www.fastcompany.com: For most employers, profanity and showing up late are grounds for instant disqualification in an interview. But there are also more subtle ways to raise a red flag in a hiring manager’s mind. Some common phrases that you think might be harmless, or even helpful, can, in fact, make employers question whether you’re really the right person for the job.
5 comments:
I found this article interesting because of some of the reasoning they gave as to why not to say certain things. A lot of this had been told to me while I was preparing for college interviews. The I’ll do anything bit was funny to me. Of course, it sounds a bit desperate but it is silly to call it out. I think there might be a more classy way to say that you’re willing to do a lot for a company that you want to work for. is a less desperate sounding way I suppose. Something that gets the idea across that you are passionate about what you do. The other thing about saying you’re willing to do anything for a job is that you are a risk of being exploited to do things that otherwise would not be expected of you. This tends to happen to people who are just starting out because, in fact, they are a little desperate. In times like these getting a good job could literally mean life or death.
I thought the article is interesting in a way that it mentions some things that I would consider “duh”, such as “I couldn’t stand my last company.” Everything else that is mentioned in the article I’ve already heard more or less about before, but they are still helpful reminders, especially when one is panicking. I struggle the most with the part about asking for pay or compensation. I’ve been seeing a lot of tips regarding this topic and I think the difficulty comes in that it is still hard at this stage of my life to know what to expect. Sometimes I have trouble telling whether a job is low-paying and overworking. I also think it’s hard to tell people what I deserve based on my skills, experience and other factors. Hopefully, as we move on with life, these will become clearer and we will have a better idea of gauging. Overall, the article offers valuable advice for job seekers to approach interviews with professionalism and authenticity while avoiding common pitfalls.
Personally, I’d just quite simply never say that I would do anything, especially in a job interview. Recently, I’ve found that it seems to be a lot more respectable to say that you value your time as well as the company’s time. Employers have begun to seek out individuals with a healthy work life balance and I’m so glad that this is the case. The one that said “no, I don’t know how to do that” for me is typically followed up with the phrase that I tend to pick up on tasks or processes quickly after being taught, so if I do not know something there is a good chance that I can learn, or something of that sort; nobody likes admitting that they do not know how to do something, but there is always a chance to remedy that. I really enjoy interviews but only because I feel as though I have taken the time to learn how to respond “correctly.”
Two days ago, I had an interview. Going in I was very nervous because the last interview I had, I thought it went well, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the job. Looking through this article, these six things I would never say in an interview. For me, I like to show my skills humbly, and then if I don’t know how to do something, tell them that I am very willing to learn. Then, I try and back up what I say with examples. Like the article says, it is important to show off your leadership skills, but then give lots of detail, how I did it, and why it did make a difference. Before I interview with the company, I do my research to learn about the company, learn their missions and values, and what my position will be. It’s very important to be well prepared and well-spoken in any interview.
These tips mostly seem to fall into two categories – don’t be too inflexible, and don’t be too desperate. Of course employers are looking for the happy medium; someone who is willing to work and try new things, and be a team player, but at the same time, someone who will have their own thoughts and opinions and proper work-life balance. I think the key to getting past some of these less than ideal phrases is specificity. Like the example of just throwing out buzzwords – rather than making a positive statement about yourself, tell a story or give a brief example showing that you have that positive trait. You also want to be careful about your word choice, so you don’t come across as too casual or like you don’t really care, or haven’t prepared at all. The art of a job interview is clearly a complicated one.
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