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.
“Be attentive, don’t bluff, get clarification, pause to think, start over if you stuff up or lose your train of thought. We are there to find the best applicant not the most talky talk.”
4. No one will vouch for you.
“None of their references return calls or, you know, have working phones,” effieokay laments.
5. You whinge about your old boss.
“All that tells me as the person who may or not hire them, is that they could be a problem for me,” writes LazzzyButtons. “I will not hire you if you complain about your past management too much.”
6. You haven’t done your research.
“Nothing trumps preparation,” adds TRexhatesyoga.
“It is so obvious if an applicant has done it. We’ve offered positions to less well qualified or experienced people who had done a lot of prep over lazy well credentialed people. This goes for both applications and interviews.”
7. You think it’s all about work.
“People overlook the cultural match of an office. You don’t have to have the exact same interests, but SOME interests,” argues FastBreak99.
“[Questions like] ‘What do you like to do for fun?’ Have gotten blank stares, claims I won’t know what it is anyways, or they just live for work. All red flags to me.”
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"?!?