8 Common Interview Mistakes

1. Scolding previous employers is a terrible mistake. Even if they treated you badly, delayed your salary, did not take your opinion into account, it is better to keep silent about it. Instead of feeling sorry for you, the potential employer will project everything on himself and imagine how you will respond about him in the same situation if something does not suit you.

2. Do not be too silent, but do not speak incessantly - do not go to extremes. Think of the interview as an ordinary conversation: do not force the interlocutor to draw answers from you, and vice versa - you should not say so much that the interviewer will not be able to insert words. Especially if you are applying for a position that requires you to have good communication skills.

3. Do not talk at the interview about personal problems. For example, that you left your previous place of work because there were problems in the family, divorce, failed health, etc.

4. Do not lie about your salary in your previous job, duties and achievements. Indeed, if they stop on your candidacy, they can easily verify this information. And if it turns out to be not true, then you definitely won’t get the job.

5. There are things you can’t keep silent about, for example, your own business. Employers have different attitudes to this. Some consider this unacceptable, as this may mean that a person cannot achieve the desired result in his business, can be distracted from his duties, or use work in another company as insurance. On the other hand, this can mean experience, useful acquired skills that can play into the hands of everyone, especially if the applicant's business is from the same or an adjacent field of activity as the employer's business. In any case, this fact cannot be kept silent; as a result, the employer will still find out about it.

6. If you are applying for a high position, you do not need to insist immediately on an interview with management. Do not take the conversation with the HR manager as a humiliation of your dignity and do not consider that you are underestimated. Adhere to the rules of the company, its corporate culture. In the first stages, it is personnel managers who deal with many issues, not managers.

7. Be focused and listen carefully to what your interlocutor is telling you. Do not dwell on thoughts of what you have to say. First of all, you may look inattentive or arrogant. Secondly, you can skip important information.

8. Do not give up test tasks. It doesn’t matter why you don’t like them and what arguments you have against it - just follow them.

How not to become a problem employee

Lying

First of all, people who are prone to deception can be attributed to problem employees. You can identify such an employee at the selection stage. If a candidate gives false information during an interview or in a resume, he may immediately be blacklisted. Now it’s not difficult to determine a lie. A recruiter can do this, for example, by contacting former candidate employers or by checking data through the company's security service.

If the employee is not able to admit and take responsibility for the mistakes made, the employer is unlikely to want to continue working with him. Remember that everything secret always becomes apparent.
Process people

It is possible to conditionally divide employees into two categories: result-oriented and process-oriented. Problematic employees are often people of the second category. This manifests itself most often when setting a task - such employees immediately begin to look for obstacles that impede its implementation, they will constantly look for problems in their path and move away from making decisions.

Identify people who are more focused on the process than the result can already be in the interview: they rarely use the phrases “I did”, “I achieved”, “I decided” and can not tell about their achievements in past jobs, but only list their skills and responsibilities that they performed.

We must try to be more responsible and remember that any task has a goal and an end result, employees who understand this are most valuable.
Ego

Many employers prefer employees who know how to work in a team, rather than single heroes. Such an employee can be either a find for the company or a problem, and determining this line is very difficult. Loners very often consider their work to be the most important and require special conditions for themselves. It is worth remembering that there are no irreplaceable people, and management can simply find a less professional employee, but more executive, for your position. Be careful when pulling the blanket over you.
Emotional fatigue

We all get tired, and this fatigue can accumulate over the years and break a person emotionally. Such employees lose interest, attention, concentration, often make mistakes. The reason for this can be not only difficult, responsible work, but also routine. For this reason, employers are interested in your personal hobbies when hiring. Favorite hobbies, social activity, interests, in addition to professional activities, can protect a person from such “burnout”. If you feel that you are prone to this, then do not forget about the diversity in life, because you can harm not only the employer, but first of all yourself.
Humanity

You can be problematic not only for superiors, but also for your colleagues. People who do not know how to find a common language with others envy everything, shift their work to others and constantly try to assert themselves, will never take root in the team, and therefore in the company.

Try to look for the problem in yourself and not in others. If you cannot work on yourself, then your professional path will become very complicated.

Your strengths and weaknesses

You should not tell the employer about all your failures, but you should not say that you have no weaknesses either. The question of your shortcomings may have different implications, depending on the scope of the company, its corporate culture, the specifics of your future position, etc.

Thanks to this question, the employer can evaluate you as a person. A mature person knows that it is impossible to be perfect, he has not only strengths, and he can safely admit it.

Having told about your shortcomings, you make it clear that you can adequately evaluate both yourself and the results of your work.

See also: How profitable to "sell" yourself?

If a person knows about his shortcomings, then he is able to find ways to overcome them. It is necessary to prepare in advance in order to determine the shortcomings that will be appropriate to indicate. Sometimes knowing your shortcomings and ways to deal with them can make a positive impression on the employer more than a list of your merits.

For example, knowing that you are less productive in the morning, have learned how to plan your day correctly and leave the solution to the most complex and important tasks for the afternoon. This will demonstrate that nothing can prevent you from effectively fulfilling your duties. Or, without hiding your natural laziness, you can tell us that you were able to turn it into your dignity - always do important things first, and put the remaining minor issues into a detailed plan that becomes easy to do.

Work.ua also advises not to forget that such issues are a test for stress resistance. Do not worry when answering them, otherwise you risk crossing out all your advantages.

Interviewer questions that are almost always answered incorrectly

1. You are currently employed. Why do you want to change your job?

If you have disagreements with the management or other conflicts it is not necessary to parade them. At an interview about your superiors you need to respond well or neutrally. It is also better to leave your financial motivation behind the door and not complain about insufficient salaries, a large family and a mortgage. Your motives should be logical and understandable. For example, if you are a sales manager, then we can say that the company has a lack of resources, not enough goods, and this makes your professional growth impossible.
2. What were your biggest mistakes or failures at work?

There are no ideal employees; no one can always work without error. Therefore, if you say that you always handle everything, the interviewer will immediately feel the catch. This is rather not an answer, but a departure from it. It will also mean that you do not know how to evaluate the results of your work. You can say that serious mistakes were not made, but give examples of minor misconduct. For example, a small breakdown in the terms of the assignment, which did not entail consequences, but you learned from this lesson.
3. Why did the project in which you participated fail?

Explaining the failures by the illiteracy of the leadership, the state of the market, the economic situation in the country, the mistakes of colleagues, while remaining nothing to do with it, you risk looking like a person who prefers to evade responsibility and is unable to learn from mistakes. Again, everyone makes mistakes, and if you see only external factors in the causes of failure, you are unlikely to become a valuable employee. A good specialist should be able to admit their mistakes and draw conclusions from them.
4. What issues do you know best?

A true professional always knows his strengths. If you say that you carry out your duties well and are equally versed in all issues, it will look like avoiding the answer or not understanding the essence of the question. Prior to the interview, identify the areas of your activity in which you are as competent as possible.
5. Tell us about yourself

The main mistake will be to tell everything about yourself, starting from school, university and ending with the last place of work. Your complete autobiography may give the impression that you are not able to distinguish between the main and the secondary. Information that is important for the position you are applying for should be given. You can also check with the interviewer what he would like to know first.

Is a frequent job change profitable

As a rule, frequent job changes occur for two main reasons: the desire to earn more and the desire to be realized. Very often, employers are distrustful of applicants who change jobs like gloves - 2-3 times a year. It is believed that the minimum period of work in one place is 1 year.

What employers think of employees who change jobs often:

    these people are prone to conflict;
    they quickly get bored with what they do;
    they are talented - quickly reach a maximum and wish to move on;
    eternal envious people who constantly think that it is better where they are not.

The causes of inconstancy can easily be found out from a resume or during an interview. And this must be treated very carefully. For example, the reason for a frequent job change may be the need to rent a house and related problems: increase in rent - the need for a higher salary, moving to another house - transport problems. In this case, the candidate can be a very responsible and professional employee. Therefore, the applicant should always be ready to comment on his reasons if they are really objective and this was necessary, and not allow the employer to make his own guesses.

With even greater apprehension, employers relate to candidates who not only often changed jobs, but at the same time radically changed their type of activity. Indeed, for a short period of time it is difficult to even get into the company's course of business, not to mention the skills of a new profession.

In addition to the negative attitude of employers, a frequent change of work also carries financial losses for candidates. In such circumstances, it is very difficult to increase its market value. First, the employer, fearing the prospect of an employee leaving the company quickly, may lower the salary. Secondly, a frequent change of work makes career growth and an increase in salary for seniority impossible.

There are also exceptions to the rules related to the specifics of human activities. As a rule, these are those people whose work depends on a particular project. It can be architects, construction project managers, designers.

So, the advantages of a frequent job change:

    the opportunity to find a better job and not stop there;
    gaining experience in different teams;
    mastering various methods of conducting business processes;
    the opportunity to determine your specialization.

Minuses:

    biased or negative attitude of the employer, if the candidate did not have objective reasons for a frequent job change;
    difficulties in increasing their market value;
    lack of stability.

If possible, do not turn into an eternal seeker. If your work is full of notes, then the employer may have the impression that you are a fickle and unreliable person. Remember that you should always be prepared to explain the reasons for the frequent job changes. If you are looking for career and professional growth, then you should not go to work in small companies - look for places where you can satisfy your ambitions. You should also try to accurately determine your goals and type of activity in order to find a job that you love.

Work.ua recommends applicants who often change jobs to focus on the interview, primarily on their strengths. After all, it is much more important that the company won from the activities of a specialist than the amount of time that he worked there.