Jobs/Careers - From 3 Minutes

7 Costly Interview Mistakes

Here's a good one referred from my colleague Eddie Heath, who deals with a million pastors and churches "courting" in Tidewater, Virginia. Thanks,Eddie!

When interviewing for a job, you can increase your chance for an offer by avoiding a few costly mistakes. Work toward eliminating these mistakes and watch your potential for a job offer escalate.

Being Late. Make sure you plan your route to the interview in advance. The best preparation is to make a trial run around the time of your interview. The trial run allows you to check out the traffic flow and to anticipate normal delays that you might not otherwise know about. Plan to arrive around 30 minutes in advance of your appointment, but don't announce your arrival more than 15 minutes ahead of the appointment. The extra time will allow you to review any notes or comments you plan to make.

Poor Paperwork. The paperwork is the person's first introduction to you as a person. If your paperwork doesn't pass the first inspection, you might not even make it to the interview. Ask a friend to review your entire package, including your resume and cover letter It is difficult to note even glaring errors if you have spent a lot of time reviewing and updating your information. If you are asked to present some special paperwork and you fail to do so, the interviewer will consider that an indication of how you follow through on assignments.

Failing to Listen. One of the most difficult portions of the interview process is listening. Some people stop listening and begin planning their answers before the interviewer has actually asked the questions While you might be formulating a great answer, you might be answering the wrong question. In this situation, you are getting ahead of the interviewer. In a similar way, you can lag behind the interviewer by worrying about your previous answers.
It is best to listen, replay the question in your head, decide on your response, and then respond with an appropriate response. Interviewers are not concerned with thoughtful silence for brief periods. Silence can help you formulate your answer and respond with confidence.

Venting. You should not use the interview time to explain how things could have been better at a previous job or to speak poorly of others. The interviewer will sometimes ask about a difficult situation or a change in your employment. Strive to be professional and factual in stating your answer. On the other hand, you don't need to pretend that you never had a difficult situation in the workplace. The best response includes how you handled yourself and what you learned in a less-than-ideal situation.

Being in Charge of the Interview. You should not be the one in charge of the interview. Being too aggressive will not get you to the top of the "need to hire" list. Allow the interviewer to choose which topics are covered. Assertiveness is needed in getting an interview, but you don't want to be so assertive that you step over the boundaries usually implied for the interviewee.

Not Being Professional. Your professionalism needs to shine during the job interview. Your first impression will usually come from your physical presentation. Although clothing plays a large part of the first impression, your body language, eye contact, health, and grooming also impacts a first impression. If you come across as arrogant, it is unlikely that you will be hired. But if you come across as professionally competent, your name will rise to the top.

Failing to Research the Company. At some point in the interview you need to indicate your awareness of the work of the company. Before the interview, you should have some knowledge of what would be expected of you in your position. Knowledge of the company's history and reputation in the community will help you know how to ask questions about the company during the interview time.

Individuals have lost job offers for making some of these common interview mistakes. Remember to approach each interview with the goal of getting a job offer. As you work at perfecting your job interview skills, you will eventually get job offer.

Joy Emery is a wife, a mother of three, a conference leader, and a career and workplace writer for HomeLife magazine. She and her family live in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Related Articles:
4 Often-Overlooked Interview Tips
Closing the Interview
Things Not To Do In An Interview

Taken from http://www.rasnet.org/