Interviews are perhaps the most stressful part of a job search, regularly ranking above “lying on my resume” and “buying a newspaper for the want ads” on surveys of unemployed applicants. Here are suggestions from five human resource professionals on common mistakes candidates make when they sit down across the desk from a prospective employer.
“Your resume says you like to dress up like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter–is that true?”
Timing isn’t everything, but it’s more important than your tie. Make sure you get to the interview on time, but showing up too early can be seen as a mark of desperation. “Some career coaches say that if you show up too early, just sit outside in your car listening to music until five minutes before the scheduled time for the interview,” says Robin Alinsky, VP-Human Resources for Meridian Life & Casualty Company in Utica, New York. “That’s a bunch of hooey. There is nothing that can ruin your chances like singing along at the top of your lungs to a Michael Bolton song on your car radio while a Senior Vice President walks by,” she says. “Especially the one that goes ‘Baby I know, where love grows’ or ‘goes’ or ‘what love knows’ or ’shows’ something like that.”
Michael Bolton: “I know, where love grows, or goes, or something like that!”
Watch what you wear. Sheila Swansburg of Northern Ohio Bancshares in Cleveland says it’s a good idea to check the website of the company and find out whether they have a dress code for employees. If so, dress one level above it. Thus, for an employer that has a “business casual” policy, “You should ideally dress in a cutaway tuxedo jacket for men, and a simple, floor-length dress in basic black for women,” she says. If the company does not have a dress code, Swansburg says men should be sure to wear socks except during the summer months and a woman should wear underpants if the hem of her skirt is more than two inches above her knee.
Tube-topped applicant: “Where do I see myself in five years? Not working with a tool like you!”
Don’t stick a finger in a bodily orifice. This is a definite no-no, according to Robert Thompson of ThermoNeutron Corporation in Palo Alto, California. “Doesn’t matter which finger or where,” he says, “contrary to what your college roommate may have said when you told him he was grossing you out.” He says there is some leeway if an interviewee uses a paper clip or ballpoint pen cap as an extension of his finger. “We try to be flexible–I just don’t shake hands with people like that afterwards.”
“Mr. Bernard scratched himself throughout our interview.”
Act like you’re interested. Do some research on the employer beforehand, says Tina Marshall, Assistant Auditor of AgriWay Feed & Seed, Springfield, Missouri. “I’m much more likely to hire somebody who has done some homework on our company and knows what we do,” she notes, ”especially if they’ve got some dirt on our tacky Chief Auditor Lowell Furman that I can use to sabotage his career and get me a raise.”
Be yourself, unless that’s a problem. Too many young people can’t decide whether to project a hyper-professional image that feels false, or bare their souls and tell interviewers that they need the job to support their illegitimate children or drug habit. “I would err on the side of dishonesty,” counsel Malcolm Arnold of Ion Staffing Services in Denver, Colorado. “Which would you rather have, a job where you have to live a lie or no job at all?”
Now that I’ve retired, you tell me.