Ten Things Never To Do On A Job Interview

Here are 10 of them!
 
On a job interview, you never want to:
1. Be late. Make a test drive or test bus-or-train-trip before your interview day to make sure you know how to get there, and how long it will take you to get to the interview location.

2. Arrive without knowing who you’re meeting, or without their contact information. Bring the name, department and phone number or email address of the person who invited you to the interview. If there’s a mix-up or if the regular reception person is out of the office that day, whoever greets you will be able to find the person you’re supposed to meet if you bring their name and contact details.

3. Come unprepared. Bring a few hardcopies of your resume, a notepad and pen with you in a padfolio. On the notepad, write down your questions for your interviewer before you get to the interview. You’ll use the same notepad to take notes during your interview.

4. Come to the interview under-dressed. If you’re not sure whether the employer organization is a full-business-attire kind of place or a casual-business or just-plain-casual place, ask the recruiter who invites you to the job interview. You don’t want to show up for the interview under-dressed — that will only intensify any nerves you may be feeling. It is also possible, if you’re interviewing with a startup or a funky creative firm, to come over-dressed, so don’t be shy about asking, “What is the usual interview attire in your company?”

5. Show up without questions. Develop questions for your interviewer(s) and write them on your notepad before you leave home. Ask questions about the role, the working hours, the business priorities or whatever you most want to know about the job. If there are critical issues that will determine whether or not you can take the job (for instance, if you can’t travel for business because of family obligations and therefore need to know whether or not the job requires travel) make sure you ask those questions before the interview is over!

6. Interrupt the interviewer while he or she is talking. You may be excited to tell a story or share an answer to the interviewer’s question, but take a breath and let him or her finish talking first.

7. Forget the interviewer’s name or the company name in mid-stream. Write the interviewer’s name, the department you’re interviewing for, job title of the job you’re pursuing and the company name on the notepad that you’ll bring with you to the interview in your padfolio. That way you can’t forget the company name, the job title or the interviewer’s name in mid-interview.

8. Tell irrelevant stories, or go off-topic. It’s better to stop and think about what the interviewer has asked you before you speak than to launch into a story or an answer that has nothing to do with this company’s situation.

9. Book your schedule too tightly. Make sure you leave enough time in your schedule before your next appointment, because job interviews can run long and that’s often a good thing. You would hate to have to call your child’s daycare center and apologize for not being able to pick up your child on time, or have to leave the interview in a rush.

10. Leave without thanking the interviewer for his or her time. Be sure to thank the interviewer for his or her time by saying “Thanks so much for meeting with me — it was terrific to meet you and learn more about the opportunity.”