1. “I couldn\u2019t stand my last company”<\/strong><\/p>\nYou may have worked at a genuinely bad company, but whining about it or trash talking them will not earn you points with an interviewer.<\/p>\n
“When asked about a former boss or colleagues, never disparage them,” said Roy Cohen, career coach and author of The Wall Street Professional\u2019s Survival Guide.<\/p>\n
Doing so “will raise questions about whether that is how you will view the interviewer if, at some point, you don\u2019t get your way.”<\/p>\n
After all, if you talk smack about your current company, who\u2019s to say you won\u2019t do the same at this company? Rather than talking about what you dislike about your employer, talk about how excited you are about the company you\u2019re interviewing with, whether it\u2019s the culture, mission or work that gets you excited.<\/p>\n
\n2. “I\u2019ll do anything”<\/strong><\/p>\nYou might think that offering to take on any challenge the company can throw at you would be a good thing, but truthfully, it sounds a little desperate.<\/p>\n
Remember, interviews aren\u2019t just for showing that you want the job, but also proving that you\u2019re the right person for the job. In other words, you shouldn\u2019t just be willing to do something \u2014 you should be knowledgeable and passionate about what you do.<\/p>\n
“Tell your interviewer what you are most comfortable doing or what your background is in, or even things you haven\u2019t done before but are interested in doing,” said DW Bobst, CEO of Trend HR.<\/p>\n
No one wants to hire the short-term person who is just going to leave. Make sure you leave your interviewer with the impression that you are in it for the long haul.”<\/p>\n
\n3. “I\u2019m a self-motivated, quick learner with leadership skills”<\/strong><\/p>\nThese are all good things in theory, but throwing out a bunch of buzzwords like this without any evidence to back them up is hollow.<\/p>\n
“It signals a lack of authenticity and reliance on superficial sound bites. Interviewers tune you out \u2014 they\u2019ve heard it all before. What does it even mean?” asked Laura MacLeod, leadership coach and creator of From The Inside Out Project.<\/p>\n
“If you want to use this, you\u2019ll have to elaborate [with] specific examples of problem-solving, collaboration, managing conflict. Express it and explain it rather than just name it.”<\/p>\n
For example, if you want to show off your leadership skills, talk about how you stepped up for a group project. Provide as much detail as you can about what you did, how you did it and why it made a difference.<\/p>\n
\n4. “No, I don\u2019t know how to do that”<\/strong><\/p>\nOdds are, you won\u2019t already be familiar with every single task of a given job. And that\u2019s okay \u2014 most of the time, recruiters and hiring managers won\u2019t expect you to know everything, especially if you\u2019re at a more junior level. But there\u2019s a right way and wrong way to express that you don\u2019t know how to do something.<\/p>\n
Saying “no” flat-out makes it sound like you\u2019re not only completely clueless, but also unwilling to learn.<\/p>\n
“Instead, answer the question with a qualifying response. For example, if asked whether you have worked with a software that you [have] no experience with, you should talk about the similar software that you do have knowledge about and how they relate to the software in question,” said Patrick Lynch, President for the southeast region of talent and transition firm CMP.<\/p>\n
You can also give an example of a time you learned a different tool or technology quickly to make it clear that you\u2019ll be able to get up to speed in no time.<\/p>\n
\n5. “So what exactly does your company do?”<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen an interviewer asks if you have any questions for them, it\u2019s an opportunity for you to demonstrate how well-informed you are \u2014 not a chance to ask questions that you could have easily figured out on your own with just a few minutes of research.<\/p>\n
“This question is a dead giveaway that you didn\u2019t do any homework on the company or their products,” said Elizabeth Becker, client partner and career expert at recruiting firm PROTECH.<\/p>\n
“Instead, use questions as a way to demonstrate you did some homework.”<\/p>\n
For example, you might do some research on a company and discover that they primarily target small to medium businesses (SMBs). In that case, you might want to say something like “I found it interesting that your software is targeted to the SMB space \u2014 do you have any plans to launch enterprise solutions as well?” Becker suggested.<\/p>\n
\n6. “I want a job that pays X”<\/strong><\/p>\nSalary and benefits are important, and often play a large role in whether or not you decide to accept a company\u2019s offer. But bringing up details of the salary or perks you want unprompted and early in the interview process is a bit presumptuous.<\/p>\n
When you don\u2019t know exactly what a company will pay for a position, play it safe at first. “Give the impression that you are flexible on compensation rather than make demands,” Bobst said.<\/p>\n
If you make it to the final interview rounds, they will let you know what the job will pay.<\/p>\n
Conversely, they may ask you what your salary expectations are. In that case, don\u2019t just throw out a number \u2014 figure out what you really deserve.<\/p>\n
“If you don\u2019t know what pay you are qualified for, you should consider the amount of experience [you] have and what industry [you] are interested in working in and do a little research,” Bobst said.<\/p>\n
\nRead: Beware these 5 interview questions that try to trip you up<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Glassdoor, if you want to wow your interviewer, make sure to avoid the following six phrases: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":255399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[7186,26],"class_list":["post-255391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-glassdoor","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255391"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255479,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255391\/revisions\/255479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}