6 job interview mistakes to avoid

Although the economy seems to be showing signs of improvement, there are still more applicants for every job opening than there are available positions. In a survey, HR professionals outlined six interview mistakes that can instantly kill the possibility of receiving an offer.

3. Lack of preparation

An interview is a test for the real world. Reflecting on your academic experience, did you perform better on a test if you only flipped through your notes for 15 minutes before class started or if you invested hours of time to study the material? Preparation yields better results.

Today’s job candidates need to do more than just pull up a company’s website for a few minutes to scan its home page for basic information. Determine what industry the company is in, and research any growing trends that might be relevant. If possible, find out why the organization is looking to hire so you can communicate how you would be the best option to fit that need.

Typically at the end of the interview, the employer will ask if you have any questions for them. Don’t ask something that could easily be answered by looking at their website. Instead, use your preparation and that information to develop an educated question that requires a thoughtful response.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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