On why I didn't hire you

GoneShootin

Recently I gave someone feedback on their interview that I held, and without giving personal details away here is a copy of what I sent the chap. He was coming from 6 years as a block layer and had come back into college to do IT for the past 2 years. Fair play to him I reckon!...

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Interviews are difficult things to master, and often it's down to the personality of the people conducting the interview. Here is a list of what we felt let you down:

1) First Impression

- Asking me should you wear a suit for the interview when arranging the interview over the phone. It's a given that you will try to make the best first impression possible.

- At interview, wearing runners under your suit.

- Wearing an ear ring for an interview would not be recommended. You can always wear it if you get the job and then if the company has a problem it can be handled at that stage.

2) Body Language

- No attempt to shake hands at the end of the interview.

- Eye contact only with person directly asking the question. In an interview you are trying to impress all interviewers, so make sure to try and look at everyone when explaining your answer, as then the person that didn't ask the question won't feel that you don't care about the answer you are giving.

- You didn't elaborate on the good points of your past experiences as a block layer. You need to find positive aspects from your past work that you could use as examples of what you could apply to your future work. Leadership, communication, diligence and dependability. "Supervision of 1 other blocklayer and 1 labourer" for example would have been one where you could have emphasized your leadership skills.

3) Technical & Practical Experience

- Be more confident with your answers. When asked technical questions try to give the most descriptive but concise answer possible without rambling. Try not to take short cuts or make assumptions.

- When asked about "what is a switch", you gave an incorrect answer, which we felt was strange given your preference for Networking subjects and later the Networking diagram you showed us.

- Practical experience in IT can often count for more than technical knowledge. For the kind of IT Support & Networking role that you were applying, you did not have enough hands-on experience.

- Never list qualifications on your CV that you have not yet achieved. You listed CISCO CCNA. When asked about these you said that you had not yet started them. While CCNA will stand out for this type of job, it will come back to haunt you if later asked about it at interview stage and you are unable to answer correctly.

Phaetonman

Thats useful if I ever quantum leap into the body of an ex-builder who has just messed up an interview for an IT job.

niceirishfella

What has wearing an ear-ring to a job interview got to do with your ability to do the job? Hmmmmmmmm.....

helimachoptor

From my own experience I've sat in on a few interviews and some of the candidates have been lets say laughable...

One guy said SQL was his favourite "language" so I asked him to tell me how to query a DB with 5 columns and select the results that say were equal to 5.

TBH it was hard not to laugh with the answer he gave and he had got a 1st from Trinners...

Another guy turned up in jeans and a hoodie as his friend was in the company and told him the dress for pretty casual, not for the interview you twat!

From my own experience, I had a phone interview last year and the line was very bad, I asked the guy to call me back from a different one he did but it was still the same, so in the end he had to repeat each question 3/4 times. He got very angry and frustrated.. I got a call the next day offering me the job and I told them no way would I take a job working under that p**k that interviewed me .


I've done quite a lot of interviews. Always wear a suit and even if i'm meeting a shark (recruiter:D) I always dress well as most of the girls as pretty damn hot . I do my research on the company. I make sure I know exactly what is on my CV (Once my company forwarded my CV to a customer and I went for an interview and they had totally changed the wording on my CV and I didnt know what the interviewer was on about!).

If as the OP above says, If you've got a skill listed on your CV and they ask you on it and your clueless you'll be out the door pretty quick. Only list skills you have.

Eye contact is extremely important. You can have all the skills in the world but if your a wall flower with no confidence you wont get the job. Look at the persons eyes and not look through them if you know what I mean. Don learn off anything. You need to be able to answer questions on the fly.

Be yourself, I was once told I was too "ambitious" for a job... their loss.


Oh and turn up on time. I always get there between 5-10 mins early. And i they offer you a drink... Dont say a bottle of coke (a guy who works with me now did that.. When he told me I couldnt stop laughing!) Take a glass of water though as your mouth will get dry during the interview.

Quatre Mains

theres some good advice in there for everyone I think.

1. To pick up on goneshootin's point re earrings and the like, I couldn't agree more. Once you get the job you can suss out that type of thing, but don't wear them at interviews - same for sovereign rings, nose rings, tongue rings etc etc. Its not a snob thing - by wearing these things it shows you aren't willing to make allowances even at an important event like a job interview, so what kind of character would you be as a colleague etc. No-one cares about your individuality at a job interview, so leave it outside.

2. Never EVER admit to ignoring company regulations regarding safety etc. One day I interviewed six lads, and the only one who I thought would excel at the job caught himself out by saying he didnt wear safety glasses when doing a certain task. My co-interviewer refused to hire him point blank on that basis. 3 others got job offers.

3. Don't sell yourself short. Just say what experience and knowledge you have unless asked. I have a friend who recently admitted that during an interview he thought it best to point out, unprompted, the areas where he wasn't experienced. That kind of modesty doesn't work.

GoneShootin

niceirishfella wrote: »

What has wearing an ear-ring to a job interview got to do with your ability to do the job?

Absolutely nothing to do with ability, but Johnnycabs sums up what my response to this question was going to be...

Nody

I've seen a lot of serious mistakes done but the top three:

1) Come to the interview smelling like you've not had an shower for seven days
2) Coming 3h late because they where to lazy to get show up on time and admitting you where to lazy to get there in time (the interview was at 1pm!!!)
3) Answering the question "What would your old boss say about you if I called him and asked about you?" with "Probably that I covered for him when he was drunk"

WindSock

That was very helpful of you to send him that. Some people are just completly clueless. I often wished interviewers would tell me what I have been doing wrong, as I always think I tick all the right boxes then I don't hear back
Except for today, I seemed to get it right. Woohoo

AARRRGH

GoneShootin wrote: »

Never list qualifications on your CV that you have not yet achieved. You listed CISCO CCNA. When asked about these you said that you had not yet started them.

Good post GoneShootin.

The bit about the CCNA would really annoy me if I was the interviewer.