25 Common Mistakes Candidates Make During Interviews That Get You Rejected and How to Avoid Them
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
“Why did they turn me down” was a common question I was asked when I did recruiting. Here are 25 reasons why PLUS one hiring managers don’t want to acknowledge
00:00 Introduction
00:38 The First 5 reasons
01:46 The second 5 reasons why you may have been rejected
02:37 The third 5 reasons why you may have been rejected
03:17 The 4th 5 reasons why you may have been rejected
04:44 The fifth 5 reasons
05:58 The extra one that is out of your control
06:48 Outro
The Older Person’s Guide to Changing Careers
Hi, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and people hire me for no BS career advice and coaching globally. I wanted to do a video today to talk about why people are rejected why hiring managers reject people after they interview them. And I’ve come up with a lot of different reasons and kind of have it narrowed down to 25. And then I’ve got a bonus one, that is going to be hard for some people to hear, but I know it’s true.
The first one is, of course, you don’t have the right experience or skills for the position. Happens more times than not. Poor communication skills, or you have difficulty expressing yourself during the interview. That’s because you haven’t rehearsed and practiced what you’re going to say to many of the predictable questions that you’re going to be asked. The inability to provide clear examples of achievements in previous roles. So this, again, is a rehearsal practice thing about telling stories that are relevant for your background and the position you’re interviewing for lack of enthusiasm or excitement for the position. Hiring managers don’t want to feel like they’re going to drag you into this job. They want to find someone who’s going to be pretty upbeat. An unprofessional or inappropriate appearance or demeanor. I’ll simply say the appearance is the primary thing demeanor. Well, that goes back to enthusiasm or excitement. But dressing appropriately. Even if you’re on camera is the right thing to do.
You’re unable to follow instructions or complete the right actions during the interview process. You know, they ask you to do something; you don’t do it. What do you expect is gonna happen? You have a lack of knowledge about the company or its industry, and you’re unable to think critically or problem solve when presented with scenario questions or hypothetical questions. You demonstrate that you’re unwilling to learn or adapt to new situations. And that again comes back to the asking questions about how you handled things in the past, and you kind of grumble about new things that you were asked to do and how you don’t want to change and no one expresses it exactly that way. But you express it indirectly with your actions.
You’re unwilling to relocate or work flexible hours if they’re required for the position. To me, that’s a very fair reason for being turned down. The fact that you didn’t see that in any advertising or weren’t prepared for that in the course of interviews, you know, that speaks about you and also speaks about them and they’re withholding from you. Poor references or recommendations for previous employers. Of course, you’ll get turned down. Negative attitude or negative comments about previous experiences or employers. No one wants to look ahead and figure out that they’re going to be the next ones that you’re going to complain about and criticize.
You don’t show initiative in the situations that you’re in. And that comes across again, in the stories and how you were directed to do things and that’s all you did– Minimal Viable results. They find inconsistencies in your resume and LinkedIn profile with regard to experience and employment history. That comes back to the notion of looking at your past and seeing something incongruent, which by the way, if you’ve ever applied to this firm before, remember, you’re in the applicant tracking system. They can spot that inconsistency pretty quickly. A bad attitude or an unprofessional attitude. No one wants to hire a downer. A lack of punctuality for the interview. And they interpret that as a lack of reliability. You’re unable to answer questions effectively or thoughtfully. You know, just the wrong answers to their questions and you’re not checking in your follow-up to see if that’s what they were looking for so that this way you went down a rabbit hole that they didn’t really care about, and thus you get rejected. If this is something that requires that you work as part of a team, there’s no illustration in your answers to questions that you work well with a team or collaborate with others.
Problem-solving skills or critical thinking ability, and how you answer the hypotheticals incorrectly. You’re find it difficult to adapt to change, to new environments, or if they’re trying to hire someone for a leadership and management or management role, you don’t have experience doing that. And in your support roles for the leaders or managers, you don’t highlight situations where you’re asked to step in to manage and lead. And thus they’re left to wonder why should we hire you to manage or lead when your current firm has never given you that opportunity. If they want you to work under pressure or meet tight deadlines, they’d like to see that you’ve done that before. A lack of passion or enthusiasm for the industry or role that you’re going to be stepping into, comes across pretty quickly. Ultimately, what a firm and hiring manager wants to do is trust you. And these all add up to places where they have a concern as to whether they can trust you to put on a great performance for them.
Here’s the one that a lot of hiring managers don’t want to acknowledge, biases and projection. If you’re not familiar with the term projection, it’s the notion like a camera, you project attributes onto someone based on previous experiences with other people that may or may not be true. And biases of course, do I have to tell you what biases are, you know, people do have biased qualities about them– biased opinions–and they sometimes act in their decision-making with those biases, and don’t acknowledge them. And thus, someone is rejected on the basis of race, age, gender, a whole host of different things that have nothing to do with their ability to perform the job.
I’m Jeff Altman, and I hope you found this helpful. There’s lots of ways to counteract these things. I’ll simply say if you’re interested in my coaching you or if you want career advice, visit my website, TheBigGameHunter.us You can schedule time for a free discovery call. If this is about coaching. If this is something where you want my opinion about how to handle something, schedule time for a trusted advisor session with me, I charge for coaching. I charge for trusted advisor sessions. It’s what I do for a living. So I’m happy to help you. I’ll also say, at the site, visit the blog. There’s a ton there to help you. There’s also information about my courses, books and guides and connect with me on Linkedinat at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. Have a terrific day and most importantly, be great!
10 Mistakes Older Job Hunters Make (Plus Bonuses)
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2500 episodes.
I do a livestream on LinkedIn, and YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern. You can send your questions about job search, hiring better, management, leadership or to get advice about a workplace issue to me via messaging on LinkedIn or in chat during the approximately 30-minute show.
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