The Ten Biggest Interview Killers

When it comes to interviewing for a job, only the strong survive. You need to interview strong and put yourself at an advantage. However, there are a few ways to “kill” any advantage you build for yourself. HotJobs has laid out a list of the ten most common interview assassins:

1. Not knowing your aim
2. Being too needy
3. Lousy nonverbal communication
4. Compromising you position
5. Falling into the answers-only rut
6. Rambling
7. Being overly familiar
8. Making incorrect assumptions
9. Getting emotional
10. Not asking specific questions

How to Follow-up on a Great Interview

So you just had a great interview. What do you do next? If you find yourself in this situation, the one thing you shouldn’t do is sit on your hands and wait for your future employer to make the first move.

Career Builder has a simple and effective list of things to do to keep your interview fresh in the company’s mind.

• Within 48 hours, follow-up with a value-added response.
• Call, write or personally visit your potential boss once a week with a value-added benefit.
• If you are turned down, write a very cordial thank-you note to HR and, more importantly, to the person who interviewed you, thanking them for their time and consideration.

Six Ways to Create Interview Chemistry

Interviewing can be a lot like dating. Think about it – two people meeting, who might not know each other, come together for a meeting out of a common interest in each other. So can approaching a job interview like a date really help you land a new career?

According to Career Builder, there is a quite a bit of overlap between the two. Here are a few tips they offer, that might help you in both arenas:

1. Share commonalities: Discuss your passion for your field or enthusiasm for a new product or service, as well as personal commonalities such as family (i.e., children of the same age), recreational activities, hobbies or interests.
2. L.I.S.T.E.N. attentively: Laser your focus. Investigate and be curious. Silence your tongue -- hold your judgment and open your mind. Take brief notes and take time to formulate your response. Elevate the other person. Note the nonverbal, including your body language and that of your interviewer. It is impossible to connect with others if you don't listen well.
3. R.E.S.P.O.N.D. well: Remember your objective; Engage the interviewer. Share succinctly. Point to benefits. Offer proof. Never drone on. Dedicate yourself to a win-win relationship.
4. Pay attention to the 'howchas': The "howchas" are how you say something (as opposed to what you say). Tone, inflection, body language, attitude and motive combine to make how you say it just as important as what you say. To improve your 'howcha's,' remain deferential, respectfully curious and concerned about the interviewer/company's welfare. Use verbal and body language mirroring to enhance communication, matching aspects of your interviewer's voice, language, mannerisms and body language.
5. Recognize their learning style, whether auditory, visual or kinesthetic/tactile: Offer variety in your interview so that each style is addressed. This might include answering questions for the auditory learners, writing an outline on a whiteboard or showing a PowerPoint demonstration for the visual learners, and engaging the kinesthetic/tactile learners in activities or encouraging them to take more thorough notes.
6. Understand their temperament: Theorists (often seen in executive roles) value impressive training or credentials, and stress vision, logic, innovation, mastery, progress and excellence. Catalysts (often seen in human service roles) value harmony in work relationships and appreciate ideal, meaningful work environments. Stabilizers (often seen in finance and management roles) value factual, reality-based responses in a sequential, detailed fashion. Improvisers (often seen in sales/marketing roles) value action, excitement and variety, and prefer solutions that are practical and effective to help them get what they want.

Don’t Want to Get Hired? Try doing these...

Career Builder has listed ten “red flags” that scream don’t hire me to potential employers. In today’s uncertain economy, you probably don’t need any extra help when it comes to struggling to find a job. So as an FYI, here they are:

• Red flag No. 1: You don't have any contact information on your résumé
• Red flag No. 2: You have long gaps between jobs on your résumé
• Red flag No. 3: You aren't prepared for the interview
• Red flag No. 4: You didn't provide any references
• Red flag No. 5: You only have negative things to say about previous employment
• Red flag No. 6: You've held seven different jobs -- in the past six months
• Red flag No. 7: You give inconsistent answers in your interview
• Red flag No. 8: You lack flexibility
• Red flag No. 9: Your application was, in a word -- lazy
• Red flag No. 10: You lack objective or ambition

How to Dress for Interviews

While dressing appropriately for an interview differs greatly depending on the type of job your applying to (for example, you wouldn’t dress the same if you were applying for the CFO position at a Fortune 500 company as you would if you were applying to the neighborhood burger joint), there are a few key principles that it would behoove you to follow:

1. Dress One or Two Levels Up
2. Caution Is The Better Part of Valor
3. Use Your Judgment
4. You Might Not Want to Be Too True to Yourself

How to Prepare for a Job Interview

If you’ve done your best to properly prepare your resume, you might find yourself receiving the ever-coveted phone call: an interview request.

After the initial joy of actually getting an interview wears off, it is normally replaced by the nervous feeling of actually preparing for the interview. Here are some tips that you mind find useful:

The Clothes Make the Job Seeker

Make sure your interview clothes are clean and pressed a few days beforehand.

The last thing you want to worry about the night before an interview is pleading with your drycleaner or getting burned by a hot iron.

Also, make sure you have a neutral colored umbrella on-hand in case of rain.

Don't Forget Your Resumes!

Make good-quality copies of your resume on a nice grade of paper. Take more copies than you will possibly need -- just in case. Store the copies in a folder where they will stay clean and unwrinkled.

Organize your portfolio, tear sheets, professional reference lists or any other papers you think your prospective employer would like to see.

Make sure your purse or briefcase is stocked with everything else you'll need: A working pen (no pencils!), a notebook, breath mints, a comb, the umbrella I mentioned and some tissues.

Practice Makes Perfect

Like most things, people get better at interviewing with a little practice.

Dedicate one night prior to the interview to a mock QandA. You can set this up with a friend or conduct the interview yourself with a list of frequently-asked interview questions and a mirror.

Don't panic if, during the actual interview, you are not asked any of the questions you practiced. The point of practicing is to "warm up" to the process of answering questions on the fly.

Do Your Homework

Spend at least two days before the interview researching the company. Take notes. Memorize important facts.

A little preparation goes a long way. A couple of hours researching the company and practicing answers to interview questions can give you that extra bit of confidence you need to ace the interview.

Handling Illegal Interview Questions

Though you will never encounter this with MetaTech, you may at sometime in your professional life find yourself in an already stressful interview – and all of the sudden be approached with an illegal question. While the interviewer probably doesn’t realize that their question is illegal, writer Todd Anten has offered a few suggestions on how to diffuse this situation.

From Anten’s list I’ve taken a few situations that are illegal. Out of curiosity sake, has anyone ever encountered anything like this?

An Age-Old Question
Recent reports say that workers are planning to hold jobs well into their senior years. Many even plan to hold off retirement until their 70s or 80s in order to continue bringing in paychecks.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in an increase in complaints from older workers of age discrimination in the workplace, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The good news is that interviewers are not allowed to ask you your age during an interview. With some rare exceptions, the only age- related question they can ask is if you're over the age of 18.

One thing to keep in mind: The EEOC's Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 only protects workers who are 40 years old and older from age discrimination and in workplaces with 20 or more employees. However, some local governments have laws that also enforce age discrimination rules for younger applicants and smaller workplaces.

Married ... With Children?
Women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, according to the Department of Labor. And as their numbers grow, so do the potential pitfalls they may face during an interview, especially when asked about marriage, children and pregnancy.

While illegal interview questions surrounding relationships, marriage and children are generally more problematic for female job candidates, protection from discrimination applies equally to male candidates.

Basically, you should be suspicious if you are asked any questions about your marital status, your family status, your future plans for children or your child care accommodations.

So what can employers ask? Questions that deal directly with the job requirements (e.g., "Are you willing to relocate?").

Yes, many proud parents enjoy telling stories about their children, and there may be a temptation to trade toddler stories with a friendly interviewer who has a family picture on his or her desk. But to avoid potential problems, err on the side of silence.

A Race for a Job
A recruiter friend of mine told me a story of how she accidentally asked someone an illegal interview question.

"Oh, you have such an interesting name! What does it mean?" she asked a candidate with a beautiful name that was obviously of non-English origin.

Fortunately, my colleague caught herself and told the candidate that she didn't have to answer the question. But it does show how subtly the issues of race, ethnicity and religion might sneak into an interview.

For instance, according to Nolo.com, interviewers are not allowed to ask if you are a U.S. citizen or ask where you were born. However, they can ask if you are legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

So if you are asked about your race, color, religion or national origin, be aware -- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from making employment decisions based on such factors.

Funny Reference Stories

We all know that references are extremely important when it comes to landing a job. However, just having references isn’t enough. As the following people demonstrate from real-life situations, it pays to be diligent when lining up your references.

Keeping It in the Family
One reference turned out to be the candidate's mother-in-law. When asked about his employability, she said, "I wouldn't hire him to do anything!" The candidate obviously thought he could pawn off a relative as a work-related reference who would say good things about him -- whoops.

The Reference Bribe
After completing an interview with a former supervisor, the following comment was volunteered: "I would recommend him for any position he applies for, and the fact that he's paying me to say that doesn't have anything to do with it."

Don't Quit Your Day Job
Not long ago, an associate interviewed a candidate's former supervisor, who described the candidate as a good worker and very capable, except on Mondays when he frequently came to work very tired. When asked why, the former supervisor said the candidate wrestled bears on the weekends, and it wore him out.

Bad Interviewers

We’ve all had bad interviews in the past, but have you ever stopped to think – “wait a second, it’s not my fault… that interviewer was terrible.”

Well, at MetaTech you will be fortunate enough not to encounter this problem, but somewhere in your life you probably will – so I thought you might find this of interest.

Instead of paraphrasing the entire article, I’ll use a real life situation of mine with a bad interviewer, how I handled the situation, and how, according to Ms. Levchuck, I should have handled it.

This interview was at a small company (two employees) that shall remain nameless. It was very obvious, that being a small company, they didn’t have much experience in interviewing and handling job applicants – which led to a situation that was awkward at best.

The interview lasted around three hours, and I would say only about 20-30 minutes of that was dedicated to actual question and answering. The remaining time was filled with a cavernous, excruciating silence. I sat on the opposite side of the table looking at the two interviewers like a deer-in-the-headlights and they returned my gaze.
How I handled it: I sat there and waited for the questions. The only sound in the silence was the ticking minute hand of a clock… tick, tock, tick, tock.
How I should have handled it: I should have turned the tables on my interviewers and asked them questions. I should have asked them to describe the position in detail, explain to me the typical workday, and give me a run down of important tasks I was to work on. I should have asked them what they were looking for in the ideal candidate. But no, I just sat there and suffered.

When the interview wasn’t being overwhelmed by silence, it was being interjected with short, random, and dare I say, asinine questions. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate the occasional, from-left-field, let’s-see-how-your-mind-works kind of question like, “how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” but when I kept getting these things over and over again, I didn’t feel like I was getting my qualifications and skills across.
How I handled it: I told them that I like to toast the bread first.
How I should have handled it: I should have directly laid out what I wanted to say, even if the right time never presented itself. During an interview you only have a small window to make an impression, so if you aren’t going to be asked the important questions, you have to be prepared to blurt out the answers anyway.

As the interview ended, I had only seen the small back room, which guessing by the sour cream and orange soda smell, was a break room of sorts. I had not toured the office and seen exactly what happens and how things get done. I hadn’t bought myself more time.
How I handled it: I shook their hands and booked out the door.
How I should have handled it: I should have asked for a tour, and along the way asked more questions. The most important thing about the interview is to get a good gauge whether this is right for you, while at the same time making sure that your interviewer has a decent idea of who you are and what you bring to the table.

So alas I didn’t get the job. But for some reason, I can’t help but to think that it was for the best.