8 Biggest Mistakes You Are Making In Your Interview

What shouldn’t you do when interviewing?

After having failed many interviews, you may be disappointed and even depressed. However, what if you took the time to think about each failed interview and see what could have gone wrong?

Here are eight common interview mistakes that you are probably making, and how to avoid them.

1. Absence of clarity

Many times, you may panic in front of the interviewer, making you speak absolutely anything that comes to your mind while failing to realize whether it’s making sense and whether the sentences are coming in a flow. This perplexes the interviewer a great deal. While writing, you can simply erase a previous sentence if you feel it is irrelevant. But you don’t have that option while speaking.

Instead: Structure your thoughts beforehand. 2-3 days before the D-day, sit down and start furnishing rough drafts of answers to all the potential questions you know. Then read them all and try to gauge whether they are clear enough for a third person and check for relevancy. Edit, shorten, summarise, improvise and modify. Finally, read them aloud to yourself or an interview coach. You will get a much better idea of how clear your mind is. 

2. Lack of confidence

You may have clarity but while speaking, you appear unsure of yourself, produce a lot of conversational mitigations, shift restlessly in your seat and your body language betrays an under-confident and shy individual. Interviewers spot this immediately and it’s not really a favorable first impression.

Instead: Calm yourself down. Make yourself comfortable. Take deep breaths before going inside. Tell yourself you’ll be fine and speak some words of encouragement to yourself. Lastly, dress smartly. If you are well-groomed, that automatically induces confidence.

3. Getting lost on little details you didn’t think were important

There are always some tiny pieces of information on your CV that you think are unimportant and would not interest the interviewer. Well, the interviewer knows that too and that’s precisely why they ask questions on those details. At this point, you may go blank, leading to you failing the interview.

Instead: Know your CV inside-out. This is a necessity. You should be able to explain every word on your CV. Therefore, do thorough and exhaustive research from your end. 

4. Being brutally honest

Sometimes, in a bid to be absolutely truthful, you may actually undersell yourself. An interview is all about how well you sell yourself and how smartly you exhibit your strengths. 

Instead: Be honest and diplomatic but not foolishly truthful. If you failed in a previous interview, you really don’t need to tell that in the present one. If your justification for something is petty and not deeply thought of, you need to come up with a good justification. Convince the interviewer that your reasons are solid enough.

5. Weaving stories when the interviewer isn’t interested

Suppose the interview is slated to go on for only 15 minutes and you spend 5 minutes of those beating about the bush. The interviewer will certainly get impatient. They are expecting crisp, brief, to-the-point answers and you are narrating background stories. Sometimes, speaking too much leads to your failure.

Instead: Prepare both short and long answers. Also, it’s easy to gauge by the pace of an interview whether it’s going to last long or will get wrapped up quickly. Adapt yourself accordingly.

6. Focusing more on the outcome rather than approach

This is prevalent during puzzle questions. Most of the solutions are available online so you just cram them in advance thinking that that might impress the interviewer. Or, during case-study/guesstimate questions, you lose confidence midway because you can’t seem to arrive at a definite outcome. Not being aware of the fact that all the interviewer cares about is your approach.

Instead: Think sequentially. Prepare flow charts in your mind. As soon as a question is posed, start jotting down points on a paper and develop an approach. Just as you focused on steps for solving a mathematical problem in school exams, focus here on the approach.

7. Leaving room for the interviewer to bombard you with follow-up questions

Suppose you are asked a question on why X is better than Y. You answer that alright. However, just to impress, you also add a line on how Z is better than X. But, you don’t know why. And there’s your mistake. You unintentionally gave the interviewer a chance to grill you. Now, the discussion will deviate and you’ll start losing confidence.

Instead: Never deviate from the topic just to impress the interviewer. If you are unsure of a statement and can’t answer the why and how of it, don’t say it. Follow-up questions are great no doubt and lead to a healthy discussion. But not if you ultimately go blank and don’t have many validating points.

8. Not asking intelligent questions towards the end

 “Do you have any questions for us?” This question serves an important purpose. It is designed to sense your inherent interest in the job profile. It is designed to know the real you.

Instead: Read about the job profile beforehand. Carry out your due diligence. You will unearth a lot of useful information on the public domain and it would be prudent to not ask questions surrounding it. Next, if you are enthusiastic enough, speak to current or former employees and you will gain a lot of insight into what you are signing up for. And this is your chance to reflect and introspect and come up with a few questions that best satiate your curiosity and best address your genuine concerns and apprehensions.

Would you like to pass your next interview? Book a mock interview coaching session and be on your way to landing a job!