We reached out to our contact base to ask a few questions around advice they’d received over the years about interviews and careers – and also what they’d recommend to others starting out today. The results were quite interesting!
This week, we’ve picked out a few comments from the results about the worst interview advice people have been given over the years.
What is the worst interview advice you’ve ever received?
“You don’t need to do much research, the interviewers will only ask you questions about yourself.”
Showing that you’ve done your research about a company is a sign that you care about the job role you are interviewing for. Going into a call or a meeting with a potential employer without spending 15 minutes researching what they do online is unforgivable.
“Be yourself. Turns out that people like to exaggerate so if you don’t wave your arms in the air shouting how great you are, you lose.”
Well, we do think you should be yourself, but the commenter makes a good point: you have to demonstrate what you do well and make it known to the interviewer as it’s your chance to put forward why you’re the right person for the job. But just do it in a humble way, no waving arms in the air in an interview…… 😉
“Write out potential questions and learn the responses. When the interview came around, I couldn’t remember what I’d written and was too focused on trying to remember pre-written answers rather than responding to the questions.”
It’s important to prep yourself before an interview and make sure you’re covering the key questions, “Why do you want to work for us? ; What do you know about us?” etc. However, going into too much detail and trying to memorise set answers won’t help you in a live interview when you don’t know what all the questions are going to be. Try and get into thinking about potential questions in the run up to your interview, answering them in the shower, while you’re driving, in your head and so on, so that you get comfortable with some of the topics, but don’t try to learn things word for word.
Keep an eye out for our follow up articles about career advice, interview tips and your advice to younger job seekers in the market today! Read more here: https://yourprimerecruitment.com/blog/