When it comes to interviewing it can be difficult. We all want to impress, and we all get nerves. I have compiled a few common mistakes people make when interviewing and ways to answer. The blog will support ways to help you learn from them, rather than experience them.

Here are my top 5 Interview mistakes

My top 5 mistakes and how you can overcome them:

Over estimating your skill set in the interview and thinking you know it all.

If you come across as a know-it-all, the first question I ask myself is “how trainable are they”. Will they be open to working in new ways? or are they likely to cause conflict with the other Engineers. Even if they do know it all, confidence and being cocky are 2 different things. In my experience the best Engineers (or any specific skillset you are hiring for) always want to learn more, they always want to listen and explore new ways of doing things.

To avoid these common traits, simply explain how you do things, use words like “I do things this way”, rather than “it’s done this way”.  Simple adjustments like that will just showcase your skills and not give off the impression that you feel it’s the only way to do it.

Failing to dress appropriately for an interview.

This doesn’t mean wear a suit, this simply means dress to impress. I recently was interviewing for a Technician; this is a dirty job where the candidate would open servers and change components. So, a suit is not necessary, but if you turn up to the interview in a tracksuit along with a strong body odor. It’s nearly forgivable if I am told they are coming from work. But if not, his mistake cost him the job the second he walked in the door. If someone shows up to an interview with that disregard for their appearance and personal hygiene, what would they be like when they get settled into the role. It can also portray a lazy trait.

What to do, simple. Look neat. As the person arranging the interview when it’s being arranged, what would be appropriate to wear to the interview? Never underestimate how you look.

Knowing nothing about the job or company or a lack of research.

Every interview I conduct I ask, “What do you know about the company?” The amount of people that simply say, “not too much, can you please let me know” would shock you. It shows a lack of interest in the role. Why would you want an interviewer to spend 10 minutes explaining the business, instead of you explaining to the interviewer why you are a great fit. Interviews range in time, but a screening call is typically 25-30 minutes. If the interviewer spends 10-15 minutes talking up the company, you have wasted half the time. Huge mistake.

Do your research.

When a question like the above materializes, talk about the products, latest news and why you love it. You don’t need to spend hours researching, but google the company, read the wiki page, latest news etc. Before you interview, ask yourself these 2 questions. 1. Why do I want to work here? 2. What can I bring to the company? Ask questions and be curious about the company.

Not getting your personality across in the interview or being too nerves.

It’s hard to fight nerves, let’s be honest. If you are nerves going into the interview, it’s part of the interviewer’s job to settle you. I have conducted thousands of interviews and I have seen nerves cripple people. My best advice is to take a breath and research. The more you know about the role and company the easier it will be to answer questions. When asked a question, again take a deep breath maybe 2-3 seconds and answer. Once you get the first few questions answered you will be fine. It’s important to get your personality across, if you can show humor, it doesn’t mean you need to crack out the jokes, but prepare a humorous story that is relevant to the role. Again, prepare. Your personality can also come across in asking questions, show you care and want the job. Some examples of this can be simply – What’s it like to work here? How big is the team? Is there much of a social aspect to the company? All of those questions indicate you are sociable and like to interact with others.

Complaining about your previous employer.

Whether it’s an old boss, poor treatment, over worked. – If you get too comfortable in an interview it’s easy to start talking. If you are too open it can go against you. Hold off on saying anything negative, it can give the impression you have a tendency to complain. Now in a working environment that is fine, there are ways to do that. But, in an interview, ask yourself is it the interviews business. It’s not an open forum to discuss what you didn’t like about your last role. It’s a discussion about how you will be a great fit for a new role. For example, let’s say you left your last role because you simply hated a co-worker or Manager (believe it or not, this is the most common reason anyone leaves a job). An interviewer is bound to ask, why are you leaving? – In this case, I think I have gone as fair as I can in this role professionally. If you are only there less, then 6 months say – perhaps something like – It’s not quite the role I had envisioned and this role is more aligned and explain why. 

It is incredible to see how people react differently to interviewing. Some people have a natural confidence when it comes to interviewing and seem to get jobs more often than not. Confidence plays a really important part in success. My top tip to those a little more introverted is to purely answer the question asked followed by examples. Please see think for more tips on interviewing

If you would like to learn more about Elwood Roberts Career Consultancy plans, please check it out here