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Interviews: what to ask... and how not to act. Discuss...

Steve Bridger

It's Friday... so two articles I read this week which I thought I'd share. While I've picked out the bullet points, you will find the 'meat on the bones' behind the two links.

10 Qualities Recruiters Never Want to See in Candidates

1. Vagueness
2. A Lack of Loyalty
3. Indifference
4. Excessive Agreeability
5. Disorganisation
6. Abrasiveness
7. Arrogance
8. Verbosity
9. Ignorance About the Company
10. A Lack of Professionalism

...and

5 Questions You Should Ask at Your Next Job Interview

1. “How will you measure the success of the person in this position?”

2. “What are some of the challenges you expect the person in this position to face?”

3. “Thinking back to people you’ve seen do this work previously, what differentiated the ones who were good from the ones who were really great at it?”

4. Ask the question you really care about.

5. “What’s your timeline for next steps?”

Do you have anything to add?

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  • Hi Steve,

    It's funny that the qualities are largely subjective - in an interview anyway. Lack of professionalism has been brought up - we all have ideas of what is professional and what isn't. I doubt all the ideas are exactly the same though! I've seen some lovely people get so excited when discussing their passion, it could come across as arrogance or excessive agreeability.

    Maybe it's me, but I wonder whether I could make a killing training people 'how to succeed during an interview' - doesn't matter on their skill-set for the role ;-) but as long as they are precise, neutral in approach (can't be too excited, can't look bored), have been shopping beforehand etc etc they should be fine! (sarcasm this late on a Thursday)

    The 5 questions piece made me smile - and it sounds like I've had similar experience to Jeny. I once interviewed someone who had written down these types of questions, and even though we'd actually covered a couple of the answers already, they asked because they were so nervous they were on auto-pilot - once they finished asking, they then realised we'd already answered it. (First ever interview we then found out; unfortunately our offices at the time were very strict on 'interview ettiquette' so although I'd always prefer to be in a comfy quiet place, we had rooms more like interrogation which never helped those nerves).

    I would say though, I've also interviewed someone who interrupted myself and another interviewer repeatedly to ask their own questions, so we didn't get a single answer. I stopped the interview to point it out, because I felt I owed it to them to say that their approach was hindering us in understanding them, and would result in rejection if we didn't get our own answers.

    Kind regards,
    Laura
  • in reply to Laura Fazackarley
    I can relate to what you're saying, Laura... and just noticed you've passed the 100 posts milestone. Thank you :)
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