Recent Posts
Accomplish January 7, 2019
Oh, so that's why I didn't get the job.
If you landed a job interview, there’s both good news and bad news. The good news? You made it past most other candidates to the final stages of the application!
The bad news is that one mistake could push another applicant ahead.
Worst of all, sometimes you don’t know whether you made any mistakes at all, and you don’t have feedback to prepare for your next interview. If that’s the case, ENTITY has a list for you. Avoid these common job interview mistakes while applying for a new position.
Dress code is extremely important. Of course, certain companies are more relaxed than others, but in general, you shouldn’t walk into a professional interview with leggings. And consider the interview a failure if you show up in work-out clothes, flip-flops or a bro-tank.
Unless the interviewer says otherwise, wear business casual. This means slacks, khaki pants, black dress shoes, professional skirts and dresses, button-downs, blazers or ties.
Many common job interview mistakes involve answering a question incorrectly. You can easily avoid this problem through research. When the company asks for your opinion on their latest campaign, you should know what they’re talking about. If you didn’t spend a few minutes checking their website or social media, you’re demonstrating a lack of interest in their business.
Make sure to spend at least 30 minutes learning about the company and your recruiter before the interview. The more research you do, the better.
You would think it’s common knowledge not to check texts during interviews, but apparently, this actually happens! Make sure to turn your phone off before entering the room. Sometimes, if a candidate simply receives a text and the interviewer notices, it could be enough to reject them. Phone calls worsen your chances even further.
If you didn’t get the job when you thought you nailed the interview, check your social media. Interviewers sometimes research you after your meeting to find out more information. Who knew one of the most common job interview mistakes actually happened after the interview?
According to a national survey conducted by Harris Poll on the behalf of CareerBuilder in 2017, 70% of employers use social media to screen candidates before hiring. 54% of employers did not hire certain candidates due to the information they found. This included provocative photos, unprofessional screen names and drinking or drug content.
Long story short, if your drunk Instagram pictures are public, delete them. Problem solved!
Companies don’t want to hear you trash-talk your previous employer. It shows them how you treat your superiors. According to Harris Poll’s study on social media, out of the employers who chose not to hire candidates based on their content, 30% cited the reason as “bad-mouth[ing] their previous company or fellow employee.”
So if you left your previous employment on bad terms, make sure to stay professional. No insulting necessary.
If you updated your resume before your interview, and a few mistakes or typos slip through, pray that your interviewer doesn’t notice. When they see them, they’ll mentally put your resume in the reject pile.
Always triple-check your documents and print multiple copies out the night before. If I’m particularly nervous, I also send them to a friend for a peer review. Your future (employed) self will thank you!
Never show up late to an interview. If you’re in an emergency, you can try to phone ahead and see if the interviewer is kind enough to reschedule. Other than that, keep checking traffic so you can shoot for arriving 15 minutes early. Any tardiness is an almost certain rejection.
Hopefully, if you’ve made one of these no-nos before, now you know better. As long as you stay persistent, keep applying and prepare to avoid all these common job interview mistakes, you’re sure to land a position at some point.
And if you’re still confused about why you didn’t get the job, you could always ask your recruiter for feedback! It’s scary, but it could drastically improve your future interviews.
The Guardian recommends making it as easy as possible for your previous interviewer to answer your questions. They advise responding to rejection with: “While I’m disappointed I wasn’t chosen, I would appreciate the chance to get some honest feedback as I am still very interested to work with you in the future.”
So check your resume, lay out your business casual outfit and keep your fingers crossed! And check out these ways to stand out from the crowd for even better chances of landing the job.
