I have conducted a lot of interviews in my career as a recruitment consultant. I have put forward some great people as a result of these interviews, but my experience of rejecting candidates is also pretty big. Over this time I have gained some insight into why candidates fail, and it often comes down to interviewing skills.
Three reasons you didn’t get the job…
1. You don’t display any enthusiasm. To be successful you need to have a high degree of enthusiasm. If you sound or look like you’re about to fall asleep during the interview, you won’t be giving the impression that you’re going to go into the job with any amount of enthusiasm. Recruitment consultants love enthusiastic candidates!
2. You don’t read the Job Ad. Often, candidates come into an interview thinking they know what the job requirements are just by reading the job title. Most ads do a decent job of explaining some of the main skills and/or experience needed to be successful in the role. It’s sad that candidates often ignore this information and spend most of the interview talking about skills and experience that have no relevance to the job.
3. You don’t ask questions. I interviewed a great candidate a while ago who was well on his way to getting a second interview. His experience was fantastic and he answered the questions really well. I left plenty of time for questions at the end. He had none. He didn’t show the slightest bit of curiosity… nothing. Unfortunately, his resume ended up in the “rejected” pile.
Even if the recruitment consultant spends time explaining the ins and outs of the job, there are still questions a candidate could ask. Having no questions gives the interviewer the impression that you don’t care enough to ask intelligent questions. A good candidate will have a lot of questions thought of in advance; ready to pull one out when the time is right.
Most of the interview rejections I’ve given have had one or more of these three failures. The next time you’re preparing for an interview whether it be with a consultant from a recruitment agency or at a client, practice demonstrating passion, connect your experience with the job description, and prepare to ask questions. You’ll have a much greater chance of landing a job.
