What Not to Say in Your Job Interview

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What to say in an interview & What not to say in an interview

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Posted on June 11th, 2009in How to Get Ready for a Job Interview

Job interviews are short, crisp, and very important parts of your career. A good interview can make your career and a bad interview can either offer youprogress at best and seriously hamper your progress at worst.

Therefore, it is very important to be completely ready, and know what to say when you attend an interview.

In addition, whatever the post may be, or whatever the job position may be, youshould clearly know what not to say in an interview.




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Posted on June 11th, 2009 in How to Get Ready for a Job Interview

Job interviews are short, crisp, and very important parts of your career. A good interview can make your career and a bad interview can either offer you progress at bestand seriously hamper your progress at worst.

Therefore, it is very important to be completely ready, and know what to say when you attend aninterview.

In addition, whatever the post may be, or whatever the job position may be, you should clearly know what not to say in an interview.

What to Say in a Job Interview

1. The art of listeningOne of the first skills of a conversation, let alone an interview, is the art of listening. There is amajor difference between hearing and listening. We hear music, an action in which we may misssome lyrics or some part of the music, but we hear what is important to us and what we shouldpay attention to. During an interview, one should remind oneself to hear, understand and keepin mind what the interviewer is saying.

2. When to speak Also, during an interview, one should keep in mind when to speak and when not to. People who

speak when not required stand a high risk of being branded a talkative person, or a person whodoes not think properly before he or she speaks out. Therefore, take the time to keep silent andlisten to what the interviewers have to say. This is doubly important when you are facing morethan one interviewer.

3. The information you provideDuring an interview, how much information you give out is as important as how muchinformation you retain. Also, try to remain as calm and confident as possible. Make sure that you do not fidget while answering any of the questions. Fidgeting will only make the interviewerthink that you are bluffing the interview. Concentration and focus are quite important in a jobinterview.

4. Provide FactsMake sure that you have a short fact to share about whatever you tell the interviewer. This willonly add to your resume later. However, the fact should not be too long and boring. Remember,the interview is of a very short time span. Give such facts only if the interviewer asks you aboutit.

5. Relevancy Additionally, make sure that your job interview focuses on relevancy. You should share any information relevant to your career, or the job profile in general, or even relevant to theinterview. If the job requires certain abilities that you possess, make sure that your interview concentrates on those.




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6. A team playerMake sure that you give the interviewers an idea that you are a team player. Being a team playermeans a lot in today’s corporate world. Also, once you have proven that you are a team player, you should try to put across the idea that you like to interact with your team members as well asother individuals on a general basis.

7. Motivation Another important aspect to put across is that you like to know more about the companies that you work for, so that you better understand the workings of the company and hence contributeto the values of the company.

8. Future plans Also, make sure that you tell them about any concrete ambition that you have.

9. Honest answersLastly, remember that an interview is just the beginning of the job and hiring process. There areseveral steps along the way where anything that you say will be checked and cross checked.Therefore make sure that you are completely honest about your answers.

What NOT to Say in a Job Interview

Here are some of the ‘don’t’s about appearing for an interview:

1. Private informationOne of the biggest mistakes that people commit in an interview is giving out private information when it is not needed, or even when it is simply not asked.

2. Your weaknessesDo not confess to any weaknesses that may put you in a bad light. If it were so bad, theinterviewer would have already noticed it and not called you for an interview.

3. Past problems Another major problem is created when people speak about the problems that they encountered while they were in their previous jobs. Also, do not try to tell them about any personal likes ordislikes that you may have. Make sure that you do not talk to them about your pastdisappointments, or anything negative that you have to tell about your previous organization you worked with.

4. The salary

Never discuss the salary unless and until you are asked about it. Salary negotiations are alwayscarried out after receiving a job offer.Therefore, saying the wrong things during the interview might cost you the job, while saying theright things might get you the job.

Additionally,

You might be thinking of some tricky questions asked during your job interview and how tohandle these questions.

Here are the links to the site’s articles that suggest great answers to tough interview questions –




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What to say in an interview:

* When asked about your weakness (or when asked about weaknesses)?

* About yourself (or when they ask you to tell about yourself)?

* What to say in an interview if you were fired?

What to Bring to an Interview

When it comes to getting ready for the interview, make sure that you have the following at hand:

1. Folders for holding all documents, from education to job profile.

2. You should also carry at least two pens.

3. Make sure that you have at least two copies of your resume.

4. If you are using any references, make sure that you have their contact details with you. Try tocreate a document that simplifies the connection between the company and your references.

See More About: Job Interview Questions and Answers & Job Interview Tips

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What not to say in your job interview February 16, 2010 in How To

Dear lovely readers,

When I let you know my good news about my new job, I truly did not intend to inspire massfeelings of panic over the disappearance of this site. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t mass panic, but Idid get a few anxious emails from you lovely people about the value and helpfulness of this site,and would I pretty please not take it down?

I just want to make sure you all know that Leaving Academia isn’t going anywhere. It’s perfectly clear to you now, however, that fresh content will be provided on a totally irregular and entirely unpredictable basis. And I am still investigating the possibility of turning the site into a group- written blog (any other people interested in contributing? Email me or leave a comment below).But in the meantime, I am not taking the site down.

I also just want to relate one little tip for those of you who’ve processed your decision to leaveacademia and are currently job hunting. One of my colleagues (this would be someone I work with at my job doing policy analysis for a non-profit organization in the health care sector) whohas conducted a lot of hires mentioned this to me just prior to the talk I gave a few weeks ago atthe University of Waterloo. It’s one of those tips that sounds completely self-evident, and that you want to laugh at smugly, thinking you’d never be the fool who’d make this gaffe. But thereare people out there who are making this gaffe…and really, you don’t want to be one of thosepeople.

When a prospective employer asks you in a job interview why you want the job (and you can be99% sure that this is the very first question you’ll be asked), you can say things like,

“Because I’ve always wanted to work for this organization.”

“Because I have a passion for [fill in the blank].”

“Because I’m looking for a job where I have lots of learning opportunities and a chance tomaximize my [whatever] skills, and it sounds like this job offers precisely that.”

There are lots of things you can say that will demonstrate your knowledge of the job, yourinterest in the job, and your understanding of the aims of the organization. Lots. What should you NOT say?

“Because I want to leave academia.”

Or:

“Because I need to get out of grad school and get a job.”

Or:

“Because I can’t get a tenure-track position in a university.”

Just don’t say stuff like that, okay? Think about it this way: if you were a professional dancerand were applying for a job as an IT guy (and this is the career trajectory of someone Ipersonally know), would you say to your prospective employer, “Oh, I want this IT job because I

can’t be a professional dancer for the rest of my life. I just need to get a regular job. And since Ipulled my hamstring, I just haven’t been the same.” Yeah, it’s obvious how un-smart that would be, right?




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In short, your prospective employer really doesn’t care about how difficult your career change is,or why things didn’t work out for you in your previous career. Your prospective employer wantsto know exactly what you’ve got that makes you a great fit for their organization. And if one of the things that you’ve got is passion, enthusiasm and an understanding of the organization, thatgoes a long way.

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Related posts:

1. The résumé: To hide your academic credentials or not?2. Dos and don’ts of the post-academic job application process3. Ways in which I messed up during my job search

Tagged as: job interview

Links:

http://www.leavingacademia.com/2010/02/what-not-to-say-in-your-job-interview/ http://www.leavingacademia.com/2009/04/the-resume-to-hide-your-academic-credentials-or-not/ http://www.leavingacademia.com/2009/07/dos-and-donts-of-the-post-academic-job-application-process/




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The résumé: To hide your academiccredentials or not? April 30, 2009 in How To

The process of converting your CV to a résumé can be an emotional, frustrating and time-consuming process. One question scholars often have is how to position their academiccredentials on a résumé. Whether you’re ABD or a Ph.D., it can be a struggle to figure out whether or not you should proudly put your years in university front and centre, or try to tuck that delicate information away as much as possible.

In the interviews I’ve conducted with leavers, the answer is yes and no. It actually completely depends on the job you’re applying for. When Shane McCleary first hit the non-academic jobmarket as an ABD from Johns Hopkins, she was told by someone at an advertising agency, “Youhave no transferable skills.” This caused her to entirely re-work her résumé, scrapping any andall references to conferences, publications and scholarships. Instead, she focused on the skillsshe knew she had—time management, multi-tasking, communications — and landed in film andtelevision sales.

Krista Scott-Dixon’s first post-academic job was for a health-based research institute. She saw the position advertised at CharityVillage (a site she was checking because of its focus on thenon-profit sector), and didn’t have an inside scoop on what the organization was looking for. But because the job was that of a researcher, Krista let her freaky academic flag fly. The employer was likely only expecting someone with an M.A., so her Ph.D. was actually an asset because itdemonstrated her impeccable research skills.

In other cases, it may be more difficult to gauge just how much you should trumpet youracademic accomplishments and how much you should massage them into a message yourpotential employer wants to hear. It’s really just a matter of seeing how much overlap there is between the kind of work you did as a scholar and what the advertised job requires. Does the jobinvolve filling out grant proposals, conducting surveys, moderating seminars, creating reports,meeting with stakeholders? If so, you probably don’t need to feel too anxious about youracademic background since all of these things have their ivory tower analog: scholarshipapplications, research, teaching, writing and committee work. But if the job has a very differentcontext than academic life (if the work takes place outside, if the work involves constantly interacting with lots of people, if it has a physical dimension), you might have to massage thingsa bit more.




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Regardless of whether or not you boldly state your education experience at the top of the résuméor not, it will still be up to you to spell out exactly to potential employers what exactly yourtransferable skills are. Starting next week, I’ll be posting a 5-part series about how you can bestgo about identifying those transferable skills. You’ve got all the skills you need to land a non-academic job; it’s just a matter of discovering how best to convey them.

What would be your ideal post-academic job? Is it the kind of work that dovetails with what you’ve done as a scholar?

Dos and don’ts of the post-academic job application processJuly 31, 2009 in How To

We lucky Canadians have a national holiday on Monday, so my husband and I decided to makeit an extra long weekend by taking Friday off, too. That means that, when you read this, I should be sitting in the sun in an undisclosed location, enjoying a gin and tonic. Actually, given that Iusually set my posts to publish in the early morning, I’ll probably be stepping on Cheerios whilechasing after my kid when this hits your inbox. Regardless, I just want to wish all the Canucks ahappy long weekend, and to let everyone know I’ll be back to my bloggy goodness–not tomention my email accounts–on Tuesday.

I’ve spent the last two months working with clients who are on the post-academic job hunt, andI’ve learned a few things along the way about what people find the most troubling and confusingabout the process. In the best tradition of Glamour magazine, I’m going to present a do anddon’t list summarizing some real golden nuggest of wisdom.

DO contact someone inside the organization if you’ve got questions. Sometimes that might bethe hiring manager, sometimes in might be HR. One of my intrepid clients found someoneinside the organization who would be her peer, someone who had the same job title that she wasapplying for. She asked a few questions about the job, and got back a really fantastic,informative, helpful reply. Not only did she glean some clues for how she should position herself in her application, not only did she demonstrate initiative to her potential employer, she got hername front and centre with someone who, it so happens, is on the hiring committee.




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DON’T underestimate your past experience. I’ve had clients casually mention accomplishmentsin passing that hadn’t appeared on their CVs because they felt like ancient history (i.e. before theMA) and weren’t relevant to their academic work. Sometimes that stuff ends up quite fruitfully on the résumé. Any kind of volunteering, internship or leadership roles you’ve had can be useful woven into a résumé or cover letter, providing proof of the strength of your skills.

DO demonstrate enthusiasm. Employers want to bring people on board who will have energy.They want people who can get excited about the work they do and that thecompany/foundation/organization does. Excitement does not equal a lack of professionalism.Excitement equals commitment, drive and teamwork. Can you answer the question, “Why do you want this job?” with enthusiasm? If so, your future employer is gonna like that a lot.

DON’T be afraid to mine language and information for all different parts of your life. Clientshave sent me grant applications, various cover letters, CVs, old résumés, some publications, listsof likes and dislikes–things that we wouldn’t use directly in their applications, but that give me asense of their skills and that they can use as proof of their skills.

DO be yourself. Let your freak flag fly. If you act like someone you’re not, you’re going to be in areal pickle if you actually land the job. But more to the point, what you might perceive as a weakness or liability can actually be an asset. For some of you, you might feel like your Ph.D. is aliability. I had one client who had a hidden disability, one that she could hide very, very well. Butinstead of doing that, she was open about this disability, thereby demonstrating how herknowledge of and experience with disability issues actually makes her a strong candidate for the job.

DON’T confuse a CV with a résumé. They are two totally different docs. A CV is a list of all youraccomplishments in one part of your life. It is read by people who have those sameaccomplishments, too. A résumé is an argument. It is a carefully crafted argument for why youare the best person for that job, with proof indicating why you are exactly what the employer

needs. The company needs someone with good communication skills? You’ve got goodcommunication skills! And you can prove it, too!

What have you learned along the way about the job application process?

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Ways in which I messed up during my job searchJANUARY 19, 2010 in INSPIRATION

Okay, so, now that the story of my job search has a happy ending (i.e. a fantastic job with an

amazing health-based organization serving women in the province of Ontario), I can share someof my less happy moments during my job search. I write about these as cautionary tales forthose of you who are anxious to make the most of the opportunities you have (in informationinterviews, job interviews, and so on).

First, there was the time I applied for a writer/editor position for a very interesting health-related non-profit. In my application, I made sure to emphasize as much as I could that I wasdetail-oriented, my editing work was meticulous, and so forth. Of course, I failed to actually exercise that meticulousness in my own application. Just as my finger was pressing the “enter”key, sending off my email to the HR manager, I realized the version of my resume that I sentactually had a small typo (something had gotten bumped down to the next line). Nooooo!

I didn’t know what to do. For about an hour, I tried my best to forget about it. But then my type- A personality went into high gear. I wrote a follow-up note to the HR director, indicating my previous resume had a typo. I reattached the cleaned up resume. The good part? I got aninterview. The bad part? I made reference, at the interview, to my cover letter–but when Iglanced over at the HR manager’s package of my stuff, I realized she didn’t HAVE my coverletter–only my explanatory note about the typo! I didn’t get the job (which was for the best), butI didn’t dare speculate why.

Then there was the time when I finally scored a long sought-after meeting with the executivedirector of a non-profit organization supporting women that was, at that point, by far my number one choice of employer. I studied the website inside and out, I made enquiries to thirdparties about the organization, I thought about contributions I could make. When I finally arrived at the meeting, I felt excited and prepared. But sitting down in the board room with theED, I suddenly realized…I could smell my own nail polish. In a last dash to add some, well,polish to my look, I had slapped on a coat of quick-dry, blood red nail polish. But ooooohnooooo! The acrylic smell was radiating from me–or so I feared, in the middle of this otherwisefairly seamless conversation. (In that instance, there was no job currently on offer–the meeting was sort of a “get to know you” as a result of a mutual acquaintance passing on my resume. Still,I’ll never know if my nail polish would have lost me a job there!).

I also had a few moments in which I probably appeared to be not unlike a desparate dater out ata speed dating event. There was one particular conference that I attended for the purpose of networking–and yet I completely failed to adhere to my own advice about networking. Instead

of just chatting with people, getting to know their work, and finding ways that I could help them,I actually would introduce myself to people as a job hunter. There are times when I’m convincedthis is the right thing to do, but there are other times when it displays a lack of confidence. I leftthat event feeling like I had made few genuine contacts–the kind that actually count when you’retrying to network in an effective way.

But I do have one more anecdote that is meant to show you that, even when you do slightly inappropriate things during your job search, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doomed. I hadhad my eye on the organization that eventually hired me for a little while, and I was aware thatthey were going to be represented at a health-based trade show. I decided to get mediaaccreditation for the trade show (thanks, blogging!) and use that as an opportunity to schmooze with the women from the organization.

So I did just that. I got my media credentials, I went to the trade show, I found the booth wherethis organization was stationed. Then I walked up to them and…started talking nonsense. I hadnot prepared in advance what I was going to say, or how I should introduce myself, or how I




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should actually leverage that opportunity. Instead, I just blundered in with my big ol’personality, and left feel a little sheepish.

As it turned out, of course, it was handy to be able to mention in my cover letter, which I wrote a week or two later, that I had met the hiring manager at the trade show. Moreover, my big ol’personality was not something that detracted from my candidacy, but actually strengthened it.

Share and Enjoy :

http://digg.com/ http://sphinn.com/ http://delicious.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ https://www.google.com/bookmarks/ http://www.linkedin.com/ http://www.myspace.com/ http://www.reddit.com/ http://slashdot.org/ http://www.stumbleupon.com/ http://www.technorati.com/ http://www.tumblr.com/ http://twitter.com/ http://www.yahoo.com/buzz

Links:

http://www.leavingacademia.com/2010/02/what-not-to-say-in-your-job-interview/ http://www.leavingacademia.com/2009/04/the-resume-to-hide-your-academic-credentials-or-not/ http://www.leavingacademia.com/2009/07/dos-and-donts-of-the-post-academic-job-application-process/

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What Not to Say in Your Job Interview