6 Things Recruiters Don’t Want To Hear

By Mel Sim

Like, never ever, OK?

The goal at your job interview is to get hired so you’ll say whatever it takes to convince the person sitting in front of you, right? You want them to know you’re the best person for the job, that you have all the chops, and they won’t ever regret hiring you.

Unfortunately, sometimes in our quest to want to really convince the recruiter during the interview, we say all the wrong things. They may seem like the right things at that moment, but if you do a post-mortem after the interview, you’d probably cringe at your answers. The problem with saying the wrong thing is that’s the one thing that interviewer will remember about you. Doesn’t matter if your resume is stellar or you’ve had some really great achievements.

With our upcoming GRADUAN Aspire where you might land an interview or two, it will do you good to steer clear of these six things you don’t want to say to your recruiter.

#1 “Sorry, I’m late”
Famous last words of someone who will probably not get the job. Just be on time – that’s all.

#2 “So, tell me more about the company”
Rule #1: Do your research. If you had to ask this question, it’s clear that you didn’t do your research first on the company that offered you an interview. And this says to the recruiter that you’re either not interested in the company or in a job at all. You never want to walk into an interview with zero knowledge about the position or company.

#3 “My previous boss wasn’t very pleasant”
Even if your boss was from hell, you don’t need to share that with your interviewer. Because she might wonder that perhaps you’re the one who’s not easy to work with instead. Plus, with some industries being really small, you never know if the person you just badmouthed could be an acquaintance, friend or even a relative of the person interviewing you.

#4 “Being a perfectionist is my weakness”
Says just about anyone… you might think it’s a really smart way to tell your interviewer that you have great attention to detail but what he or she hears instead is a huge cliché. Try a more genuine response (like “I can get so caught up that I get distracted from the real task at hand) and then share what you’ve been doing to address this issue. That’s more likely to get a positive response.

#5 “I like to think of out of the box”
Or “I am a team player” and “I am very passionate about what I do”. These are examples of resume buzzwords (ie words that can be found in almost every single resume) that will make your recruiter roll her eye because she’s heard it way too many times. Instead of using cliches, why not describe your skills with an actual example?

#6 “Nope – no questions”
Really? Nothing? Even if that’s the case, just ask a thing or two because this shows that you are interested to learn more about the company or the job offered. Saying you have no questions is as good as saying, no thanks.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

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