The 5 most common interview mistakes — and how to correct them

You slip into that blazer that says “professional, yet approachable,” print out a copy of your resume and walk confidently into the interview for your dream job. You think it went well, and start dreaming about the day you can put in your two-weeks notice. A few weeks go by before you get the dreaded email: “Thank you for your interest in the position, but we have decided to go with another candidate.”

What went wrong? Could you have done anything differently that would have changed the outcome in your favor?

The truth is, without even realizing it you may have made a handful of mistakes during the interview process that hurt your chances of snagging the job.

Allison Andrade, lead recruiter at Betts Recruiting, sees them all the time. Learn from these mistakes and snag the job — and the salary — you deserve.

1. Showing up unprepared

According to a new CareerBuilder survey conducted by The Harris Poll, half of employers know within the first five minutes of an interview if a candidate is a good or bad fit for a position. Which means how you present yourself in those initial moments is crucial. And this starts before you even set foot in the building: “Never show up with less than five copies of your printed out resume, you never know who you will meet with,” says Andrade. “Never wear jeans. Even if the company you are interviewing with is casual, that doesn't give you license to be casual on your interview. And I hope this goes without saying, but do your research on not only the company, but the people you are interviewing with as well.”

Your pre-interview research should include, “the companies [your interviewer has] come from, career progression, mutual connections if they are strong, where they went to school…” says Andrade. “Go one step further and take advantage of all of the social media tools we have and see who they are as a person or if they are a thought leader in that field. Bring it up and ask questions about it.”

And it’s not just your verbal language, but your body language that matters, too. The Harris Poll found the biggest body language mistakes that reflected poorly on the interviewee were: failure to make eye contact, not smiling, playing with something on the table and fidgeting too much in his/her seat and bad posture.

“As prepared as you can be, you will likely get an out-of-the-box question. Answer as direct as possible and don’t dance around it,” says Andrade. “If you don't know the answer, tell them you need a bit of time to think about it and you will get back to them.” Some of the biggest head scratchers she’s seen thrown at people? “Tell me about a time where you failed and how you recovered and what you learned?” and “Can you teach me something right now?” are two of the toughest to get right. An insider tip from Andrade: “The best answer [to the second question] is to teach them how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and walk them through that.”

2. Not interviewing the hiring manager

A Gallup study of 7,272 U.S. adults revealed that one in two had left their job because of a bad manager. So even if you do manage to snag the position, you may not be there long if you get yourself into a situation where you’re working for a manager who isn’t motivating, or created an overly stressful or uncomfortable environment at the office.

“You are both interviewing each other: They need to sell themselves and their company to you, just as much as you are selling to them,” says Andrade. “We spend a huge chunk of time over the course of our lives at work, so it needs to be a two-way street. People tend to get very bogged down in the job title, money and duties, and forget to ask about culture, people, team and growth opportunities.”

Often when we ask a broad question about company culture, we get a cookie cutter answer. To really get to the heart of what day-to-day life is like, and what the opportunity for growth is, Andrade suggests asking the following questions:

• Tell me about your most successful, latest hire.
• What is a trait across teams that successful people share?
• What is the longest tenure of the current employee within the team?
• What is one thing about your company culture that you feel sets you apart from other companies?
• How did the CEO start the company, what is the mission of the company and how do you see that being driven everyday throughout the office?
• How many people have been promoted internally within the last 12 months?
• If people are successful here how are they rewarded for their success in terms of their career?
• How do your company values align with promoting from within?”

3. Thinking you're only being judged in the interview room

Were you short with the receptionist? Didn’t hold the door for another employee? Let a four-letter word slip on the phone with a friend while you were waiting for the elevator?

“You're being judged in every aspect of the interview process. They will interpret the way you act and communicate during the interview as how you would in the role, be that with a client, leadership, coworkers, the IT department …” says Andrade. “How you act with them should mirror how you would conduct yourself as an employee at that company. Everything is a test, from your application to the offer acceptance in the interview room.”