I’d like to ask questions of people who have interviewed at least twenty-five job applicants in their life. I’m not, by the way, asking these questions for my own purposes. I have a good part-time job and won’t be interviewing for a full-time one until I graduate from college. But just out of curiosity, I’d like to know your answers to these questions:
What is the single most common serious mistake people make during job interviews?
Who was the absolute worst interviewee you ever interviewed?
Has an applicant ever given an answer to a question that hit the ball out of the park–an amazing answer that single-handedly increased the applicants chance of getting the job dramatically? What was the answer?
If you were interviewing somebody for a casual retail job (like, say, ice-cream scooper at Haagen Dazs), how would you feel if they were a little overdressed?
Do you have any interview questions that are fairly unique to you, rather than part of the standard canon of interview questions?
As a foreign aid worker, I have interviewed hundreds of applicants, both Americans and many other nationalities.
The worst interview I remember was for an Dari-English translator position in Kabul. The guy brought his own translator. At one point I asked him “do you speak English,” and he looked to his translator to explain what I said.
What I am looking for is a sense of character and a professional who is going to give thoughtful answers to questions. The biggest mistakes are when people tell me what they think I want to hear.
I often ask people to tell me what the biggest obstacles they anticipate facing in the new position. If the person tells me that they will not have any problems, the interview is over. I might run out the clock out of politeness, but I’m done.
Answers that blow me away are answers that have me saying to myself: “I never thought of that, good point.”
Being overdressed is not a problem, it shows the person takes it seriously and wants the gig.
I guess it depends on the circumstances of the interview. In the ones I conducted I have always had the resume of the person, so a lot of it came down to confirming (or otherwise) what they claimed.
I can think of no single response that made me think “They nailed it”.
Knowing absolutely nothing about the company, the position, or the industry they are interviewing for.
Also, anything that makes it appear that you aren’t quite ready for a professional environment is bad. I don’t want to hear about your anime club or fraternity experience unless you can demonstrate some sort of leadership.
I had one guy who was so intense that he appeared psychotic.
The point of an interview is not to correctly answer a bunch of dumb questions. There is not right or wrong answer for most of them. The point is for me to assess what sort of person you are, how well you communicate and whether you will fit with my organization.
That said, answers that “hit it out of the park” tend to be ones that show an in-depth understanding of my business needs.
I would feel like shooting myself in the head because I am a full-grown adult working at a Haagen Dazs and would probably not give a shit about how the candidate was dressed.
I like to give “Kobeyashi Maru” questions that have no answer just to see how the candidates respond. I want to see if the candidate can give thoughtful answers and not just parrot canned responses.
I have a few pat questions I try to get in, or at least a few ideas, like feeling them out to make sure they know what the company does, ensuring they know what they would do (you’d be surprised at how many people have no idea what responsibilities come along with the position they’re applying for) and making sure they can think for themselves and handle conflicting personalities and large projects.
The biggest mistakes someone can make, in addition to not knowing what the company does, is to not know what they’d be doing. Most positions require additional explanation, but I shouldn’t have to tell someone the basics. That tells me they’re taking stabs in the dark and either don’t care what they do and how they can help me and may be desperate, perhaps because they have issues that make them a difficult hire or because they’re casting a wide net and don’t know how to target. Also, I hate it when someone tries to be my buddy. Yes, if someone is going to manage you, it’s easier if you “click,” but I don’t need a friend at work. I need someone who can do the job, who’ll play nicely with others, make other departments want to help us and can diplomatically handle them when they won’t and who can take on increasing responsibilities. When people advance, the department looks good. And I don’t encourage promotion based on who’s my friend and who’s not.
The worst interviewee I ever had answered questions I didn’t ask and, when he did answer my questions, did so in such an incoherent manner I had no idea what he was talking about. He was internal (I have no idea how he’d gotten hired in the first place), and was for some reason hired into our department, but he lasted all of two weeks and was fired. Our department was the “trial-by-fire” department. If you could make it there, you could make it anywhere, but we quickly weeded out people who couldn’t do the job.
As far as dress, I’d rather someone be overdressed than under-dressed. In retail, it’s tough to know exactly what the protocol is - I’d err on the side of formal business attire or ask the interviewer what the typical dress is, then dress one level nicer than that.
I have done a lot of technical interviews in my previous job. The absolute worst mistake is people who won’t admit that they don’t know the answer to a specific technical question, but claim that they know the answer and try to talk their way out instead. It’s not a problem at all if you don’t know everything offhand. Nobody does. It’s ok if you can describe what you do know, be honest about the part you’re not sure about, and convince me that you would be able to figure it out when the need arises. However, trying to bullshit your way out has just shown me your lack of integrity.
No single worst interviewee really stood out. We did extensive phone screens before we brought them in, so all the real nutcases had been eliminated before they got to me.
During an interview, I know whether or not I want to hire you within the first minute.
How you answer my questions is secondary. I’m looking for other things: Do you appear professional? Do you seem honest? (I hate bullshitters.) Are you going to be high maintenance? Are you going to be a troublemaker? Are you an egomaniac? Do you have a sense of humor? Do you have a good attitude? Do you have any obvious personality disorders?
Reason being… if I hire you, I will have to work with you at least 9 hours a day. So the main thing that’s going through my head is, “Can I work with you? Or are you going to be a problem?”
What is the single most common serious mistake people make during job interviews?
Dragging the question out way too long. Going on and on and on. I’ve done this as well on interviews, so I know on the flip side.
The other thing is answering a question not asked. Try to focus on what I say.
Who was the absolute worst interviewee you ever interviewed?
I don’t think I’ve ever had a single worst interview. There were people that were woefully unprepared for the interview.
Has an applicant ever given an answer to a question that hit the ball out of the park–an amazing answer that single-handedly increased the applicants chance of getting the job dramatically? What was the answer?
I asked a woman for a PBX job what she thought the hardest part of the job would be. She said, something like, "Well when you’re face to face you can smile and show the customer you want to help them. But when you’re on the telephone it’s hard to let the customer know you’re smiling and actually WANT to help them. So making them feel that way would be my biggest challange.
I liked that If you were interviewing somebody for a casual retail job (like, say, ice-cream scooper at Haagen Dazs), how would you feel if they were a little overdressed?
I wouldn’t care for overdressed. Underdressed might give me a concern, as long as they were clean and I mean combed hair and shaved and the like, I wouldn’t mind, especially if they had to wear a uniform.
Do you have any interview questions that are fairly unique to you, rather than part of the standard canon of interview questions?
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I always ask the applicant in the last year at your previous job what did you specifically do to make your job and work place a better place to work at?
The other tip I can say is CHECK YOUR REFERENCES. You can’t believe the bad references I got from people who actually put them down. These are PERSONAL references that they CHOOSE to put down. I’m sure the references are well meaning but they come across as actually discouraging me from hiring you.
Or they won’t get back to you. In today’s economy you probably won’t be the only choice. If I’m waiting for a reference to call me back, and it’s takes over a week, they may go with the other guy who’s reference called back.
I have interviewed a few hundred people for software development jobs.
What is the single most common serious mistake people make during job interviews? There are actually two, in my experience. Answering questions they don’t know the answer to, and talking too much.
Who was the absolute worst interviewee you ever interviewed? A person who had strong opinions about writing code who made it clear that he intended to impose his style preferences on everything he touched. He was interviewing for a position in which he would be making minor changes to many, many programs. He would not back down from his ridiculous position even after a gentle suggestion that he might be disqualifying himself.
**Has an applicant ever given an answer to a question that hit the ball out o f the park–an amazing answer that single-handedly increased the applicants chance of getting the job dramatically? What was the answer? **No.
**If you were interviewing somebody for a casual retail job (like, say, ice-cream scooper at Haagen Dazs), how would you feel if they were a little overdressed? **Overdressed for an interview is not a problem.
**Do you have any interview questions that are fairly unique to you, rather than part of the standard canon of interview questions? **I think all of my non-technical questions are unique to me, or at least they don’t come from the “Where do you see yourself in five years?” list. I try to find out what they like and don’t like about programming, what they feel that they are best and worst at without asking any “What would say your biggest fault is?” questions. Some of my technical questions are designed to get an “I don’t know, but I would look it up in (name of relevant manual here)” answer. I don’t know is a good answer, to me.
I really, *really *hate bullshitters. I’m in the engineering field, and many engineers seem embarrassed to admit they don’t know the answer to something. So instead of saying “I don’t know, but I can do some research to find out” (which is the correct answer), they invent a plausible-sounding answer off the top of their head so as not to appear dumb.
If I sense an interviewee is a bullshitter in even the slightest way, they won’t be working for me.
I’ve only sat in on a couple of interviews in my life, so I can’t answer most of the questions. But the worst interviewee stands out.
The job was for my replacement as a traveling educator for a humane society, going from school to school and presenting lessons on various animal topics. We were looking for someone with a good knowledge of animal welfare issues, the ability to talk in a developmentally appropriate manner, the creativity to create new lessons, etc. I wasn’t the main interviewer, but was mainly there to offer my opinion afterwards.
So the applicant sits down, and the main interviewer asks, “Tell us a little about yourself.”
And for the next fifteen minutes (I checked), the applicant told us about her experiences as a pet psychic. This wasn’t even telling us about the work she did scamming little old ladies out of their fortunes, this was telling us about her receiving mental transmissions from her pets. Fifteen minutes.
The rest of the interview was pretty terrible, too, but nothing compared to that.
There are a few, actually: coming to an interview reeking of the cigarette you just had to have prior to walking in the door (for women: then dousing yourself in perfume in an attempt to cover it up); wearing your full complement of facial fishing tackle; acting bored and avoiding eye contact (I know you think it’s cool, but it ain’t).
I used to work as a call center supervisor, and I interviewed hundreds of applicants. The caliber is a lot different than in most white collar jobs.
Generally, dropping a warning sign of being too high-maintenance in some way. Someone who made it clear that their needs came first and that they would likely be a pain in the ass when it came time to be flexible or help out. People did this in all kinds of ways - by describing previous jobs, by giving an air of “I’m so awesome that you’ll do whatever it takes to keep me”, by asking for non-medical accommodations before they even got the job, et cetera.
There were a lot, but the most memorable for me was one guy who came from working at a McDonalds. Now, you were supposed to have six months experience, and he really didn’t, but I figured if he was a rock star in fast food he might have the skills needed to deal with a high stress call center. I asked him about his previous job, and why he left. He said he was fired, and started to look really cagey.
I asked what for. He said, “the manager didn’t like me”. I pressed. He hemmed and admitted it was for theft, but it was for something that shouldn’t have been a big deal to take. Now, I used to work in fast food and I know some managers can give people a hard time, for example, for taking a sandwich that was going to be thrown away when they are hungry and have no money. Because of this, even though theft is a normal automatic disqualification, I asked more about the circumstances.
He said “I just stole some cheese.” I asked, what, like a slice of extra cheese on a sandwich?
No, he had been stealing boxes of American cheese.
Didn’t hire him.
No. Anyone who was an awesome applicant could have been heavily coached by another employee (or by the temp agency, who was always trying to slip stuff past us) so answering questions too well put me on alert. I didn’t disqualify people for this reason but I definitely shook things up and asked different questions that weren’t on the interview form.
I honestly did not have a problem with people being overdressed. We got the occasional person in a suit. The worst thing that I’d do is make extra sure that they understood the starting wage and the expectations of the job, because it wasn’t exactly well paid. A lot of people were ‘overqualified’ and couldn’t find work, and needed to find a place to start again. Example: we had a lot of older guys working in IT, especially programming, making $9 an hour doing grunt-level tech support. Why? They couldn’t find anything else. Between their age and their outdated skill set (e.g. FORTRAN), they were unhirable in anything comparable to their old job. As long as someone didn’t give me the vibe that they were desperate to get out of the job as soon as possible, I’d usually give them a chance.
Underdressing was much more common. Think tube tops and flip-flops.
Not really. I liked to add questions based on how the interview went. Most often I would ask people to tell me about how they learn things, and examples of learning new skills. A lot of people just can’t or won’t learn new technical skills and will rely on being hand-held.