As Andrew McCaskill, career expert at LinkedIn, said: “Job interviews are like a play in which everyone plays their role. You just have to learn your role well and go on stage with your prepared lines.” Some even “prepare their role” by training with an AI.
Emily Levine, executive vice president of the recruiting company Career Group Companies, said in an interview with CNBC that, in addition to learning the role, you also have to control how you enter the scene and interact with other actors.
“You want to make sure you’re making good eye contact, that you’re reading the room in terms of when it’s appropriate to speak and when it’s time to ask questions.” These are some tips from this expert to avoid the main red flags in a job interview.
Don’t arrive too early
Levine has extensive experience in recruiting and has interviewed “thousands and thousands of people” for relevant positions, some of them even as personal assistants or chiefs of staff for A-list celebrities.
The first tip may sound a bit obvious: being late is not an option. As much as Generation Z has a different concept of punctuality, other people’s time is something that should not be played with.
However, arriving too early to the interview doesn’t speak well of you either. According to the recruiting expert, “arriving too early will also make you appear too anxious and the interviewer might feel uncomfortable” knowing that a person has been waiting for their turn for an hour.
According to Emily Levine, it is ideal to arrive five to ten minutes before your appointment time. Enough in advance to prevent any inconvenience from making you arrive late, but not so much that your presence in the room could be conspicuous. “I recommend making sure you park 15 to 20 minutes before your appointment near the building,” says Levine. That way, you can better control your time and enter the office at the right time.
There are no second chances for a first impression.
It takes only seven seconds for the brain to decide whether it likes what is in front of it or not. According to different psychological studies by the Association for Psychological Science, the brain makes this decision instinctively at an almost subconscious level, so maintaining a good appearance and maintaining a presence that is as neutral as possible helps to avoid negative impacts on you.
In this process, sight and smell act as powerful generators of memories and you will not want the person interviewing you to remember you because of the smell of tobacco or a perfume that is too intense.
In this sense, it does not matter if it is a video call. First impressions are just as important and, although the sense of smell does not intervene, the sense of sight and hearing do. Having good image and sound quality during remote interviews has been shown to improve candidate perception.
Likewise, make sure not to wear sunglasses or any other item that prevents you from seeing your eyes or face clearly so that communication is easier. “Don’t chew gum or wear sunglasses during the interview,” adds Levine, “ideally you’ll be remembered for your skills, not those first impressions.”
Measure your words
The expert points out the importance of measuring words when disclosing certain information about previous work experiences. It is normal for this type of interview to talk about what functions they have performed in the past, but in no case does it recommend going into too precise or compromising details.
Some of their clients ask candidates who come to work with them to sign confidentiality contracts to prevent them from revealing secrets in the future. If, even after signing these contracts, the employee talks more than his or her previous employers, it may be a warning sign.
Talk about your experiences and job duties naturally, but without going into too much detail. If for any reason the answer to one of their questions involves revealing any compromised data, just politely decline to answer their question explaining the reason. In those cases, the wrong response is to give in to pressure to give an answer and reveal data.
The impression is that, “if your interviewer hired you, in the future you would most likely do the same and share that confidential information with others,” Levine points out.
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Image | Unsplash (Amy Hirschi)
