had to physically restrain myself from picking an offending mobile phone up and launching it out of the window. This isn’t just about receiving a call but the incessant need for people to sly a look at their phones to check for emails or updates on or one of the 5000 apps they insist on downloading.
Have a bit of respect for yourself and the person sitting opposite you. Give them your full and undivided attention. You can take that all important selfie later on
Be Prepared, Be Punctual, Be Honest, Be Confident, Be Humble and Be Respectful.
Don’t be an absolute [insert appropriate word]
