Top Ten Mistakes Candidates Make in an Initial Interview

The following is excerpted with permission from Acing the Interview: How to Ask and Answer the Questions That Will Get You the Job by Tony Beshara (AMACOM 2008).

Top ten mistakes candidates make in an initial interview:

1. They forget that this is a selling situation… and don’t ask for the job. A candidate’s objective in an initial interview is to sell what he or she can do for the prospective employer. He or she is so unique and so valuable over and above every other candidate, he or she need to be hired.

2. They think that interviewing is a “two-way street.” An initial interview is a “one-way street.” A candidate has to prove him- or herself superior to all of the other candidates before getting to an “equal” exchange with a potential employer.

3. They focus on what they want in a job. If candidates give the hiring authority good enough reasons why they ought to be hired, a hiring authority can give them plenty of reasons why they ought to go work there.

4. They don’t know what they’re really selling to an employer. Many candidates forget to sell specific features, advantages, and benefits that they can provide the employer.

5. They cannot articulate or “bridge” their specific abilities for the employer. Most candidates “know” they’re good, but they don’t know how to articulate their advantages. This takes practice and doesn’t come naturally.

6. They have poor communication skills. Candidates must practice looking people in the eye and communicating clearly and concisely what they can do for a company that nobody else can.

7. Improper or poor dress and/or body language is unprofessional in the interview. Candidates should dress professionally and be relaxed, yet serious in their body language.

8. They don’t research the company or the position they are interviewing for. The people who are getting the jobs usually know more about the company and the people they are interviewing with.

9. They are unable to articulate what they would like in a new job or company. Candidates must be able to articulate their professional goals, what they are striving for personally and professionally.

10. They badmouth their present employer. Most candidates don’t recognize that employers identify with employers. Your past and present employers have to appear positive.

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Good stuff here (and in this book overall) IMO. I've had a lot to say about interviewing as well, and if you want more information check out these posts:

• Why You Should Take Practice Interviews

• 20 Tips to Nail a Job Interview

• The Little Things Matter to Interview Success

Comments

[Bad_Brad]

I strongly disagree with #2.

Interviewing is absolutely a two-way street. Where did this attitude that it's a one-way street come from? Does a bad economy mean that as a job candidate I need to grovel and beg for whatever job I can possibly get? Of course not. There is a question of fit on both sides. It's perfectly acceptable for a candidate to ask questions about the role, what projects he will work on, what people he will interact with, about potential development and advancement opportunities, what the direct manager's management style is, what the company culture is like, what the company's short-term and long-term goals are and how this role fits in with that, etc, etc, etc. I actually count it against candidates if they don't ask me at least one or two token questions about the company.

I agree with all of the others, but #2 is just a HUH?????? for me.

[Cynthia]

I'm in the process of hiring 4 new staff members and I've experienced #2 first hand. I had a prospective employee if I knew what active listening was and then went on to explain that most bosses didnt, and that he wanted to work for someone that did.

Another interviewee asked me no less than a half a dozen questions about tuition reimbursement and asked that I outline the investment that the company was willing to make in her.

Well, both questions are fair - I guess, but if in an interview, I'm made to feel that you are a person that is strong headed, doesn't listen, extremely opinionated and only concerned about yourself, I'm not going to hire you - period!

If you can find a way to ask your questions so they don't give off these affects then fine.

I do find that sometimes, interviewees think that managers want people that will challenge them - and this is true - but not in the first or even second interview. Wait until you know the company wants you, and even then, ask questions in a polite manager.

[Cynthia]

opps...I meant manner - not manager.