So you’ve secured an interview… congratulations! Now it’s time to demonstrate why you are the best person for the job.
We have offered a lot of advice on what you should do in an interview. In this article we take a look at what you shouldn’t do. Now there are the obvious things, such as don’t be late and don’t dress inappropriately, but we want to talk about the more subtle things , possibly the things you don’t even consider, that can easily damage your chances of securing the role.
The key thing to remember when interviewing for a role is that you will more than likely be one of a few other candidates that are interviewing for the same position. So it’s important that you are fully focussed and ready to deliver a great interview.
Turning up poorly prepared
We’ve written a number of articles that discuss how to prepare for an interview, one being how to research a company before your interview. We suggest you take a moment to read this article. We have left a link at the bottom of the page.
Being prepared for an interview will not only help you to feel more relaxed, it will also demonstrate your desire to secure the role and join the business. You’ll be surprised how obvious it is when a candidate isn’t prepared and doesn’t know a lot about the business.
Self doubt
Be positive and don’t doubt yourself, your ability or your knowledge. Remember they are interviewing you and they wouldn’t do this if they didn’t think you would be a fit for the role. They would have seen your CV, possibly given you an initial call before inviting you to a formal interview, so have belief in yourself.
Being prepared for the interview is a good way to help boost confidence, so think of questions you may be asked, think about questions you would like to ask and do your research about the company, the role and the person interviewing you. We know we discuss preparation in the first point, but we can’t stress enough how important preparation is.
Be unprofessional - don’t bad mouth your current employer
Being unprofessional is a quick way to damage any chances of securing the role you are interviewing for. Examples of this include, poor body language, lack of eye contact, being defensive or argumentative, but the one we want to focus on is making sure you don’t say anything negative about your current employer… it doesn’t look good.
We appreciate that you may be looking at new roles and interviewing because you don’t like working at your current company. This could be due to poor culture, poor management, no progression opportunities etc. However, it won’t help you to bad mouth the company and can often make the interviewer question “Is it the company of the candidate?”
One of the most common questions that will prompt you to talk about your current company is “Why are you looking to move?”. Think about the reasons you would give and make sure you are talking about yourself, rather than blaming your current employer… be positive about your career and what you want to achieve.
Want more interview advice?
We have written a number of articles offering advice on interviewing, below are some of the most popular…
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