Career & Money

5 common job interview mistakes you must never make

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Congratulations! You’ve gotten an interview for that job you want. The next step is to ace it and get closer to getting hired. To do that, you’ll want to avoid making one — or more — of these five big job interview mistakes. Not to stress you out stylish job-seekers, but there are about a million things you can do wrong in an interview. Of course, because you can only worry about so much.

1. Criticizing a Previous Employer

 Putting down the company you’re trying to leave or one you’ve worked for in the past gives off the impression you’re a negative person who can’t let go of the past. It also may make people wonder what you’d say about their company if they hire you. It doesn’t make you look good if you say mean things about your old boss.

2. Missing Opportunities to Prove Yourself

 Interviewers will ask questions that give you the chance to demonstrate your qualifications and show you have what it takes to do the job. Failure to answer questions with ESR (Example, Specifics, Results) responses is a failure to make the most of the interview.  Most questions offer you the opportunity in your answer to provide the interviewer with specific, relevant examples of you accomplishing some type of measurable result that benefited the employer. This requires you to have done your homework ahead of time, and to accurately portray what happened, so that when the employer verifies your story with prior employers, it matches what you said.
3.Providing the Wrong Recommendations

When you first hit the job market, it’s easy to think you don’t have any connections who could serve as professional recommendations. The answer is not to use your mom, your uncle or some other personal contact as a reference.
 When graduating from high school or college one thinks they don’t know anyone and therefore don’t have references they can use. They decide to bring to the interview a letter from their parents stating how great of a son or daughter they are; this does not go over well with hiring managers and the candidate is not taken seriously.
4.Setting Yourself Up to Fail on Social Media
Social media is part of the process companies use to vet prospective employees these days. Before you walk into an interview, there’s a good chance your prospective employer is looking at your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumblr, Google +, and other social media accounts. If they don’t like what they see, your interview may be doomed.
Posting on social media sites how you have interviewed countlessly unsuccessfully or a picture of you partying the night before an interview is a recipe for disaster. This is not what a potential employer wants to see and it’s not doing you any favors.
5. Being late, especially without acknowledging it
There is rarely an acceptable excuse to be late, but it sometimes happens. If you find yourself running late to an interview (even by a few minutes), go out of your way to let your interviewer know as soon as possible with an email and/or phone call, and also apologize when you arrive. Never show up late and hope that maybe they didn’t notice. It’s a huge turn off and makes your interviewer question your respect for time and ability to follow instruction.
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Source: Career-advice Monster

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