Dressing Inappropriately
The first impression you make on a potential employer is the most important one. The first judgment an interviewer makes is based on how you look and what you wear. That’s why it’s always important to dress appropriately for a job interview.
Your attire may vary based on the position and company you’re applying for. For example, you need to dress business formal when attending interviews at a financial institute, but you don’t need to dress as formal when interviewing at small startup companies. However, no matter what industry you’re interviewing for, revealing too much skin or body figure, wearing too much perfume or too many accessories would be perceived as inappropriate.
Beside your outfit, you should also pay attention to your appearance. Make sure you face is clean and keep your makeup and hair style as simple and professional as possible. Except for interviews in the fashion industry, you’ll really need to dress to impress in that case. Keep in mind that you need to always look prepared, well-dressed and put together in order to make a good first impression on the interviewers.
image from: http://www.businessinsider.com/dod-spent-170k-on-a-study-about-walking-with-coffee-2016-6s
Bringing a drink
Ditch the coffee or soda before entering the front door of the interviewed company. If you really need to drink something, do it before you get into the interview. Not only does attending an interview with a drink in hand make you look unprofessional, it also appears like you’re not taking this interview seriously.
Before or during the interview, you should be fully concentrated on the task at hand: making a good impression, answering questions, maintaining eye contact with your potential employer, and paying attention throughout the entire interviewing process, instead of sipping on your coffee.
In addition, having a drink in front of you creates the opportunity for distraction – you may start fiddling with the cup or sipping your beverage, which creates an unprofessional image. Or even worse, you may miss a question while taking a sip. Last but not least, although this seems like an unlikely possibility, bringing a drink to your interview may cause unpleasant accidents like spilling the drink on someone or somewhere!
image from: http://www.fireflydaily.com/from-boring-birthday-calls-to-loud-calls-from-mom-here-are-26-most-awkward-phone-calls-ever/
Using your phone
Just like in movie theatres, cell phones should not be in scene during interviews. You are not supposed to google hard questions asked during your interview on your phone at the moment, or answering and making calls during the interview.
Before you go into an interview, you should always silence your phone first. Texting or answering phone calls during your interview is not only rude and disruptive, it also sends a clear message to your potential employer that getting this job is not your top priority.
Be sure that you didn’t accidentally arrange anything else in the same time slot as your interview, so no one will disrupt you. Even if something came up, what could be more important than landing on a new job? If you are really clingy to your phone and can’t help but checking it once a while, try hiding your phone in your bag before the interview to resist your temptation.
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Badmouthing your past employer
Don’t make the mistake of badmouthing your previous boss or coworkers, it will only make you look bad. It’s a smaller world than you think and you don’t know who your interviewer might know, including that old boss or colleague who you hated. More importantly, you don’t want the interviewer to think that you are such a shallow person who holds a grudge for so long, and may speak that way about his or her company if you leave on terms that aren’t the best in the future.
When interviewing for a job, you want your employer to know that you are a people person, that you get along with everyone, you can work well with others and handle conflicts in a mature and effective way, rather than badmouthing your coworkers or talking about other people’s incompetence.
When you’re asked questions like “Tell me about a time when you had a conflict at work. What was the outcome and how did you dealt with it?” or “Have you worked with someone you didn’t like? If so, how did you handle it?” don’t fall back on badmouthing other people and blame everything on others. Instead, try to showcase your problem solving and people skills when answering these questions.
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