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Answers to Readers' Questions on Career:
Fear in Job Interview
The following 3 comments and questions have been sent in. They are listed according to date.
List of first 10 items
- Nervous and desperate to get a job
- Sometimes good talkers are poor workers
- Your answer given in job interview is a cliche
Nervous and desperate to get a job
Question
October 27, 2009
I feel nervous because I am so anxious to get a job because I need one bad. I am Desperate to get a job or I will loose my house. this is my first interview in 8 months and I cant tell you I am so nervous about having maybe an opportunity I cant even be excited. Help me to relax and not worry what do i do???
Thank you
Andy - USA
18576
Answer
Before your job interview, you need to do some thorough preparation.
Do some research about the company. Find out what they do and what type of things they need. Google them to find their website, as well as anything about them. Also, examine their want-ad carefully to get clues as to what skills they want. You want to come in their familiar with their company and business, so that they will feel you are a good prospect.
Do some practice interviews with a friend who is willing to ask some tough questions: Why did you leave your last job? Why haven't you found work? What have you been doing in the meanwhile? Why do you want this job?
You need to have good answers for such questions. Don't make excuses. Don't bad-mouth your past employer. Have a positive spin on what you will say.
Go over your work experience and write down some examples of how you saved your employer money or helped out. You can use these mini-stories or examples to show your potential to the new employer.
Having a thorough preparation should make you more confident in your interview, as well as help you make a good impression.
As soon as you get home, send the person or persons who interviewed you a hand-written note, thanking them for the opportunity and telling them you are really interested in their position. (Remember to write down their names during the interview.)
I hope these ideas help. Best wishes in getting a job.
Sometimes good talkers are poor workers
Question
October 21, 2009
I found this very educative and true. These are the basics of really preparing for an interview. However my experience tells me that sometimes great talkers are less doers. When given the work to do they sometimes do not deliver. At the same time one must not loose the sight of the fact that an interviewee needs to give positive impressions to the panel of interviwers. I learnt a lot from this passage. Thank you.
Howard - SA
18542
Answer
Thoroughly preparing for an interview will reduce the applicant's anxiety. However, the person must not be seeking to impress the hiring manager will his knowledge as much as try to appear to be the type of person that would fit into their team.
It is true that some people seeking a job will be very good at talking but end up not being good at doing the work. The worst thing to do is to interrupt the manager in order to try to make an impression of knowledge.
Being interviewed by a panel is a real challenge, because you can be dealing with a range of personalities.
Certainly, the more opportunities you get to be on an interview, the better you can get at being interviewed.
I'm glad the material was useful to you. Best wishes in your career.
Your answer given in job interview is a cliche
Question
November 16, 2007
> Note that a common question asked in an interview is: "Tell me your weaknesses." You need to prepare to answer that question with a positive remark. An example may be: "One weakness is that I try to do a perfect job. I may even do extra work to make sure the job is excellent."
This is one of the well known cliche lies. I suppose at a site giving career advices, you should do better than advising to reply this question with one of the worst cliches. What I usually say is "Sometimes I forget names", and continue with "that's why I write down the name of the person I'm talking to on the phone at the start of the conversation and cheat from there when I need it". So now it is not a lie, it is still one of my weaknesses, and it is not a big deal, you can even call this a fun moment to relax the interviewer. Referring to this monumental cliche (I'm a perfectionist) would make you look stupid, and worse you would be seen to think the interviewer is stupid enough to believe that. I think this is one of the worst mistakes that you can do in a job interview, that is to play the interviewer for a fool. You lose all your chances immediately, if any.
Even if you are lucky enough to find such a dumbass interviewer to really believe that you are indeed a perfectionist; you should know that this is not a good personal trait, either. A perfectionist is perceived to be running away from responsibility by sticking to something he already knows pretty well; while he should move on to something new. Perfectionists are usually afraid of responsibility and are usually good low-grade office workers; while as you go up the management ladder, people become more and more of venturers, they like to take responsibility, make hard decisions, and once they make sure something is on the way to get solved, he passes it to somebody lower, and moves on; and do not meddle anymore with something already solved.
These are my humble 2 cents on this subject.
Serkan - Turkey
14789
Answer
Thanks for your feedback on this subject. I think your example is a better one than the one used in this article, unless the person actually was a perfectionist. Note that this essay was not about how to handle questions in interviews. That is taken up in a different area. This one was mainly about being nervous and fearful during an interview. The idea was to be prepared for such a question. Needless to say, I will take your advise and change it.
Another point not mentioned in our article is that such a question as, "Tell me your weaknesses" is usually given by Human Resources interviewer, whose job is mainly is to screen potential employees with some standard questions. The actual hiring interview is typically giving by the manager seeking a new employee.
Anyways, I appreciate your input.
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