When Negativity Strikes<\/strong><\/p>\nTo be clear, you don\u2019t have to be a negative person in general to come off the wrong way in a job interview. Even the most cheerful and optimistic among us fall victim to negativity from time to time, particularly in response to certain topics, such as why you want to leave your current position or company.<\/p>\n
Often, candidates \u201cfeel the best answer to this question is to cite the shortcomings of their previous employer,\u201d which \u201ccan quickly lead to a tangential description of the faults [of] managers or a list of a company\u2019s shortcomings,\u201d said Mollie Moric, Career Advisor and Hiring Manager at Resume Genius.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main purpose of a job interview is to sell yourself, your ability to complete a role, fit in with a company and be a positive addition to a team. Your interviewer isn\u2019t concerned with how much of a jerk your previous manager was or how poorly the company was run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides wasting valuable time that could be used to highlight how great you are, these rants reflect poorly on your character.<\/p>\n
Career coach Lisa Lewis shares that those who complain about former employers \u201coften come across as someone stuck in the past or feeling like a victim,\u201d while Opakunle points out that \u201cany employer who hears you speaking negatively about a past company in a first meeting will assume you\u2019ll do the same about them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also easy to sound overly cynical and\/or self-critical when you talk about weaknesses and mistakes, given that they are an inherently negative topic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe appropriate answer to this question requires a candidate to provide a list of weaknesses accompanied by examples of how they\u2019ve overcome each one. However, an unprepared candidate may opt to divulge a list of their greatest weaknesses and how they\u2019ve affected their life instead of a more appropriate response,\u201d Moric said.<\/p>\n
Talking about past employers and weaknesses or mistakes aren\u2019t the only situations in which negativity can slip through, though.<\/p>\n
Other indications your conversation has taken a turn for the worse include \u201csighing, breaking eye contact, seeing fewer smiles or head nods, noticing longer pauses in between their questions, ending an interview earlier than the scheduled time or getting the feeling that the tone of the conversation has taken on a slow, heavy energy,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
How to Change Your Tone<\/strong><\/p>\nExperts recommended several key strategies to avoid excess negativity. For example, don\u2019t talk about why you want to leave your current job \u2014 instead, try \u201cdescribing the traits of the work and workplace you\u2019re seeking for your next move,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you focus on your own agency and the positive attributes you want, you can take a potentially very negative situation and turn it into a positive opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, if asked to bring up an example of a mistake you\u2019ve made or a challenge you\u2019ve encountered, \u201cfollow each negative comment with a way in which you were able to make the situation positive in the end,\u201d Moric said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, if you experienced a significant period of unemployment, explain how you took online courses to update your skills or spent time volunteering to give back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can also try \u201ctalking about the lessons you learned from a challenging situation and mentioning all the resources you now use to handle similar issues differently to find a better resolution,\u201d Lewis added.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the most important thing you can do is practice answering common interview questions aloud before your interview takes place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know that you have residual negative feelings about a point in your career that might come up in your interview, prepare your answers for those topics beforehand. Instead of getting triggered by a negative feeling and botching an important interview question, you\u2019ll be able to provide well-thought-out answers that offer a positive perspective on an otherwise difficult topic,\u201d Moric said.<\/p>\n
Of course, life is always going to be full of both positives and negatives, so you don\u2019t need to pretend that nothing bad has ever happened to you. But there\u2019s a big difference between experiencing something negative and dwelling on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve had something negative happen, don\u2019t ignore it completely or pretend it didn\u2019t happen. Interviewers want transparency and authenticity from you in the interview to be able to feel like they can trust you,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut ensure that as you reflect, you show signs of separation and growth from the situation rather than coming across as still entrenched in the thick of the emotional consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRead: 8 secrets job recruiters won\u2019t tell you that you need to know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every once in a while, you\u2019ll have an interview that you think went great only to get rejected by the recruiter. Why? Recruitment firm, Glassdoor, asks the experts for answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":267145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[7186,26],"class_list":["post-277109","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\/277109","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=277109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277127,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277109\/revisions\/277127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}