three reasons you didn't get hired after interviewing thousands of candidates and
having to decline many i wanted to share with you in this video the common characteristics between
candidates who are successful and candidates who don't get the job so by the end of this
video you'll know what to avoid so that you can reduce the number of interviews you need to
attend and increase the number of offers you get if you're new to my channel i'm Amri Celeste an HR
Recruitment Specialist and a Career Coach with over nine years hiring experience so if you're
looking for a job keep watching have you ever been to a job interview knowing that you have
the skills the experience the qualifications i mean it's the perfect fit you get along really
well with your interviewers and then you don't get the job what went wrong there are an endless
list of reasons that candidates don't get hired things like not knowing their cv lack
of relevant preparation dressing inappropriately not demonstrating a clear understanding of the
job swearing interrupting not switching off their phone answering their phone in the interview not
asking questions or asking the wrong questions not giving enough detail in their answers or
giving way too much not listening to the question being asked poor communication which could include
talking too fast too slow mumbling turning up late and this is just to name a few eating and drinking
yes i did say eating i have actually had a candidate coming into the interview finishing off
their chicken and chips i could go on for several hours but this video is about narrowing it down to
three common areas and learning how to avoid those pitfalls or even knowing that they are pitfalls as
there are many candidates who aren't aware of how they come across in an interview so first
up is a lack of passion or enthusiasm sometimes when i'm interviewing a candidate they can come
across disinterested or bored and this is normally unintentional but you need your interviewer to get
excited about your skills and the idea of working with you and what you can bring to their team
you need to be memorable and that means you need to find a way to get across your enthusiasm
things like your tone of voice eye contact body language such as nodding sitting up straight
even your handshake these all demonstrate non-verbally that you're alert and eager
in fact your entire interview demeanor should be practiced at least once before your interview
and i mean a minimum of at least once because most of us are not aware of how we come across
if you've ever heard a recording of yourself and cringed or been surprised it's because we're not
used to seeing or hearing ourselves the way that others do i know that i had this experience when i
started creating youtube videos so let me give you an example of this once in an interview i asked a
candidate to elaborate on what interested them in the role i wanted to find out a little bit more
on what made him apply and what interested him about this area of work his response was a shrug
now i know that interview nerves can kick in so i tried to help him along by asking some follow-up
questions to give a clearer idea of what i wanted to know and why and again he shrugged after the
interview i gave him honest feedback i told him before your next interview with any company think
about not only why you want to work there because you will be asked but also practice your answers
to common interview questions i know that would have made a really big difference and it's always
always really clear when someone hasn't done this you could be interviewing at 100 other companies
when you're in your interview you need to be enthusiastic and engaged with that individual
interviewer and it needs to show even with your answers don't give things like salary or location
as the only reason that you're interested you want to be the candidate that can
reel off things that really struck a chord with you about the company key things about the role
that align with your skills and areas of the company that you found impressive even sneak
in a cheeky compliment if you're comfortable so for example years back i was being interviewed
and i clicked with the interviewer so i told her i really enjoyed the interview with you
and i really feel like i would enjoy working with you and when i started in that position she told
me that she remembered that in my interview and she was really flattered so think about how you
can get across your enthusiasm so two is not answering the question now this can sometimes
happen due to nerves or brain freeze lack of preparation forgetting what the question was or
some candidates simply want to share information that they think will get them the job instead of
answering the question that the interviewer has asked them if you don't answer the question that
you're being asked your interviewer can't assess you against relevant skill sets for the job
so you need to demonstrate that you have listening skills i'm going to show you an example of how
easy it is to miss the question in an interview so let's say your interviewer were to ask you can
you give me an example of a time when you improved an existing process or implemented a new process
a candidate might answer by saying i have actually improved many processes in the time i worked at
company x i increased profit by seven percent and even received a recommendation from my head
of department because of some of the processes i've been involved in this doesn't answer the
question and it's a bit annoying to the person who's trying to assess you the manager's asking
for a specific example of a time when you improve the process not a general statement on the fact
that you improve processes here's an example of an answer that would have addressed the question
when i started a company x they still use paper registration forms to register customers
i saw that this could have been improved so after speaking with my manager i spent a little
time each day working closely with department x to build an online form that customers can
use to register this form replaced the paper forms and is now officially the new process
once you've given this example which has answered the question you can then include any benefits or
financial gains you made for the company if there were any so an example of benefits in this case
might be the online form was user-friendly and simple to navigate so it created a better customer
experience it also meant that we were analyzing what was on the form and cut it down by 50
because much of it wasn't necessary so that means the online registration only takes five
minutes for customers whereas previously it took 12 to 15 minutes and customers can also
pay online so we don't lose the opportunity to register a new paying customer another benefit
might be that the lack of paper meant that the new process was environmentally friendly one
of the other key benefits was that you got to work with another department more closely while
building this online form so you built up new working relationships with another internal team
and so on and so on there are lots of other benefits you can add on i recommend using only one
or two of the strongest so that your answer isn't too long so that is an example of how you can
include things that help to sell your skills and experience in addition to answering the question
have you recently been interviewed for a job let me know in the comments some of the feedback
you've been given three lack of preparation this is a cardinal sin and critical error i
covered this in my last video which is dedicated to interview preparation but it's so important
and i would say it's the most common reason that candidates don't get the job they interview for so
i'm going to cover it briefly here i also created an interview prep checklist which covers the most
critical areas of interview prep which you can download in the description below this video now
poor interview prep applies to candidates across all seniority levels in industries
whether it's a junior role or head of department i've even interviewed hr professionals who would
be interviewing in the job that they're going for and still didn't prepare for their own interview
so it really does apply across the board some of the most common mistakes i've seen include lack
of company research if in an interview you're ever asked what do you know about our company
you should be able to speak for at least one to two minutes on what the company does and why you
would be interested in working there an answer that i hear from candidates who haven't prepared
is something like oh you're a payment company or a media company or a telecoms company
they might know one or two products but stacked up against a candidate who can clearly explain what
the company does why they're interested in working there and seems really passionate enthusiastic
there's no competition they stand way out against other candidates if a candidate has come through
an agency sometimes they might say the agency didn't give me any information but it's down
to you to research the company before your interview because you'll know which company
you're going to interview at not understanding the role if you're interviewing for a job
you must must understand the job description and it will put you over the edge to ask questions
about anything that isn't explained in detail because it shows that you've read it you're paying
attention and you're interested enough in the role to want to understand it as much as possible when
you don't know a decent amount about the job it indicates that you're simply not interested
enough but it also shows a questionable amount of judgment because how would you know the interview
is worth going for unless you really understand what the job entails not knowing your own cv your
key skills and the way you communicate them in your interview is the deciding factor on whether
you or another candidate is best suited to the job so it's critical that you know your strengths key
skills and what you can bring even include any transferable skills you should be able to answer
the questions why should we offer you the role or what do you feel you could bring that would
be a significant contribution if you don't know how to put a cv together or what to look out for
then you'll find my winning cv guide helpful this is a step-by-step guide on building your
cv the type of achievements you should include and a sample cv is also included inside the
guide which you can download for free by clicking the link below this video so to recap make sure
your interest passion and enthusiasm for the role come across in your body language knowledge and
questions about the role always focus specifically on the question asked and be sure to use relevant
examples in your answers and add in any benefits or wins that you gained out of the situation
you must be prepared for your interview in advance this includes researching the company and
memorizing relevant parts of the job description and of your own cv that help to sell your skills
earlier i mentioned my interview prep checklist video which is a deep dive on interview prep
which you can watch here thank you so much for watching this i hope you got value from it
if you did tap like subscribe for more videos and i will see you soon