How to fail an interview?

LisaB85

pcunite wrote: »

There are so many tips. The best tips I think are to:
* Research the company, their brand, and the job position
* Offer to demonstrate a solution or how you'd help in the interview.

Or not listening to a question properly in the same way as you didn't read the OP correctly?

gibson123

Some hints

Use the STAR technique.

Listen to the question i ask you and answer THAT question.

Know your skills, knowledge and experience and be prepared to tell me about them.

Do not smell - especially of BO, cigarettes, garlic or strong perfume.

Do not have sweaty hands, if you are nervous, roll on some anti-perspirant on to your palms to keep them dry.

Say good morning, afternoon etc.

If you do not understand the question, ask for it to be rephrased.

Read the job criteria and description.

Look interested.

Dress smart.

Be honest, I know when you are lying or exaggerating, as do 90% of all interviewers.

Be kind to your interviewers, they may also be nervous, they will certainly be either tired from interviewing or worrying about what is going on in the office.

tombruton87

If you have an interview that suggest's that you have the skills and experience to do the job. Lets say you have 2 ppl interviewing you. Whats do they say to each other at the end. Its not who do you think is best for this job. they say who did you like the most. hence being likeable is so important in your interview probably the most important thing. people have wat they call a gut feeling about people

LadyMissA

tombruton87 wrote: »

If you have an interview that suggest's that you have the skills and experience to do the job. Lets say you have 2 ppl interviewing you. Whats do they say to each other at the end. Its not who do you think is best for this job. they say who did you like the most. hence being likeable is so important in your interview probably the most important thing. people have wat they call a gut feeling about people

That too works both ways. I have known people turn down jobs as they didn't like the people who have interviewed them.

Out of the interviews I have had recently out of 3 there was only one boss I would have worked for if I was already in another job and got the offer (obviously when you are out of work you cant turn a job down if you didnt like the bloke interviewing you).

Elvisia

I always turn up early because if I have an interview for a big company then it's easy to get lost in the system somewhere, I have certainly sat in reception then been sent on an utter wild goose chase and been shown back to the reception while they try to sort out where I am supposed to be going. If you arrive somewhere small you can always hang around outside for five minutes so you're not too early. My friend had an interview at the BBC (we both worked there at the time and it was in the same building) and she ended up going on a massive adventure, she was sent to Newsnight who tried to interview her before she said this was the wrong place, then she ended up getting stuck in the lift with Ragge Omar (can't spell his name) who was a famous news reporter at the time. She did well in the interview because her nerves had disappeared by the time she was eventually interviewed!!

I would work out a personal statement so if the first question is 'tell me about yourself' you have it ready to do. Then look up online interview questions and have prepared answers for each one. the more you rehearse it the more relaxed you will be. And when I interviewed people really I was going for people who would fit in with our team, and what they said was secondary to their personality and whether I felt they'd actually be part of the team (I worked in TV and many people wanted the job simply so they could just suck up to the big bosses and go on shoots and not actually do the office stuff that was required). So I guess really I had an agenda I was trying to match with the person, without actually saying "will you do this job or just complain because you're not off doing something sexy, and you'll use the office as a way to get your own independent film made".

Wearing smart clothes, not smelling etc should be something you do automatically anyway hopefully. I think if they say "you didn't expand enough on the blah blah question" it actually means "you don't fit" otherwise if they loved everything else I am sure they would employ you. Also remember interviews are run by humans, and a lot of people are quite irrational!!

pcunite

LisaB85 wrote: »

Or not listening to a question properly in the same way as you didn't read the OP correctly?

Oops ... you are so correct ...
:embarasse

F_T_Buyer

I would say arriving late is an instant fail.

heretolearn_2

I think few people really 'fail' an interview, there's a difference between that and not being the person who gets the job. fail to me is 'no way are we giving this person a job, any job, ever', not just 'someone else is better for this role.

Fail triggers for us on people we've interviewed have been
*flopping all over the desk and rambling on in a fairly stoned-appearing manner although I think he was just being teenage and stupid. I do hope he didn't really want the job and thought that was how to do interviews.
*nearly spitting a bit lump of yerk on my feet in the street on the way to the office so I had to emergency stop and swerve round it.
*the most boring man in the world who wouldn't stop going on and on in inane detail about previous jobs while managing to only talk about his previous employers and nothing at all about himself.
*lady who !!!!!ed about previous employer and moaned about how boring the routine was and now she'd hated dealing with the paperword (interviewing for a job that was mostly routine paperwork)
*several people who were just plain miserable and depressed looking/sounding. The thought of being stuck in a room with them all day bringing us down, no thanks. and I don't think they were medically depressed (we have recruited someone with genuine depression in the past, that's different) they were just bleedin' miseries!
*'wide boy' attitude - don't know if that's quite the right word but we are a respectable firm and yet we get people who are the Delboys of our profession thinking we'll be impressed by that. We recently interviewed for an aspect of our work that is highly regulated, carries a great deal of legal liability for us, and HAS to be done right. If it isn't, we could be a) closed down, and b) bankrupted by being sued. One man (who claimed to be teaching this in a college at the moment) made a big deal of explaining how quickly he can do this work, how he tries to do each job as briefly as possible, doesn't bother with all the stages of it, and is quite happy to falsify the results to get it over and done with (he was laughing about that). There would be no personal risk on him, but all on us. Gobsmacked. He's not the first to think that being 'dodgy' is somehow an attractive proposition. Maybe it is to some firms.
*Not having the right to work in the UK. People really do think they can convince us into taking that risk even though there's a queue of others with that right.
*Arrogance. Being confident is good. Some people take it too far.
*Totally inappropriate dress. OK, you may not own a suit, we don't mind, but make the effort. Also for men a 'fashion' approach to business dress with big blingy watch hanging off your wrist, odd tie, undone shirt buttons, snakeskin shoes so pointed they are almost like clown shoes, no thank you, not for us. Nor is beach/clubbing wear. Or anything grubby. Or having a vest poking out the top.

anamenottaken

lucymelissa wrote: »

I once waited two hours for an interview because they had forgotten about me and couldn't find my cv, I was quite glad I didn't get that job! :rotfl:

Pity they didn't tell you so that you could have given them the spare copy of your CV you had with you.

anamenottaken

F_T_Buyer wrote: »

I would say arriving late is an instant fail.

Not so. I arrived late for an interview - before the days of everyone having a mobile phone and I was travelling by bus, unable to get to a public telephone box. Got the job - with a multi-national.