♪ [music] ♪ We're going to start with the big picture overview of the most important job interview best practices and the most common self-sabotaging mistakes that people make. These are the guiding principles to know and internalize. Later in other lessons, we'll look at exactly how to translate them into strong answers to the most important interview questions. But let's start with those best practices. Number one is to be authentic. Number two, you have to sell yourself. Number three, keep it concise. And number four, show some enthusiasm. First up, be authentic. That doesn't mean you have to reveal everything. You're going to be strategic about what you emphasize and how you present things. However, you should never lie in a job interview. Interviewers are good at sniffing out blatant dishonesty, and lies are likely to come back to haunt you. I encourage you to be truthful. Interviewers are more likely to connect with you and like you if they see you as a real and authentic human being, if they can get a sense of your true personality and values during the interview. But there is such a thing as being too truthful. You need to balance being authentic with our next best practice, sell yourself. It may sound contradictory to simultaneously be authentic and sell yourself, but there are authentic ways to sell yourself that are generally the most effective. The problem is that most people don't have a lot of practice in the art of self-promotion, so it can feel smarmy, or false, or awkward in interviews. The preparation that we recommend and our approach's to the key questions, focus on preparing authentic answers that highlight your greatest strengths and accomplishments. A big part of this is learning to tell good, interesting, relevant stories about your experience. Behavioral interviewing is one of the most common forms of interviewing, and you are guaranteed to be asked a good number of these. These are those, "Tell me about a time, give me an example," questions. These stories are opportunities to sell yourself and your qualifications in an authentic way, so you don't want to just wing them. Check out our lesson on behavioral questions, and we'll help you craft some compelling stories. On to the next best practice, be concise. One of the most common mistakes I see is rambling and getting off-topic. Don't be afraid to talk. But remember, the interviewer's attention spans are limited. If you bore them, you lose them. The rule of thumb here is to not go longer than two minutes on any single answer unless you're asked follow-up questions. Preparation is the key to learning how to answer questions more concisely, and really emphasize your most impressive points. As you're probably starting to see, I strongly believe that anyone can be a great interviewer with the right preparation. Finally, you have to show your interest, to demonstrate convincing enthusiasm for the position and the company. Nobody wants to hire a candidate who's lukewarm about the job. They want someone who's excited, who asks questions, who seems that they would be really motivated if they were hired for the position. So dial back the cool hard-to-get factor. I've seen many candidates rejected because they just didn't seem to want it enough. Maybe their answers to questions like, "Why are you interested in this role?" were too general, or unconvincing, or maybe their attitude or body language made them seem too casual or unmotivated. These four best practices are key elements of presenting well in an interview. Now let's look at the most common mistakes that trip up even the smartest and best-qualified candidates. The top four job interview mistakes are, number one, lack of professionalism, number two, lack of preparation, number three, lack of content, and number four, negativity. Number one is lack of professionalism. A failure in this area can knock you out of the running before you even open your mouth. This includes mistakes like arriving late. Hopefully, you know that arriving late for a job interview is a cardinal sin. Being late suggests any number of things to the interviewer, none of them good. Perhaps you don't care enough about the position or respect the interviewer enough to be on time. Maybe you're just unreliable. Professionalism also covers how you dress, how you present yourself, and following job interview etiquette like sending thank you notes. Mistake two is lack of preparation. This is the one that sabotages so many great candidates. Good preparation includes analyzing the job description, researching the firm, thinking through your answers to key questions, and your behavioral stories, and then practicing. Most people don't prepare properly for job interviews. Many are good communicators who assume they can just wing it and do fine, and maybe they do fine. But fine is not enough to get hired in a competitive market. Other big interview users are going in trained and ready, and they're going to leave you in the dust if you don't do the same. Mistake number three is lack of content. In other words, your answers are lame, usually because you haven't prepared. See mistake number two. Maybe your answers are all generalities, team player this and people person that, or maybe you don't have good behavioral stories. Maybe you dodge questions or blurt out answers that raise red flags. This is very common with trickier questions about weaknesses, or failure, or why you left a job, or why you have a gap in your resume. Finally, mistake four is trash talking. Never ever bad mouth your current or former managers, or even coworkers. Maybe your manager was terrible. There are plenty of terrible managers out there. You have to find a way to keep it positive or at least neutral. Same thing applies with negativity about your current or more recent role. If it ended badly, that makes it especially important to prepare some bullet points, so you can provide just enough detail and the right words, and avoid sounding defensive or unprofessional. So, there you have it, the most important best practices to keep in mind on what to do and what not to do in a job interview. Like I said, these should be your guiding principles as you continue with this training curriculum and prepare to ace your next interview.
