If you’re on the hunt for a new job, chances are you’ve Googled the phrase, “Job interview tips”. The interweb is full of advice on what to do to ensure you land that dream job. But what about what not to do?
Thankfully someone posed that exact question – well, close enough – to the fine people of Reddit, and hundreds of employers obliged. Here are some of the biggest red flags an applicant can wave, according to employers.
1. You show up late.
“If someone shows up late for an interview with no excuse and no effort made to let me know they were running behind, I tell them I am no longer interested in interviewing them,” writes tufted_wisdom.
2. You’re dressed like it’s the weekend.
“Dressing too casually was a big red flag. It may be a little old fashioned, but when I had 10 equally qualified candidates for one job, anyone who showed up wearing sandals would end up in the ‘no’ pile,” writes Ephemeris7.
“The people who take the time and make the effort to clean themselves up for the interview are more likely to be more professional and make an effort to do a good job.”
3. You talk too much.
“Don’t say you have excellent communication skills and have spelling and grammar errors and then in the interview give brief non-responsive answers, or just go on and on,” writes TRexhatesyoga.
Top Comments
I agree with all of these, but the last one, it's not the employer's business what you like to do for fun, your personal life should be off limits in an interview unless of course the person chooses to bring it up.
Nothing wrong with an employer trying to relax them by asking a nice friendly question, like "hi nice to meet you in person, did you have a nice weekend?" But if it becomes a genuine line of inquiry then I don't think the person's personal life should be relevant .
People respond blankly because they are not used to the question because it's personal and probably find it invasive, they also worry that whatever their hobby is may be judged, e.g. if you say you like to collect stamps will the interviewer think you are a nerd, etc. Or what if you spend all your spare time at your church social group OR at your atheist social group, either way you may end up offending your prospective boss who may have a strong opinion on religion or politics or feminism or men's activism or stamp collecting or whatever it is that floats your boat in your spare time.
Or what if your hobby is S&M maybe you are frantically trying to think up a socially acceptable answer!
Oh my... who on earth would answer a question from a prospective employer of what you like to do for fun with "You won't know what it is anyway"?!?