Careers: 7 Interview Answers Recruiters Don’t Want to Hear

So you’ve got passed the cover letter and Resume screening, and now you are on to the interview - well done. There’s more work to be done however! If you have researched correctly during recruitment periods, and made sure you have spent more time on your cover letter and CV, you should have a plethora of interviews to attend to. To celebrate, the following is a list of things the interviewer DOESN’T want to hear.

1. To tell you the truth, I have no idea / I don’t know

Whether it be a question about the position, your career goals, aspirations or even about a technical aspect of the job in question, never admit that you really don’t know. There will be a large amount of people out there that would have answered with some substance instead of no substance; and those people are automatically ranked higher than those without an answer at all. It is important to note that you should be prepared for the interview by the time you get there anyhow. You should never come across the above situation, and if you do, you really don’t deserve to be picked for the job. If you need assistance in this, check out our guide on how to get effectively prepared: [yet to be written].

2. Salary Talk, Holiday Talk, or Fringe Benefits / Bonus Pay

Avoid talking about the benefits that you will be able to have an opportunity to be provided. Obviously, do not talk about how much they are going to pay you, until you actually get your official letter of offer. Talk about how you can provide value to their organisation instead, making sure that they understand how much they can benefit from having you a part of their team.

3. Just a simple “Yes” or “No” - Elaborate!

Try to elaborate as much as you can on an answer to a question which may seem closed ended. Just make sure you don’t cross the line to blabbering territory. Try not to rush your interview, make sure that you take up a substantial amount of time trying to engage with the interviewer. Even though your recruiter may be backed up interview by interview, make sure that you will be remembered by strong and in-depth answers. Whilst many recruiters will use probing methods in order to extract as much truth and information as possible, they will only do it if they believe you are worth while in doing so.

4. Any answer that interrupts the interviewer:

I’m not going to suggest that you should never interrupt the interviewer. But in general, don’t interrupt what they are saying, as it will seem rude to them, and a large part of your interview is how well you get along and present yourself as a human being. It’s not just about being another statistic for the organisation. If the interviewer is starting to ramble about a particular topic, just complement them within that topic, and use your own example of something similar that has happened to you, in order to shift the focus back onto yourself.

5. Negativity on your previous or current work engagements

Never say anything bad about a previous work engagement. Remain upbeat about your previous experiences, and your positive attitude will get you far. Stay away from “It was OK I Guess…” and move towards responses with emphatic tone: “It was great! I valued it because it taught me things about myself etc etc!”. Also, depending on where you have worked and where you are applying to, you may find that the previous work engagement is a client of your potential employer. There is also the possibility that the person interviewing you has worked where you have - and may have had largely positive experiences about it. Don’t dampen the mood.

6. Yeah I know that person (when you don’t know them)

This is a minor one, but a large mistake for many. If you say you know someone who works where you are interviewing, the interviewer will try to suss out how much you are related to the organisation. They would do this for two reasons, a) seeing whether or not your position is compromised by knowing someone related in the field, and b) out of interest, perhaps they are best mates with that person. Don’t dig a whole for yourself! It will just get awkward if you lie about it, again - you’ll only end up disadvantaging yourself.

7. Working (or having an upcoming Interview) in a different field (or organisation) when asked about long-term goals

Your sole focus in this interview is to impress and to demonstrate to the interviewer that you are the person fit for the role you are applying for. If they ask you about future and long-term career goals, make sure it is related to working at the organisation you are applying for - instead of saying: “Yeah I’d love to be a Consultant at XYZ one day” to employer ABC, a direct competitor. If you are applying for a job in IT, just say your goal is to be head of IT at the company you are going for, and do not deviate too much from the role specified - otherwise the interviewer will be less likely to employ you. If you outline you are planning to be there only for the short term, why would they hire you if there is a more dedicated applicant who wants to be in the game longer than you?

So that’s it - 7 answers they don’t want to hear, according to my books. What do you think about the matter? Can you think of any other answers you shouldn’t say to an interviewer? Leave a comment below!

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