It’s always a great feeling to be asked to interview for a position with a new employer. That feeling is then, unfortunately, replaced quickly by sinking dread. However, when you are preparing to go in for an interview, being nervous can distract you from some of the most important things that you need to be focusing on. So, the next time you get a call, take a minute to remember the four things you should never do when you go in for an interview.

1. Disregard Your Presentation

The first thing you need to consider before you go in is your outward appearance. People will make snap judgments about you based on your appearance, and there is no reason to give anyone cause to overlook you just because you don’t have a style that fits with the office culture. Look into the office dress code before you decide what to wear, and make an effort to dress like someone who would fit in perfectly at their office. You don’t want to try to fade into the background, but save the major style statements for another day. Stand out with lines and fit, rather than bright or distracting clothing and accessories. Make sure your car is looking good and that you have something to carry your resume in. Get a tote, shoulder bag, or briefcase to carry your things.

2. Neglect to Interview Them

We can get so caught up with striving to be desirable when we go in for an interview that it’s easy to forget that we are also there to see if this position will work for us, as well! Make sure to do some research on the company and list any questions you have for them or talking points that you would like to address further. Failing to ask your interviewer questions about the position looks immature, and it comes across as though you are not in very high demand or are not seriously considering whether the position is right for you.

3. Don’t Understand Why You Deserve the Job

You should have a very clear idea in mind about what the duties for the position will be, and why you are uniquely qualified to take them on before you interview. Even if the position is a little mundane, or someone with any degree could easily fulfill the requirements, make a list of specific experiences you have had that prepared you to take on this job now. Write down why you deserve the job and why you will be a good fit with this company, just so you can get it clear in your own mind. This is very important because, if you don’t know why you deserve the job, how will anyone else believe you do?

4. Be Clueless About Why You May Not Deserve the Job

As important as it is to know why someone should hire you, it is just as important to know why they shouldn’t. Take some time to list all your hesitations about why you may not be qualified or deserving of the position. Things like long breaks in employment or being fired from your previous job are always difficult to talk about during an interview, but it’s important to bring those things to light, at least for yourself. Next, figure out how you will work to overcome those potential limitations. Or, even better, think about ways that your unique experience may have provided you with even better preparation that what the average candidate may have had. If you are clearly able to address your limitations with your interviewer, he or she may be less likely to write you off for things that would usually get someone’s resume thrown out.

Byline:

Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about criminal background check for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com

Jobseekers feel worried even when it’s a one-on-one interview. And when it’s a panel interview (group interview), it might cause more worry among applicants. One thing that you always need to remember is that employers don’t hold panel interviews to create a fearful situation. They adopt this approach so that you can meet all the important people (who you’ll actually work with) in a single seating. That’s why, it’s important to prepare yourself to achieve success in a panel interview, no matter how many people are there in the group.

Given below are some key tips and useful pieces of advice that you can use to win a panel interview and get hired quickly.

Don’t Stare at a Single Person

A panel interview is a group interview, where you won’t be talking to a single person specifically. Each of the professionals that attend the interview are equally important. If you stare at just one person, you’ll only lose the essence of a panel interview and leave a bad impression.

Be Ready for Further Explanation

Everyone has their own listening style. When you respond, it might be just possible that you won’t send the same signal to everyone. Those who don’t get you instantly may ask you to repeat a response or ask for further explanation. These things happen in group interviews. So, you should be ready for that.

Practice Answering a Range of Questions

Questions asked during a one-on-one interview may be very limited. However, panel interviews are different in that sense. Different interviewers in the group might throw different types of questions at you. Apart from practicing commonly asked questions, also prepare on how to answer tricky, critical and behavioral interview questions to achieve success.

Ask Intelligent Questions

Since it’s a panel interview, you will need to convince most of the people in the group. It may be a little easier to convince or impress when you face a one-on-one interview. That’s why you should never ask very general or common questions. Ask intelligent questions to impress many in the group.

Give Examples

If you want to leave a lasting impression on each of the interviewers in the panel, you need to talk with examples. While explaining a point, talk about your own personal experiences from the past. Also remember to use figures to support the claims that you make.

Write Thank You Notes to Each Panelist

End the interview on a positive note. In any case, don’t forget to send thank you notes to each of the professionals who participated as interviewer. You can also use this opportunity to highlight your most essential skills and build important connections in the industry.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

How's this for a first impression? Nice jacket though.

When it comes to job interviews – and really anything that puts you in front of someone who can positively influence your job search and career – you have to put your best foot forward and not disqualify yourself from consideration. People often lose out on job due to small things but sometimes I think it’s because they just don’t think about the image they’re projecting.

Like when job searchers – it’s typically males who do this – bring a backpack to an interview rather than using a briefcase or some other professional form of carrying their stuff. Even a laptop bag is acceptable so why someone would bring a backpack is beyond me. It may sound like a small thing but when you show up carrying a backpack you look more like a boy scout of a teenager going to high school than an adult looking for a job.

The same goes for when you show up to an interview looking unorganized and messing around looking for your resume or a pen or something else. When you give the impression of being unorganized in a situation where the person you’re meeting expects you to be on your best behavior, it can really hurt. First impressions matter and sometimes you don’t have a second chance to make a good one.

I’ve seen cases where jobs are lost before the interview even starts and typically it’s related to dress issues. Mind you I’ve also seen jobs lost in the first minute of the interview too.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to give people a reason not to hire you and some times that can be half the battle right there especially if you match up closely to other people who you are competing with for the job in question.

We're number 1! Or number 2. It depends who's counting.

One popular job search myth is the believe that the most qualified person always gets the job. First off, “most qualified” is clearly up for debate especially if there is more than one person making the hiring decision and most likely there are no two candidates that are exactly alike so at the end of the day, the person who is most qualified is largely something determined by intangibles that are ranked differently by different people.

In recruitment, we got to see a number of cases where the person that we felt was very qualified for a job ended up being less qualified in the eyes of the person who actually made the ultimate decision i.e. the hiring authority. It doesn’t mean we were wrong – we might have actually been correct – but if the hiring authority hires someone else, it could be for a number of different reasons and being the best qualified for the job might not actually be the primary determinant.

Here are some reasons I’ve seen where a person gets a job (or loses one) based on something other than how qualified they were:

1. Money: How much money are you asking for? If a company can hire someone for cheaper, they’ll often do it even if you’re a better fit for the job.

2. Money II: Another reason that money comes into the equation is if you applied to a job through a recruiter. Typically if you get hired through a recruiter the recruitment company gets paid a fee by the hiring company. That’s how recruiters make money. If a company can hire a candidate without paying a fee – when the person applied directly to the company rather than coming through a recruiter – the hiring company can save themselves thousands of dollars – and perhaps tens of thousands of dollars – by hiring the person who applied directly and not the person who came through a recruiter. Don’t think this happens? It does, and quite frequently in my experience.

3. Favoritism: Favoritism can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Perhaps the hiring manager hires a friend. They might hire someone who they were told to hire by their superior. Maybe they hired someone who was referred to them. That’s a form of favoritism although it’s not necessarily a bad one. These days companies probably feel more comfortable hiring someone referred to them by someone they trust rather than hiring someone they don’t know. Obviously if you’re the one they don’t know, that can put you at a disadvantage.

The worst part is that you might never actually realize why you lose out on a job and simply assume you did something wrong when in fact the opposite might be true. Sometimes the cards are stacked against you and it’s an uphill battle that you just can’t overcome.

Not all hiring decisions come down to simply hiring the most qualified person.

Which one would you hire?

Going back 11 months, I’d written a post on the purpose of the HR interview and in his comment, Rob took me to task for not properly answering the question of why the HR interview exists in the first place.

I had a look at the post in question and then responded so you can see both his comment and my retort in the above-mentioned link but it did get me to thinking that perhaps I could readdress the issue of the HR interview because clearly Rob wasn’t sold on my approach to the question of why the interview exists although from his comments he seemed to have a poor view of the HR interview to start with. Maybe he had a bad experience in the past or perhaps like many people he just doesn’t take HR interviews seriously.

Either way, his point is a fair one but when you ask the question of why the HR interview exists, I don’t really know to give a response that will cover all the possibilities. In my experience, companies decide to have an HR component to the hiring process for many reasons.

Typically you’ll probably that many larger companies have an HR department and always include them in the hiring process which seems to irritate people like Rob who don’t feel they serve any real purpose. I’m sure many of you have been to interviews where you get asked fluffy HR-type questions that you feel are a waste of time but you know it’s part of the process and you just accept it and do your best. I wasn’t necessarily referring to these examples of HR interviews when I responded to Rob.

Instead I was thinking of cases I experienced as a recruiter where we worked with HR managers or staff who were hard asses and who in some cases wielded a fair bit of power in the hiring process. I can think of cases where the HR staffer used to hold the job they were interviewing which ruled out the excuses people often give when they don’t want to attend an HR interview i.e. HR staff aren’t technical, they don’t know my job, my answers will go over their head, etc. I’ve had some job searchers surprised when they attend an interview with these sorts of HR staff and find that they can’t pull the wool over their eyes because the HR staff actually knew their stuff.

I can also think of HR staff I’ve worked with who were simply very good interviewers and were good at weeding people out and who had a good track record when it came to hiring the right person. Often these HR staff members were quite well liked by hiring managers and were seen as being a valuable part of the hiring process.

That’s who I was thinking of when I posted back in February 2010. I realize in hindsight though that most HR interviews don’t work that way and that many people do have a poor opinion of HR interviewers even before they’ve attended the interview.

Companies utilize HR interviews for different reasons and not all HR interviews are a waste of time or a cakewalk in my experience. That was the point I was trying to make. Good HR staff can help to determine which staff will fit in the company, which ones are most likely to stay long term and can help to act as a second opinion for a hiring manager who might favor one candidate without considering both the person’s pros and cons. Hiring just one person can cost tens of thousands of dollars when you consider the cost of recruiting, hiring, training, paying, firing (and then replacing) a staff member who doesn’t work out for whatever reason. A smart company wants to ensure they do this process right and limit the number of times they have to replace someone who wasn’t a good hire.

And as I mentioned to Rob in my response to him, whenever I had a job candidate lamenting the fact that they had to attend an interview with an HR staffer, I used to remind them they certainly weren’t forced to attend and if they wanted they could cancel the interview and let someone else get the job. We generally don’t decide who interviews us but you certainly aren’t forced to take the interview if speaking with an HR person is going to be such a problem for you.

Bullseye! New job achieved.

Here’s an update on my unemployed friend who I’d referred to late last year in several posts and how his story ties into another post that I wrote recently where I talked about the likelihood of getting a job offer on the spot at the end of a job interview.

If you want to first read some background info about my friend’s story and how he’s been handling unemployment, you can can check out my When Your Job Search Starts To Drag On post.

If you’d like to read more about my post on getting a job offer at the end of an interview, you can check out my Getting Hired On The Spot post.

So an interesting thing happened while my friend was searching for a job after 5 months of unemployment after he’d been laid off last fall. He has found it difficult to not only find a new job but even get job interviews. He’s started looking at jobs out of the country and in fact out of the continent.

About two weeks ago he received a job interview for a job he was interested in and low and behold, he not only got a job offer but he got the job offer on the spot right at the end of the interview. So forget everything I said last week and you probably not getting a job offer on the spot…clearly I was wrong.

In all likelihood job offers tend not to be produced right at the end of an interview but sometimes a company needs to hire someone quickly and is willing to make a move on a person right away.

Further, sometimes the person they are interviewing for the job is someone who is known to the company and already has a leg up on the others interviewing for the job….

That’s exactly what happened in the case of my friend: One of the hiring managers at this company immediately recognized his name and upon seeing my friend’s resume and learning that he was looking for a new job, he decided that my friend was not only getting an interview but that barring some sort of issue, would hire my friend.

And that’s what happened.

It turns out that my friend and the hiring manager had met in the past few years at an event and had hit it off and since they had a mutual friend who had also vouched for my friend, the hiring manager felt very comfortable trusting his gut and hiring my friend on the spot following their first (and only) interview.

So What Did My Friend Do Right?

My friend did a few things right that helped him get the job:

1. He kept applying for suitable jobs and didn’t let his unemployment get him down: He did get a bit disappointed from time to time but for the most part he kept his head up and kept looking for work.

2. He kept his options open: He applied for local jobs, jobs that would require relocating and applied to companies that he felt might be in need of someone with his experience regardless of whether they had an advertised job or not.

3. He left a good impression on people: The hiring manager had only met my friend once several years ago and yet he remembered my friend and was willing to not only give him a job interview based on this meeting but also offered him the job.

4. He networked: As it turns out, both my friend and the hiring manager have a mutual acquaintance who had put the good word in for my friend which also helped him get both the interview and the job. My friend had let this mutual acquaintance know he was looking for a job and this person then let the hiring manager know that my friend would be a good fit. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone in your corner when you are looking for a new job?

So with a bit of luck (if you believe in such a thing), a bit of networking, a bit of being in the right place at the right time and a good impression in the job interview, my friend is has once again joined the ranks of the employed.

Who has a great story to tell? I’d love to hear your stories about examples of how you got a new job when the chips were down.

Make me an offer!

Is it possible to get a job offer on the spot is one question they’ll ask.

Another question is do most hiring managers hire on the spot?

I suspect the reason for the questions is that not surprisingly people look for any cue or hint that they’ll be the person that gets the job offer and they want to know as soon as possible. Trying to figure out if you’re going to get the job offer can be a frustrating task if you think you can figure a hiring manager out and read their mind especially if you’re hoping to get a quick (and positive) answer from them.

I think the issue is that sometimes people attend an interview and feel like they make a connection with the interviewer(s), answer all the questions asked of them and leave the interview thinking “I’m getting this job.”

I’ve lost count of the number of candidates who called me after an interview and told me in various ways that they were certain they were getting a job offer.

The interesting part of course is that unless you sat in to all the other interviews and know the other candidates being considered, how could you possibly assume you’re getting the job unless you were expressly told that by the hiring manager?

In my experience most job offers are not received on the spot so if you leave the interview without getting one, don’t be disappointed. You still might not get the job of course but generally speaking companies haven’t done reference checks before the interview so receiving a job offer on the spot tends to be a rare experience unless the company really needs to hire someone quickly, has already interviewed and turned down other people and unless they’ve already done reference checks on you beforehand and can make such a decision on the spot.

Another possible reason you could get a job offer on the spot is if the hiring manager knows going in to the interview that you are considering another job offer(s) and that they are competing with other employers for your services

Can You Speed Up The Process?

Whether or not you can speed up the decision-making process and get the job offer on the spot depends on a number of things – several of which were mentioned above – but generally speaking there may not be much you can do unless you have a legitimate job offer(s) in hand and can use it as leverage against the other employer(s) you’re interview with. Not all hiring manages will appreciate having the feeling of being coerced to hire because you have a job offer elsewhere so this tactic doesn’t always work and some might be turned off by it.

But in terms of what you can do to make a hiring manager’s decision easy for them, here a few things to focus on:

The Interview itself: Come prepared to the interview with everything you need to show them you’re the best person for the job certainly helps. Not only does this mean answering all their questions in full and to their satisfaction but it could also mean bringing a nicely typed page with your references on it, showing them the following information:

• The name of your references
• Their phone number and email address
• The company where you worked with that person
• The role that person held and their relationship to you i.e. were they your manager, a peer, colleague, etc?

Your references: Other than providing the hiring company with a detailed reference list including the info mentioned above, the next important step is to ensure you have already contacted your references ahead of time to let them know they might be called for a reference for you. You should also prepare your references and give them information they need to properly represent you, namely:

• Letting them know what company you’re interviewing with
• Telling them what job you’re interviewing for
• Describing to them what skills and experience are in demand for this job so that the reference can understand what skills and experience you have that the hiring manager might like to know about.

Doing the above may not speed up the hiring process or get you a job offer on the spot but it can help to ensure that things aren’t slowed down while you wait to hear back from references or while you run around trying to get other things done that you probably should have done earlier.

Having all your ducks in a row and having everything ready might however help to show the hiring manager that you are serious about the job and might help you get a leg up on the other candidates who aren’t as organized.

How do you come across to others?

Displaying confidence during your job searches and job interviews specifically is something that can make or break you depending on how you come across. Even the littlest thing can cost you jobs even if you’re unaware of it.

I recall one candidate I was working with (a sales manager) losing out on a job opportunity because he let out a sigh when he sat in the chair for the interview in front of the HR manager who was handling the first interview. She had already felt (as later found out) that he might be too experienced for the job (i.e. a nice way of saying too old) and when he let out the sign – almost like he was tired or was sitting down to relax – it confirmed in the HR manager’s mind that he was not the energetic person they were looking for.

A bit of an overreaction by the HR manager?

Perhaps.

But it did cost the candidate a chance at moving on in the process and the job interview was pretty much sunk before it really began.

When it comes to confidence, it can really show during the interview process and so can a lack thereof. Having a lack of confidence costs people jobs and in many cases they’re probably not even aware of it. In the above-mentioned case, it wasn’t actually a lack of confidence that sunk him but rather something else that he wasn’t even aware of and the result was the same: he didn’t get the job.

My experience

When I think about times in my career when my confidence was at an all-time low, the first thought that comes to mind is when I was laid off for the first time. I’ve been laid off twice for those keeping score at home. The first time, I worked for a company that went bankrupt so everyone was put out work. I worked in sales at the time so while I was aware of the (lack of) revenue coming into the company it was still a shock when I arrived that fateful morning to see a note going up on the office door that we were closed for the day (longer as it turned out) and then 30 minutes later getting a talk from the receiver who had been hired to handle the bankruptcy proceedings. Not a great feeling in case you haven’t had the pleasure of going through it before.

Getting laid off led me to a wide range of emotions and certainly unhappiness was one of them. As I found it difficult to find a new job in sales that was similar to the level I’d achieved at this job I’d just lost, I’d have to say that a lack of confidence crept into my head as I started to wonder if I’d have to take a step back before I took a step forward, and end up taking a less-than-desirable job just to get back into the workforce.

That leads to another feeling you might get and that’s desperation which is about as equally as desirable from a hiring manager’s perspective as a lack of confidence. But when you’re struggling and things aren’t going right, you lose your confidence and might start getting desperate at the same time, applying for jobs that are beneath where you should be and perhaps considering job offers you’d have turned down months earlier.

It’s funny how your perspective can shift when things in your life change and suddenly something that seemed undesirable earlier is now something you’d actually consider accepting…

So what can you do to remain positive and avoid bringing your outside issues into your job searches and into your job interviews specifically?

As hard as it can be sometimes, you really do have to be ready to leave stuff outside and enter job interviews with your positive side showing. Think about it from the hiring manager’s perspective: they expect you to be on your best behavior and showing your best side and if you’re not doing it during the job interview, they’ll be wondering what you’ll be like once you get the job and the rest of you is on display.

Even outside my work life I can think of situations where I’ve turned a lack of confidence around and accomplished something after previously convincing myself that I just couldn’t do it. Last year I changed three toilets in my house and replaced the old ones with the newer style dual flush ones. I took the old toilets out completely and installed the new ones myself. This was after convincing myself that I probably should cal a plumber and pay them $100-$150 just to show up and then pay them on top of that to actually do the work. This great feeling of accomplishment has led me to fix other stuff and get other things done around the house, things that I’d previously thought about paying other people to do for me.

Since then, I’ve also replaced several light sockets in the house and just this past weekend, I replaced a faulty light switch and also took out one of the toilets I had previously installed as I thought there was a problem (it turns out there was no problem) and then reinstalled it again. I also bought some new shades that I’m going to install to replace in our kitchen. At the beginning of winter I bought an impact wrench so I can change the tires on our cars between the all seasons and winter tires instead of paying the garage to do it at about $50 per car twice each year.

So what does all this mean? Has it helped me in my career in a direct way?

I’m not sure to be honest. One thing that it has done though is get to me to think about all those times where I thought I couldn’t do something and how now I just go and do it.

So in that regard, it probably has helped me. And it’s saved me some money too as I don’t simply pick up the phone and pay someone to help me anymore.

Imagine how improving your confidence level could help you in different areas of your life and your career?

What my friend does

When I think of how to handle the times when you’re feeling less confident due to other issues in your life, I think of a friend of mine who is currently going through an extended out of work experience going on 4 months now since he was laid off last year, something he had never experienced before. I know he’s getting depressed but it seems that he’s managed to avoid bringing this feeling into the job interviews he’s had since he was laid off. He knows that he has to do his best during the interviews and has to forget about the other stuff even just for that period of time.

One of the things that he told me is that he’s actually learned a few things since being laid off and being out of work for this period of time and feels that while he’d obviously much rather be working, the experience has made him a better person. Among other things, he has realized that:

1. Going from job to job isn’t always going to happen and that sometimes we might have to work a bit to get a new job when one doesn’t suddenly fall into our lap as they have in the past.

2. It’s important to make the best out of the job opportunities that he has interviewed for. Make sure you do your best and show them your positive side, not the one that is depressed or upset about your current situation.

3. You won’t always like every job you interview for and at some point you’ll have to figure out whether any job is better than no job. In his last interview for a job he didn’t get, my friend wasn’t as upset as he thought he might be because he realized it probably wasn’t the best job for him. He wants to work again but it has to be the right situation and he’s not desperate. Not yet anyways.

4. It’s important to take care of your money and make sure that you save for times like this. He has reduced his spending over the past few months and while he’d like to be doing some fun things on the side, he realizes that reality dictates that he tighten the purse strings a bit at least for the time being.

How about you? What have you learned during times of adversity that have tested your confidence level?

Follow the instructions for your benefit

I remember having a nagging cold and having a blocked nose that was really bothering me especially as I was at work and being the type of person who likes to take medication when I’m sick, decided to bring my bottle of Otrivin with me and use it at work to help clear my nose. It helped and I could start breathing again so when my nose started to feel like it was getting blocked, I used it again and then used it again an hour later just to be safe.

Well, around the time I used the Otrivin for about the fourth time within several hours, my nose started running uncontrollably and it just wouldn’t stop. My nose was literally like a tap that wouldn’t stop dripping. Sorry for the visual but that’s what is was like.

I then remembered that I’d quickly glossed over the instructions (who really needs to read instructions for nasal spray, right?) and read the instructions again. The bottle clearly said that the product shouldn’t be used more than every 8-10 hours so about 2-3 times per day max

I’d used it perhaps 4 times within 4 hours.

Who says following instructions and paying attention to what is recommended doesn’t matter? They do tend to be there for a reason.

How this relates to your career

In recruitment, we often get to see why people fail in job interviews and more specifically while someone else got the job and you didn’t. Hiring managers sometimes (not always) tell you exactly why one person got the job over another candidate although sometimes the real reason doesn’t get mentioned and the hiring manager tells you something to the effect of “we found someone else who was better suited to the job” which doesn’t leave you much to go on.

These days, getting a job interview can be like finding hens’ teeth…in other words they can be rare. So when you get an interview the last thing you want to do is screw it up by making a mistake.

In that regard, one new year’s resolution you might want to consider is the concept of always following instructions when applying for jobs and interviewing. Actually this idea extends right throughout the job search process. Following instructions whether it’s when you’re asked to send both a cover letter and resume, whether it’s to fill out an application when you arrive for the interview, even if it’s to make sure you put the job reference number in the subject line of the email, whatever it is that you’re being asked to do, just do it.

Within reason of course.

I’m not suggesting to do anything that is illegal or immoral. We’re talking about whatever steps you’re asked to follow during the process. At the end of the day, some people like to challenge authority and ignore certain steps in the process because they feel it’s a waste of their time or is unnecessary. If you’re ok with losing out on a job opportunity to prove a point then as long as you recognize this fact, I guess there is no problem since you’ll be the one getting the short end of the stick.

In recruitment, we used to ask people to fill out an application form with some information regarding their past jobs and tried to include stuff that they might have left out on their resume. Most times, people would fill out the form as best they could. I tended only to give the form out to people that I really felt I could help too. I wouldn’t waste their time with the form if I didn’t feel the information would help me help them or if I didn’t really believe I could help them find a better job.

But every so often, you’ll get someone who doesn’t want to fill out the form. In other words they didn’t want to spend a few minutes to help me help them. Since recruiters don’t get paid by the job candidate, what’s your first thought about someone who refuses to spend a few minutes to fill out a form that I’m telling them will help me learn more about them?

For me, the question is “why should I spend any amount of time helping them when they won’t invest a few minutes to help me?”

Put yourself in the shoes of the hiring authority: I don’t know about you, but if I’m trying to hire someone and find that people can’t follow basic instructions, I’m left to believe that if they can’t even look good and listen when they’re supposed to be on their best behavior and only showing me their good side (i.e. during the job interview) how are they going to act if they actually get the job?

And if the hiring authority already has several dozen or hundred (or more) job applications to look through, you think they’re going to spend a lot of time considering the person who gave a half-assed effort and didn’t give them what they asked for by not following instructions? You’d better be a superstar if you’re going to take this route.

Bottom line, if you’re asked for a cover letter and a resume, send both.

If you’re asked to fill out an application for a job, do it.

Paying attention to simple instructions might not get you the job on its own but it can help prevent eliminating you from consideration.

With people often finding job searching difficult these days and interviews hard to come by, the last thing you want to do is ruin your chances at a job by bringing up something that you shouldn’t have mentioned. In that regard, here are some things to avoid bringing up during the job interview:

1. Stuff that you want: Money, benefits, vacation time, expense account, car allowance, overtime, etc. These are all things to avoid asking about during the job interview. Money and other tangible benefits will come up should the company want to make you an offer so it does have its place, but asking about it can often hurt you. I’ve heard of people asking what the job pays within minutes of the interview starting and this typically leads the interviewer to believe that the person is solely money-motivated and often this alone ruins the person’s chances at the job. Not only can asking about money and benefits ruin your chances at a job, stating what you’re looking for can result it you getting less than what the employer would have otherwise given you had you waited for them to bring the subject up first.

2. Personal stuff: While making a connection with the interviewer with small talk can often help your chances at getting a job, saying too much and getting too personal can hurt you. Talking about religion, political leanings and things of that nature serves no purpose other than to possibly rule you out for a job.

3. Gossip or bad comments: Gossiping or making negative comments about a previous employer is a big no-no. The last thing a company wants to do is hire someone they think will say bad things about them behind their back should they hire this person.

4. Spilling company secrets: These days, you can get yourself into a lot of trouble by violating non-disclosure agreements and things of that nature. If you’re in an interview and are asked to divulge things about your current employer that you aren’t supposed to, you don’t want to go down this route. If you find that you’re being pushed for this sort of information by the interviewer(s) you might wonder if this company really wants to hire you or just get information from you and if it’s the latter, you’ve probably discovered that this isn’t really a company you really want to work for after all.

5. Health-related stuff: You’re not required to disclose if you’re pregnant or are planning on becoming pregnant nor are you required to disclose health issues that you might have that have nothing to do with the job requirements. Bringing up things that can be used against you in a negative way can cost you job opportunities and serve no purpose for mentioning in the first place.