How to Avoid Costly Mistakes in an Interview
After sorting through job ads, writing your resume and submitting your applications, it is a welcome relief to get a call for a job interview. While this is important progress, you still have to ace the interview. There are many opportunities to make costly mistakes in an interview. If you are careful however, and properly prepare yourself you can avoid these mistakes and hopefully get the job you are looking for.
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Instructions
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Plan to arrive early for your interview. Aim to arrive half an hour early in case you get stuck in traffic or run into other problems on your way to the interview. If you aren't familiar with the location of the interview ask the employer for directions and take the time to look up the location on a map ahead of time.
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Review your resume before you go into the interview. If you have a long job history it can be easy to mix up dates of employment or other details you have mentioned. Make sure that you know your resume inside and out. If you don't, your interviewer may think that you are poorly organized or may even suspect that your resume has been falsified.
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Research the company and the position before the interview. There is no surer way to foul up a job interview than by being unfamiliar with the company. Take the time to go over the company's website and recent news items to get a sense of what it does and what direction its headed in. Review the job ad to learn as much as you can about the position you are applying for.
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Wait until as late in the interview process as possible to discuss the salary. Delay salary discussions until after you have received an offer, if possible. This gives you a negotiation advantage because you know that the company wants you and the only issue is regarding the salary.
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Avoid speaking negatively of your former bosses. Even if you had a bad experience with your boss in the past, don't mention it. Doing so may give the impression that you are difficult to manage.
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Dress appropriately for the interview. As a general rule, you should dress slightly more formally than the job requires. For example, if the work attire is business-casual, dress in business attire. If the dress code is casual, dress in business-casual. Being underdressed may send the message that you are not professional enough for the job.
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References
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