10 Classic Interview Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

We’ve written before about how to nail the virtual interview and how to overcome your interview nerves. But what should you avoid saying or doing at the interview? Here’s our guide to 10 no-nos you’ll want to stay well clear of.

Classic Interview Mistakes

Mistakes #1 – Arriving late

“The trains were on strike – who knew?”

The unexpected happens. But here’s the thing: it happens all the time. You may not be able to predict the specific thing that will surprise you on interview day (snow! Strikes! Your best interview shirt turning pink in the wash!), but you can confidently predict something unexpected will happen.

Being able to plan around such things is an indication of your preparedness. If, for example, you can’t get to interview because there’s a train strike on your interview day, your interviewer might reasonably have expected you to work round that in advance – perhaps by taking the bus instead and planning the additional time into your schedule, or by travelling the evening before.

Mistakes #2 – Lying

“Yes. I was actually the CEO of Amazon.”

There are degrees of lying. There’s the date tweaking on your CV to skip that couple of weeks when you went rogue and decided to become a lion tamer. You might just get away with that. And then there’s just making stuff up.

We can’t stress this enough: don’t lie. Don’t lie on your CV. Don’t make things up at interview. Don’t exaggerate your skills or experience. At best, you’ll be found out there and then, which will make the rest of the interview a) painful and b) unsuccessful. At worst, you’ll get the job and then get found out, which will be even more excruciating.

Mistakes #3 – Badmouthing

“My last employer? They were just the worst”

There are degrees of lying. There’s the date tweaking on your CV to skip that couple of weeks when you went rogue and decided to become a lion tamer. You might just get away with that. And then there’s just making stuff up.

We can’t stress this enough: don’t lie. Don’t lie on your CV. Don’t make things up at interview. Don’t exaggerate your skills or experience. At best, you’ll be found out there and then, which will make the rest of the interview a) painful and b) unsuccessful. At worst, you’ll get the job and then get found out, which will be even more excruciating.

Mistakes #4 – Leave-ing

“I’ve got a holiday coming up…”

There are two issues with talking about your holiday plans to an interviewer. First, unless they specifically ask about your leave plans, they don’t really care. HR can sort such things out with you if you’re successful – it’s not something that needs to be raised at interview.

But the bigger reason is focus. In an interview, your interviewer wants to feel that winning the job is your greatest priority. Taking about your holiday plans – even if they’re really important holiday plans – suggests your mind’s not on the job.

Mistakes #5 – Not preparing

“It says what in my CV? I don’t know where that came from.”

Preparation is a big part of a successful interview. The better prepared you are, the less likely you are to face something unexpected. As a bare minimum, you should revisit your CV and application form, your cover letter and the job description, because these are where the questions will most likely come from.

Beyond that, look at the company website, social media and news stories to find potential points for discussion and to enable you to talk with some knowledge about the business (I saw on Twitter that you’ve just released X etc…).

Then, consider how you would answer the sort of questions that are almost bound to come up, such as:

• Tell us about yourself >
• Why do you want this job? >
• What’s your greatest strength? >
• Do you have any questions for us? >

Finally, consider the questions that your CV or application are almost certain to prompt:

• You mention that you’ve done X. What was your part in that? >
• I see that you’ve done Y. How do you think that will benefit you in this role? >
• You spent some time doing Z. What were the most important outcomes of that? >

Now, rehearse your answers. Try saying them in front of a mirror or with a friend. The goal is not to lock down answers so tightly that a slightly different question throws you. It’s to have a general sort of ‘template’ answer that, with a bit of quick thinking, you can twist to fit lots of questions.

Preparation shows. And on the flip side, a lack of preparation shows too.

Mistakes #6 – Rambling

“Sorry, I’ve been speaking non-stop for 10 minutes. What was the question?”

It’s easy to fall into the trap of rambling. Many of us tend to talk faster and for longer when we’re nervous. It can be tempting to waffle on too, because you might assume that the more space you fill with words, the less chance there is of you facing a question you can’t answer.

But rambling doesn’t help your cause, and for several reasons:

• If you’ve addressed all the interviewer’s points after a minute, rambling doesn’t add anything to your answer >
• It can make it harder for an interviewer to identify the key points in what you say >
• It can reduce your chances of success because the interviewer can’t cover enough ground >
• It can suggest you don’t have an answer >
• It can indicate that you can’t order your thoughts and say them in a succinct way>
• It might indicate you’re a talker, not a listener >

To reduce the risk of rambling:

• Don’t eat or drink anything that you know might make things worse. Perhaps lay off that third Red Bull of the morning. >
• Practice techniques that make you feel calm enough to speak in a clear, ordered, but enthusiastic way (although avoid destressing to such an extent that you appear
  zoned out or disinterested). >
• Practice answering questions you suspect will come up. The less you have to think on your feet, the less likelihood there is you’ll feel the need to ramble >

Mistakes #7 – Cliché-ing

“I really am extremely results driven and a good team player with strong attention to detail.”

The problem with rolling out a cliché at interview is that they’re not your words – they’re somebody else’s and they’ve been used a lot. Which is what makes them cliches.

An interviewer wants to know about your thoughts, capabilities and experiences, so use your words to describe them. At best, an interviewer will ignore cliches as being empty, meaningless statements, meaning part of your answer will have zero impact. At worst, they’ll take the overuse of cliches as evidence that you can’t think for yourself.

Mistakes #8 – Me-me-me-ing

“Yes, I was responsible for everything”

In any interview, ‘I’ is important. This is your interview, after all. It’s important to explain your part in events and your specific influence on results. But there’s a balance to be struck, because virtually nothing in business is ever achieved completely solo.

So while you should talk about the role you played in events, it’s also important to acknowledge that others played their part too. You might even be able to discuss how you helped others to deliver. This can help demonstrate to an interviewer that you really are a team player without having to crank out the old cliché. It can also show that you are self-aware enough to realise that not everything is about you.

Mistakes #9 – Assuming

“So when do I start?”

We can add “Did I get the job?” to this category too. It isn’t unheard of for candidates to be offered a job immediately after interview, but it’s not usually the way it works because a) there are usually more interviews following yours and b) interviewers will usually have a period of discussion and reflection before they make any final decisions.

Asking if you got the job feels a little naïve. Asking when you start will come across as extremely presumptuous.

Mistakes #10 – Talking Money

“Let’s settle at £50k then”

You’re in an interview, not down Camden Market. Now’s not the time to start haggling over your price. You should at least know the ballpark salary and package offered before interview. If you’re successful you may be able to negotiate your package then. But it’s definitely not something you should do at interview.

Let’s get the ball rolling towards your next interview. Send us your CV now.