Everyone has their own journey and experience with interviews, but there are some well accepted things that you may want to avoid. These may seem common sense, but you would be astonished at how many people do these anyway.
DO NOT:
1. Lie: it’s tempting to lie a bit during your interview to showcase yourself as the perfect hire, but interviewers can catch a lie. Your body language usually gives it away, and even you are able to lie with a straight face, they will dig deeper and deeper till you won’t be able to stand your ground. By lying you lose credibility and showcase lack of integrity and that’s a sure shot way of getting disqualified. Be honest and stick to the truth – there is enough within you to showcase, just learn how to show case your strengths well.
2. Ramble on: If someone asks tell me about yourself and you ramble on for 20 mins, you’ve effectively shown the interviewer that you lack the art of brevity and you can be sure the interviewer has probably zoned out. Answer questions well but be precise and brief. Structure your answers in a way that make the interviewer eager to learn more about you. This is not to say that you should give one line or one word answers. Just make them brief enough that the person listening to you doesn’t lose interest.
3. Use guess work: If you do not know something, don’t guess and hope for the best. It is okay to not know everything under the sun. Just politely let them know that you are not aware of this aspect and would learn about it. An honest admission of ignorance is much better than hopeful arrogance. The interviewer will move on to the next question or ask about other aspects where you can showcase your prowess.
4. Be too casual or too formal: This is a delicate balance that one has to learn, and is usually difficult for freshers. Being too casual shows callousness but being too formal shows rigidity. You have to be somewhere in between where you show flexibility along with sincerity and professionalism. However, showcasing fake professionalism never works; you need to build that attitude and mindset within you.
5. Hesitate in accepting weakness: Nobody is perfect; we all have areas of improvement. Believing and saying otherwise is ignorance and arrogance. When the interviewer asks about your areas of improvement they are trying to assess how self-aware you are. Self-awareness and ability to improve and broaden one’s competencies are strong indicators of intelligence and potential. Hence saying you do not have any weakness or improvement areas, or giving a standard answer which doesn’t apply to you is a deal breaker. Delve deeper, get to know yourself and then answer.
6. Be under-prepared: Interview is a platform where you instill confidence in the interviewer about yourself. Preparation has many levels, the basic one is to know everything that is in your CV or related to it. Several times interviewees reply with I don’t remember it was so long ago, when an interviewer asks about a project in one of the previous companies or during college. Before the interview, go through your CV and pull out the memories related to initiatives, programs, projects, or assignments you have mentioned in your CV and keep them handy.
7. Try flattery: Answer to why you want to work here, is usually a long list of how great the company is meant as a way of flattering the interviewers. Most interviewers are mature and near experts in human behaviour, flattery really doesn’t work with them. What they are looking for is for you to showcase how you are a right fit for the organization - how your core values match that of the company, how your skill set match to the job requirements, or how the organization fits into your career goals.
8. Lose your cool: Interviewers may occasionally cross question you about your work, education, hobbies or other aspects to instigate a reaction from you. Usually this is a way to check your ability to handle difficult situations and deal with conflicts. Being defensive or getting angry doesn’t help; this is an opportunity for you to show them how you can effectively deal with stressful situations. Keep calm and rationally answer.
Bestinu has training sessions that can help you prepare for an interview. We help you to explore yourself and your inner strengths, learn best ways to present your answers and work on your body language. The training is done by industry professionals so you get to understand the perspective of the interviewer, and put the best foot forward during the interview. For more details, contact us.