Have you sat in on multiple interviews lately but have yet to receive a job offer? It could be that you’re annoying interviewers – and your flawless résumé can’t save you.
There are a number of ways that interviewers are turned off by applicants. Make sure you avoid the following seven pitfalls.
1. Arrogant Much?
You could be one of the strongest assets a future company could ever have, but how about letting your work speak for itself instead of tooting your own horn? When you walk into an interview laying out demands, you demonstrate that you’re an arrogant person who’s unlikely to be a team player.
Why not focus less on salary and company perks but instead communicate what you bring to the table and how this new position might fit into your work-life balance?
2. Evaluating Past Employers
Even if your previous boss was a jerk, don’t relay this to your interviewer. Negatively evaluating a former employer during an interview indicates that you’ll likely make similar or worse comments about a new employer. Taking a negative approach also communicates an inability to responsibly assess, learn and grow from past situations.
Instead, discuss a challenging work task and how you objectively resolved the issue, or what you’ve learned and plan to apply to future job positions.
3. Buzzwords Without Substance
“I optimally uphold all OSHA privacy standards.” Huh? OSHA does not set privacy standards – and by trying to sound impressive, you’ve officially extended your job search. If you try to sound as though you know more about an industry than you really do, it’s likely that your résumé will be discarded.
Instead, research industry vernacular and make certain to use those terms sparingly and within proper context.
4. Untimely Multi-Tasking
It’s easy to begin multi-tasking while you hold a phone conversation because the other person cannot see you, which makes you feel less bad for doing it.
But multi-tasking while on a phone interview is a bad idea. If you’re distracted, your responses will be slow and possibility unrelated to the questions posed to you. Not only will the recruiter feel annoyed, she will likely feel as though you have no respect for her time.
When you agree to a phone interview, don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Set aside time to fully engage with the interviewer in a quiet space.
5. Sporadic Employment
If you’ve held multiple job positions over a short period of time, recruiters are less likely to take you seriously as a job prospect.
Consider your current job history and where you’d like to be in say five to ten years. If your work history does not display progression in the direction of your long-term goals, begin to craft a résumé that does. Your first step might include honestly communicating this conscious effort to your interviewer.
Recruiters consider you to be a strong candidate when they see that you have and are carrying out a clear career plan.
6. Lack of Preparedness
On the day of your interview, you walk boldly into the office, sign in, and then have a seat.
But once you’re seated with the interviewer, you offer weak responses. And you’d never know to whom to address a thank you letter because you forgot to take notes.
Always anticipate which questions you’ll be asked during an interview and practice your responses until they flow out naturally. Show that you are interested in what the interviewer has to say by bringing a notebook and pen with you to the interview.
7. Blind Ambition
Are you that job hunter who applies for hundreds of job positions in various industries without a clear indication of what’s truly required of you? Quantity is rarely better than quality.
You’d be better off focusing your efforts towards a select few companies that you research well, than to sporadically apply to hundreds of positions without having any genuine interest in any of them.
In closing, keep in mind that recruiters spend about as much time – or more – reviewing résumés as you do crafting them. So take the time to fully understand what’s required of you in a job position before applying. And once you land that interview, commit to avoiding these blunders.