This is why you don't get hired: 10 failed interview mistakes

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Even the most skilled professionals can look for work for months. It is especially offensive not to receive the desired offer if, as it seemed to you, you have already achieved the main thing - a personal meeting with a potential employer. Perhaps it's all about one of these errors. We will tell you how to avoid them.

Mistake 1. You are late

A surefire way to turn your HR manager against you even before the interview starts is to be late for the appointment. Few are willing to work with someone who does not know how to manage their time. Such non-punctuality can be perceived as disrespectful. Or worse, as a sign that you don't really need a job.

What to do

This can be considered the first test. And if punctuality isn't your greatest strength, take the time to prepare for the meeting.

• Are you poorly guided in an unfamiliar area? Calculate your route on online maps and get out with plenty of time.
• Are you at risk of getting stuck in traffic? Leave your car and go to the meeting by public transport.
• Are you late anyway? Call a representative of the company and warn - this will smooth out the impression a little.

There is a good way to avoid getting lost on your way to your interview and not being late for work. You just need to find a vacancy near your home or a convenient metro station if you live in a city with a population of over one million. In the Avito Jobs service there is a search by the "Radius / Metro" function. You can select the desired station or point on the map, and then set the search radius for vacancies - from 1 to 100 kilometers. The service will display suitable ads, and you no longer have to manually filter vacancies on the other side of the city.

Mistake 2. You didn't dress properly

Or rather, did not pay attention to how you look. Appearance is the first thing a person pays attention to when meeting. Especially if it is an HR manager. It is believed that only 17 seconds are enough for us to get the first impression of the interlocutor. You may be a great specialist, but a recruiter who is outraged by your dirty shoes and stale shirt will never know about it and will hardly regret it.

It is also important how it is customary to go to work where you hope to get a job. Not all candidates dress appropriately when they come to a company interview with a dress code. But for many recruiters this is important: if the applicant is not concerned with the appearance, or he is not motivated, or even too lazy to learn about the dress code.

What to do

When you go to your interview, donate jeans and choose business attire. Tidy yourself up to look neat and well-groomed. Do not use perfume in favor of a neutral scent deodorant.

What if, in principle, any rules regarding the appearance in the office do not suit you? Look for remote work that you can do even in your pajamas. There are many such proposals on Avito Work. Just use the filter you want to choose the parameters for your ideal job.

Mistake 3. You are not guided by your resume

Although the HR manager will have your resume in front of their eyes, you will still be asked to introduce yourself. If the applicant cannot do this, is confused in names and dates, this is a bold minus. The question arises whether he wrote the truth there at all.

You are unlikely to be the only candidate the recruiter has spoken to in the past few days. HR may not remember the content of your resume. But if you don't remember him well, it's strange.

What to do

Before the interview, review your resume, recall the main stages of the work path. The legal names of the places where you worked are not as important as your functions and achievements there. And during the meeting, describe your experience in each position, and briefly list the information from your resume.

Mistake 4. You do not know anything about the company

A candidate who hasn't bothered to find out what a potential employer is doing clearly likes to take risks. Not the fact that you will be asked what you know about the company. But if it turns out that you do not know anything at all, it means that your choice was not conscious. Chances are, you are in desperate need of a job and are grabbing any job. And that's certainly not what employers want to hear.

What to do

Show your awareness, interest and ability to seek information. On Avito Work, you don't even have to put in a lot of effort for this. The required data can be seen directly on the website. Click on the name of the employer in the job description, go to his page and, if he is not an individual, you will see the section "About the company".

What to look for when meeting a potential employer by ad:

• Study the information about how many years the company has existed, what facts it indicates about itself. Pay attention to the contact information: office address, work phone numbers and e-mail. Serious companies use corporate email on their own domain.
• Read the job description in the vacancy carefully. It should be detailed, but not overwhelming. A competent employer is interested in the fact that candidates have a clear idea of what they will be doing.
• You can learn more about the corporate culture of the company by the style of the announcement. He can be discreet and formal or creative and friendly.

Mistake 5. You are confused by uncomfortable questions

The internet is full of stories of HR professionals doing real stress interviews. And a person who is not ready for an interview may be confused even by a standard request to tell about yourself and simple questions:

• Why do you want to work for this particular company?
• Why did you leave your previous job?
• Why should they take you?
• Where do you see yourself in five or more years?
• What salary are you applying for?

What to do

Prepare answers to these common questions, and search the Internet for tricky and unexpected ones. Practice answering in front of the mirror or asking friends to play along. Record your answers on the video: this way you can look at yourself from the outside, listen to whether your speech sounds confident, whether there are words-parasites in it. Try not to be verbose.

Mistake 6. You are not very loyal

The ideal candidate speaks about the past company either well, or briefly and in a neutral way. This indicates that the applicant is not conflicting and will treat the employer correctly. If you are ready to tell in person what bad people you had to work with before, it will not cause sympathy at all. Such criticism will say more about your character than about those you criticize.

What to do

When asked about the reasons for dismissal, do not discuss the identity of the manager and colleagues. Better to talk about the lack of career growth, the inability to reveal their potential, remoteness from home.

Even if the working conditions in the previous job were unambiguously terrible, which is why you quit, speak about it in neutral terms. For example, if overtime was not paid, and the salary was stably delayed, say so, without drawing parallels with slave labor.

Mistake 7. You are not sure of yourself

Being tight in interviews can nullify your chances, even if your skills and experience are appropriate for the job. It is difficult for an insecure person to show himself as a successful candidate with whom the company can achieve high results. Interviewing can be stressful. And how you react to this stressful situation can tell an employer a lot about you.

What to do

• Before entering the office of a potential employer, remind yourself: it is not only the company that chooses, but also you.
• Start preparing for the interview and dealing with insecurities during the resume creation phase. Indicate in it everything that you consider to be your strengths. Refresher courses and certifications from well-known online courses will work as long as the programs you take are relevant to the position you are applying for.

It is very easy to write a resume in the service, as well as to sell something - both directly on the website from a computer, and in a mobile application. Only this time you will "sell" yourself.

Log in to your account on the site and in the upper right corner, click the "Post ad" button. In the menu that appears, select the section "Work", and then - "Resume".

Select the field of your activity and fill in the opened online questionnaire as detailed as possible. If possible, add a photo - this will increase your chances of being noticed several times. By the way, you can upload a photo of your diploma, certificate, and other important documents.

And don't forget to fill out the About Me section. There is no need to talk about your hobbies and your zodiac sign: this is unlikely to help you understand what kind of person you are at work. But if you are applying for the position of a programmer, you should give a link to the repository and tell about hackathons where you managed to excel.

Mistake 8. You over-praise yourself

When trying to impress the interviewer, don't exaggerate. A job seeker who vividly talks about his incredible achievements in the previous place begs the question: why is such a successful candidate looking for a job?

It is not uncommon for job seekers to be disingenuous in interviews trying to impress HR. Someone exaggerates their experience and skills, someone underestimates their age. This is killer for your reputation: many of the things that you say about yourself are easy to check with a couple of calls or a cursory glance at your social networks.

What to do

Let the real facts speak for you. Talking about your successes in your previous place of work, mention that you owe this, including to the company and the people with whom you worked, if you really think so. For an HR manager, this is a good signal: the job seeker loves teamwork and is loyal to the employer.

Mistake 9. You are behaving strangely

Both stiffness and excessive swagger can leave a bad impression on your interlocutor. Better not to take risks and do not go beyond the polite framework of business communication.

Many job seekers, wanting to establish contact with the interviewer, try to joke, and this is rarely appropriate. Some candidates, hoping for their own irresistibility, try to flirt and flirt with a recruiter of the opposite sex. Some even try to manipulate the interviewer with advice from an NLP book.

What to do

Banal but powerful advice: behave naturally. Do not practice acting if you are not looking for a job in the theater: a professional will quickly see through your "tricks" and will not let himself be fooled.

Mistake 10. You have no questions

At the end of the interview, you will definitely be asked what you would like to know about the job and the company. If you have no questions, it may seem like you are not very motivated. This means that you don't care what you do. Or you have no idea where you came from.

What to do

Ask universal questions - unless, of course, you already received answers to them during the conversation.

• Why did the vacancy appear and what were the strengths of your predecessor?
• What difficulties can be associated with working in a position of interest to you?
• What is the typical working day for the position you are applying for?
• What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in the company?
• Is there something you need to know about the job that was not in the job description?

The right questions are not only a way to make a good impression on the recruiter. It is also an opportunity to learn more about the future position and company. It is very important to remember that the interview is a game of two sides. The company should be as good for you as you are for it. Otherwise, not so much time will pass from the beginning of work, as you will again find yourself in the role of a job seeker.

The main piece of advice you can give a person when looking for a job is not to give up. Treat any rejection as an experience. And the next interview is an important step on your career path. Avito Jobs has a huge number of job offers. And one of them is waiting for you. Indeed, annually on this site, more than 830 thousand employers from all over the country post their vacancies.

Look for offers, look for a suitable schedule, a convenient place, a good salary - all these parameters can be configured in the "Vacancies" section using convenient filters. At the same time, it is not necessary to wait until they notice you: respond to the vacancies you like first, using a call or message. Happy search!