CVs and Interviews

What are the most common mistakes that you see candidates make at interview?

The above question was asked on linkedin – my answer is below. The funny thing is that half the answers mentioned lack of preparation. Now lack of preparation causes the mistakes at interview BUT is not actually a mistake seen at interview. Not answering the question is a major mistake at interview and here we have people offering advice who are not actually answering the question – amazing!!

You already have a range of common mistakes and will no doubt get many more. For me the most common mistakes would have to be ……….

Mistake 1 – Lack of focus during interview

This is normally caused by lack of understanding about the role you are interviewing for or inability to listen to the questions.

Mistake 2 - Inability to effectively sell “you” at interview

This is caused by lack of quantitative examples to support case or waiting to be asked for examples and “lack of focus during interview” as outlined in point one.

Mistake 3 – Not sending out the “I am interested in your role” signals

I accept the argument about coming across too desperate BUT I would rather risk falling into the “desperate camp” than falling into the “not interested camp”. You can easily communicate a strong interest without seeming desperate.

Interview Preparation & Coaching

Tags: Interview, Interview Coaching, Interviews

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm and is filed under Interview Coach, Interview Coaching, Interview Questions, Interview Skills, Interview Techniques, Interview Tips, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.