Job Interview Mistakes to Avoid

13 Job Interview Mistakes to Avoid

1. Arriving Late.
Get directions from the interviewer. Leave home early.

2. Dressing Wrong.
You make your greatest impact on the interviewer in the first 17 seconds - impression you want to make powerfully positive.

3. Play Zombie.
Ok, you’re nervous. But you can still smile and make eye contact. Sit up, and focus on the interviewer.

4. No smoking, no gum, no drinking.
This is all comfort stuff for some, and none of it will help during the interview.

5. Research failure.
The interview is not the time for research. Find our the company’s products and services, and other key
information from the Internet, Library, etc.

6. Can’t articulate your own strengths and weaknesses.
Only you can recognize your most valuable strengths and weaknesses. Be able to specify your major strengths.

7. Winging the Interview.
Practice! Get a friend, a list of interview questions and a tape recorder or video camera and conduct an interview
rehearsal.

8. Talk, Talk, Talk.
Rambling, interrupting the interviewer and answering to a simple question with a 15 minute reply—all of these can be avoided.

9. Failure to connect yourself to the job offered.
The job description details the company’s needs - you connect your experiences, your talents and your strengths to the description.

10. Not asking questions - and asking too many.
Use your research to develop a set of questions that will tell you whether this is the job and the company for you.

11. Bad-mouth anyone.
Not just your present employer, or former employer, or the competition.

12. Asking about compensation and/or benefits too soon.
Wait for the interviewer to bring up these issues.

13. Failure to ask for the job.
When the interviewer indicates the interview is over, convey your interest in the job and ask what the next step is.