Topics To Avoid When In a job interview

Have you have applied for a role or been head-hunted? the company is impressed with your experience and believes you will be a great benefit to their organisation.

Recruiting is a long process for a business, so they won’t waste any time interviewing you if they don’t believe you have the potential.

However, there are certain topics of conversation can turn a promising interview into a sour one.

See below some topics to avoid during your interview stage.

1. Bad-Mouthing Your Current Company

While a mutual cause for job hunting is unhappiness with a current employer; it’s quite important to express this professionally in an interview situation. Insulting your current company or a colleague, can create an unfriendly atmosphere and describe you as a negative person.

No matter how defensible it is, you should avoid complaining about your current position and focus on the positives and what you look forward to.

You can do this by voicing your passion regarding career progression, your drive to develop new skills or desire to gain more experience.

Also, try to focus on the company you have applied for. Explain why you want to work for them and what is it about their industry that interests you in working there.

2. Being Too Personal

Most CVs contain a section on your own personal profile, summarising your experience and explaining any gaps in your employment.

Lawfully, your interviewer should not ask you any personal questions regarding your health, living situation or family responsibilities, to prevent any unfair expectations or discrimination regarding your ability to do the job.

All questions should be based on your own professional experience and knowledge.

Therefore, all of your responses should be about your professional skills and knowledge.

Do not go off track by discussing unrelated or inappropriate information about your private life, or anybody else’s in the matter!

3. Promoting Your Accomplishments By Putting Others Down

An interview is all about marketing your achievements and skills to a potential employer to convince them that you are the best contender for the role. A CV / cover letter can briefly explain this to a degree, but an interview is your chance to establish your knowledge, professionalism and hunger.

Teamwork and communication are vital skills to almost any job out there. Knocking the performance of other people to boast your accomplishments is one way to dishonour these skills and your likeability in a job interview.

Even if your experience of dealing with difficult colleagues has resulted in you developing certain skills, do not focus on where others have lacked, highlight your growth.

4. Analysing The Company You Are Interviewing For

Now, this one may sound quite obvious, but it can be an easy trap to fall into.

When preparing for an interview, you should conduct thorough research on the company and think of assets that you could bring to the organisation.

But when you are explaining this, don’t judge the company for things they aren’t doing, but instead express your own excitement on how you can develop their current practices and ideas.

5. Saying Nothing At All

If you’re unable to reasonably explain in an interview why you would be the ideal candidate for a job or determine your business knowledge then you will not be successful.

Have a Battle with strong nerves before an interview is a normal experience, and often, the more important the job is to you, the more nervous you will get. This can cause a simple lack of confidence when speaking making it difficult for you to properly showcase your talent and suitability for a role.

It’s always okay to be nervous, and interviewers will expect this from you. Don’t let it control your opportunity as you have already impressed them on paper. The more groundwork and research you do, the more comfortable and confident you will feel on the day of the interview