For an activity that is so regular, many job seekers fail to prepare for the job interview.
A lack of preparation results in common, and avoidable, mistakes being made that often result in a job rejection.
This article will explain the top 5 common job interview mistakes and how to avoid them.
Believing that all interview questions are the same
A common misunderstanding is that interviewers across all job sectors ask the same interview questions.
This is why searching for ‘job interview questions’ is more commonly searched (around 1-10k per month Source Google keyword planner 20/22) than, as an example, ‘job interview questions for engineering’ (around 100-1k per month. Source Google keyword planner 20/22).
There are a few commonly asked job interview questions, that we will list at the bottom of the article, but in the main, recruiters ask specific questions relevant to the job role and company culture. As an example, a teacher job interview will be filled with questions about lesson planning, classroom management, and preparing for Ofsted visits. Whereas a manager job interview will feature questions on financial planning, leadership skills, and project management.
That much is obvious. What isn’t as obvious is the difference in interview questions for the same, but in different organisations. A misconception is that all (sector) employers ask the same questions. This is true to an extent. A retail interview, for various retail outlets, is likely to feature a job interview question relating to customer service. This doesn’t mean that every question will be repeated with each employer.
With the retail example, one interviewer from a food retail outlet may focus questions on stock rotation, dealing with spoiled food, and food contamination. A second retail recruiter, from, let’s say a clothing retail store might ask questions on communication, fashion knowledge, and dealing with returns.
The first rule for a successful job interview is to identify the job criteria. Review the job specification, read the job advert, research the company culture, vision and values. In fact, researching values and company culture is highly important as more employers use ‘value interviews’ and ‘strength-based interviewing’ as part of their recruitment process.
Only using examples from your current role
The most popular job interview is a behavioural interview, part of the structured interview process. The behavioural interview asks for examples of how the candidate has previously acted in past situations.
Example behavioural interview questions include:
- Give me an example of when you have collaborated with stakeholders?
- Have you ever had to deal with competing deadlines, what did you do?
- Describe a time that you have influenced others to agree to one of your suggestions?
Most behavioural interview questions can be predicted. The key common tasks for the new role, in most cases, will be discussed in the job interview in the form of a set of behavioural interview questions.
The problem comes when a candidate is nervous. An interviewee’s anxiety level affects their memory professing. The increase in cortisol, the stress hormone, results in memory loss. It becomes harder to recall details, such as answers to interview questions, or remembering the details of the experience the job candidate planned to discuss during the recruitment process.
The interview stress problem results in the overuse of one example. The interview panel ask an easy-opening interview question about a generic skill, teamwork or communication, and the applicant gives an example of using the required skill. The second question becomes more specific “Tell me about a time you used (required skill or knowledge)?” The nervous applicant struggles to find a suitable example, so reverts to using the same example from question one: “As I said, when I was…(previous example)…I used (required skill)”
From the interview panel’s perspective, the repetitiveness of the same situation doesn’t showcase enough variety, experience or knowledge for the recruiters to see the value of hiring the nervous applicant.
This is a very similar problem to only using examples from the current employer. In a job interview, when anxiety is often higher, it is easier to recall information from the current role. This is fine, often expected, for a least one or two interview questions.
Using only one employer example has one key barrier – the candidate can only highlight the skills and knowledge from that particular role, rather than showcasing a diverse set of skills, knowledge and experiences, that is gained by sharing examples from various roles and positions.
To prepare for a job interview, write down at least 10 behavioural interview questions that are likely to be asked. Next, reflect on 5 situations from at least 3 different employers.
The situations will become the examples that will be embedded into the interview answer. The ideal situation is one that required multiple skills and knowledge to create a successful outcome; teamwork, communication, leadership, industry knowledge, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, etc.
This allows the savvy interview applicant to reframe the example and situation depending on the interview question and the required skill or knowledge the employer is looking for the applicant to discuss. Remembering 5 examples that can be used for multiple interview questions is much easier than having to prepare 10-15 single-use interview answers.
Believing the interviewer is psychic
There is a myth that interviewers are superhuman.
The nervous interviewee believes that the employer is highly confident when interviewing, in fact, many are just as nervous as the job applicant. Some organisations allow their trained HR team to conduct the job interviews, which means they are skilled in interviewing but not always with the sector technical know-how.
The biggest misconception is that the interview panel is psychic. A high number of career professionals fail to mention key information during their interview answers. As an example, the applicant will describe a problem they faced and the actions they took to overcome the problem. On the face of it, the interview answer format sounds positive. In reality, the interviewee will delete essential information from the interview answer:
- Decision-making skill
- Reasons for declining an option
- Creative thinking process
- Time management
- Communication skills and stakeholder relationships
- Work ethic and commitment
The list can go on and on. It is important, therefore, to give as much detail that relates to the interview question as possible. In fact, some research has found how the higher number of words per interview answer increases the likelihood of a positive interview outcome.
A more basic problem for internal interviews is not understanding the impact of an interview scorecard. In a structured interview, each interview answer is cross-referenced against a set of job criteria recorded on the interview scorecard. The criteria includes skills, qualities, and experiences. Each interview question is scored on a scale, for example of 1-4. The interview panel can only score an applicant high if they reference all the criteria on the interview scorecard. This is why ‘identifying the job criteria’ is of the most importance.
Because the applicant, in an internal job interview, knows the interviewer has seen their work, they will naturally miss out key information. This lack of detail only results in a low-scoring interview answer.
To overcome the missing information problem 1) identify the job criteria 2) be a self-promoter 3) communicate confidently
Disclosing irrelevant information
If you this next common interview mistake you must stop straight away
One of the worst errors an interviewee can make is the self-discloser of weaknesses. Time and time again candidates will randomly disclose a weakness even when they haven’t been asked.
When asked a technical question, it is easy to let slip out ‘I’ve never worked on something like that’ Instead it is better to confidently communicate your knowledge on the subject. Discussing knowledge will create a stronger interview identity than explaining that you lack experience.
Other negative slippage includes ‘I prefer working on my own initiative..’ to questions about teamwork. Or, ‘Others in my team focused on that area of work’ when asked about a particular skill.
The interview isn’t just about past experience, its about potential. Negative slippage ruins a positive interview identity. The barrier here is that career professionals don’t even know they are leaking negativities. When I coach career professionals to pass a job interview, I will record and list all of their negative communications – verbal and non-verbal, and most applicants are unaware of around 95% of the negative communication that is affecting their chance of winning a job offer.
Not being ready for the basics
Understanding the job interview format creates familiarity, familiarity increases confidence.
Failing a number of job interviews have a secondary gain, the applicant becomes familiar with the interview process, which in turn increases their self-esteem during the recruitment process.
You don’t need to fail to win. A little research and some mock interviews are enough to become more confident. By understanding the format and preparing for commonly asked interview questions (as well as sector-specific interview questions as discussed above) helps reduce interview anxiety.
Most job interviews last around 45 minutes. The interview panel is made up of around 3 staff members, often including a HR manager. Interviewees will be told about the interview process before being asked, on average, 8 questions, including sector-specific questions and a few of the generic questions recorded below.
The 10 most commonly asked job interview questions:
- Do you have any questions for us (asked at the job interview end)
- Tell me about your experience
- What are your weaknesses
- What do you know about our organisation
- Give me an example of using (skill/knowledge)
- Describe a time that you worked well within a team
- How will you manage your time when you have competing deadlines
- Explain how you would (deal with a future duty/task)
- What are your salary expectations
- Give an example of developing your skills or knowledge
