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How Not To Eff Up a Job Interview

Thursday Jun 4, 2009 – By Sky Obercam

79366003 With the sour economy and scarce job opportunities it’s crucial that if you are blessed with an actual job interview – you ace that thang. Often times, our nerves can rattle us so, we may forget some of the finer points of job interview etiquette, but the following are some that you may not afford to carry out:

No sob stories: Please don’t give your prospective employer any reason to think you won’t be able to get the job done due to a slew of personal issues and crises. Keep things on a need to know basis, and spare your woes for a therapist.

Never Lie: No matter how small, never lie in an interview. You never know when it will come back to haunt you. Obviously, it’s imperative to be truthful about the big stuff, i.e. education, qualifications, or past employment, but lying about the little stuff can backfire too. If your boss finds out that you lied during a job interview it is considered to be grounds for dismissal later.

Ask No Questions: Your potential employer needs to believe that you are interested in the actual job. It’s also a great chance to showcase assertiveness as well as your aptitude.

Diss a Former Employer: First off, the minute you start to talk smack about a past employer, you are pretty much telling your potential employer that you are a 1) sourpuss and 2) it’s only a matter of time that your grouchy demeanor will draw a large cloud over your work place.

Diss Former Co-Workers: This goes hand in hand with the prior point. Basically, just don’t complain during a job interview, period. You’ll only end up looking like someone incapable of owning up to your own role in a conflict, in other words, a finger pointer.

Arrive with One Copy of Your Resume: You may end up meeting with several people throughout the interview process, so it’s always best to carry a small stack to avoid appearing unprofessional.

Discuss Money, Time Off or Benefits Until an Offer has Been Made: Times may be rough, but you must play it cool when it comes to discussion the finances. It’s best to make the prospective employer think that the most important thing to you is the job he/she is offering, even though 9 out of 10 times it’s not.

ljkelly says:

June 4, 2009 at 3:18 pm

You are so on point with dissing former employers. I recently interviewed a woman who bad mouthed her former boss and she even said a curse word in the interview! Needless to say, we went with another candidate.

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Jst1BlckMn says:

June 18, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Self empowerment anyone ?

Kujichagulia, Ujamaa ?

Supporting our own businesses, creating our own jobs and industries and al that ? Or maybe it’s easier to integrate and mould yourself to anothers image, criteria ?

Putting money into the hands of another black person can’t be that hard can it ?

Hmmm, someone told me that we have an annual disposable income of $723,000,000,000. I wonder what we can do with that ? I wonder what are doing with it ?