Interview Mistakes….Have you ever come out of an exam and wish you had the chance to go straight back in and do it again? In the usual post exam analysis with your friends or fellow students, you start thinking about the things you could have or should have written. Frustrating isn’t it?

Well, for many of us, coming out of an interview is exactly like that. We re-live every question, go back over our answers and wish we could have answered things slightly differently.

The reality is that this is true for most of us – very few of us are ever completely happy with our interview performances, and often we spend time going over things we should have, would have or could have said. In a bid to help improve your next interview performance, we are today we are going to highlight some of the Top interview Mistakes that many candidates make at interview – mistakes which we hope you won’t make.

Knowing little or nothing about the company..

Despite being asked in virtually every interview what you know about the company you are applying to, many candidates spend little or no time researching this. There really is no excuse for this. It is hardly a surprise question. Telling an interviewer that you haven’t had the time to do much research on them, or simply just stating that you don’t know anything about what they do, is quite frankly an insult. With the resources we all have these days, there can be no excuse for not doing your homework on them. Being able to show you know what they are about will always impress an interviewer. For some more tips on doing that research, check out our previous post here.

Bad mouthing people and places..

When candidates are asked why they left former employers or indeed why they are looking out right now, many make the mistake of being too honest. If your current or past employer was the worst company in the world or you literally had the boss from hell, the interviewer does not need to know this. When you start speaking in a negative way about past or current employers, it shines more of a bad light on you than on them. By bitching about colleagues or complaining about your boss, all you are doing is giving a warning sign to a potential employer that you could do the same about them in the future. A prospective employer looks and sees we have a potential problem employee here. Harsh but true. Always try and look at the positive elements of your past jobs and focus on talking about them. No matter how bad your previous or present boss is, in an interview situation, you are best to keep that to yourself.

No questions for them..

Again, at the end of the interview it should hardly be a surprise to be asked if you have any questions for them. I don’t think personally, I can recall an interview where I wasn’t asked this. This again is where preparation comes into play. Fully researching the company and the job will help give you ideas for questions to ask. Being asked this and replying that you have no questions to ask, simply shows a lack of care and thought to the interviewer. For some more guidelines on questions to ask, check out our previous post here.

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