5 Dumbest Things You Can Say In an Interview

Dumb and stupid are bad words in my household.  Just ask my daughter Ava – when I let one of these words slip I’m often reminded that “we don’t say that word, Daddy.”    However, there are certain things you can say in an interview that are just plain dumb or stupid or idiotic.  I’ve brought some of these things up before but thought I’d go a little ore in depth.  While each of these things won’t guarantee that you won’t get the job, I cam promise you that they won’t help.

1.  Anything Negative – Whatsoever!!!!

In our culture we value a positive attitude and it is extremely taboo to say something negative about your previous or current employer.  This creates a catch-22 as your future employer always want to know why you are leaving or why you are looking to leave.  The trick is that you need to be honest while also keeping positive.  This just gave me an idea for next weeks blog so I won’t go into further depth here.  Keeping on track here are the types of statements that you want to avoid:

“My boss is an a$$hole.”

“The culture makes we want to die.”

“I hate going to work everyday.”

While all of these things might be true, you can’t share this or anything that might make someone believe you feel this way.  So, craft a response that focuses on how this position will fulfill your needs and goals and just say that you are ready to move on and start the next chapter of your life.

Bonus Piece of Advice:  Practice this talk in a mirror.  In order to be convincing your body language needs to be positive too.  If you can’t say thing positively with a straight face or with a smile then you need to work harder.

2.  I’m Not Really Looking

So some recruiter or friend calls you and tells you about this terrific job that you are perfect for.  BUT – you are happily employed.  This is a good situation to be in.  There is nothing wrong with letting a potential employer know that you are well valued and don’t need a new job.  However, being excited about an interview and new opportunity doesn’t change this.  I’ve seen many people act indifferent in an interview to try and get some kind of upper hand in the bargaining process.  Let me tell you -  this makes you look stupid.  If you don’t need a job and you are only marginally interested then why are you even interviewing?

Again, if you are happily employed you can and should let the company know this.  However, don’t oversell it!  If you spend more time talking about how much you don’t need this job they will assume that you aren’t very interested.

3.  Overly-Presumptive or Arrogant Statements

This is one of my favorites – only because it fails every time.  Companies like confident people.  They don’t like arrogant, self-centered people.  You can appear this way in two ways.  First, you can toot your own horn to a ridiculous level and make it seem that all of your success is in spite of your previous or current employer.  Statements like this will turn someone off:

“I’m confident that I’m a perfect fit for this.” – Really – we’ve only talked about this for 10 minutes – how could you know this?

“I was the top person in the organization.” – try to let your numbers speak for themselves instead.

Another common error in this vein is to make small feats seem stupendous.  If you were awarded the top salesperson of the year two years in a row don’t make a big deal about the July Salesperson of the Month award you got in 2007.

Secondly, you can start acting like you know that they will offer you the job midway through the first interview.  Questions like:

“So when do I start.”

“I can see that I’ll be a great fit here, why wouldn’t you hire me?”

“Where’s my office going to be?”

Other errors in this line of thought are to become too comfortable in the interview and start making statements as if you had the job.  There is nothing wrong with some hypotheticals but it seems arrogant to assume you have the job and don’t give ample respect to the process.

4.  Bringing Up Controversial or Inappropriate Topics

First let me say that I think that it is terrific that you are a liberal/conservative Jewish/Christian/Muslim transsexual.  That said this is your business and not your interviewers.  It is incredibly arrogant and ignorant to assume that any and all people that you meet hold the exact same values as you.  When interviewing it is really important to steer clear of controversial or deeply personal subjects.  If you offend the interviewer then you will not get the job.  Period.  End of story.  Some of the subjects you want to avoid are:

• Politics
• Religion
• Sex
• Race

I’m going to go a little deeper here on this one and speak specifically to insurance.  For some reason it has become fashionable to speak poorly about the President of the United States.  Often times I hear people say some pretty negative stuff about him in response to healthcare reform.  I’m not sure why people think that this is OK – but it isn’t.  I’m personally not a fan of healthcare reform – I have my reasons.  However, just because there are people on TV lobbing hate filled grenades at each other (I’m talking to both sides of the aisle here) doesn’t mean it is appropriate in an interview.  Be professional, polite and avoid these subjects.

Your other option is to share your worldview as much as you can and wait for that other liberal/conservative Jewish/Christian/Muslim transsexual with your exact same values to be hiring effectively cutting out 90% of the other jobs out there.

5.   Asking about Non-Job Related Things

So you are interviewing for this great job.  The interview is going great.  You are a perfect fit, the culture is great, it’s close to your home, you like your potential new boss.  As they begin to wrap up the interview you are asked if you have any questions.  What do you do?  Unfortunately, many people fail in this area miserably and start asking questions that have very little to do with the actual job.  They start asking about the salary, benefits, vacation… even the parking situation.  This is really dumb for two reasons and I’ll tell you why.

First of all it looks tacky and makes it appear that you are more concerned about these “little things” rather than the job.  We live in a culture that is incredibly weird and unfortunately companies and candidates are bound by different rules.  It is completely OK for a company to ask your salary expectations.  It is not OK for you to ask the same of the company.  It is hypocritical but it is the way of the world.  Additionally, we have some crazy ideals that people cling to.  One of them is that you should take a job for the “right” reasons.  I’m here to tell you that compensation and benefits are a right reason.  However, it isn’t’ seen this way by most employers so beware.

The second reason is more philosophical.  When you are in an interview you have a finite amount of time to make a lasting impact and to sell yourself.  Wasting this time to get transactional information is just plain stupid.  If you have questions about stuff like this you can always follow up with an email. Instead you should come up with a great, insightful question about the company that shows you did your research and that you are thinking about this job.  If  you can’t do that then at least ask the interviewer why they like working for the company.  People feel good when they talk about themselves and it will help them think of you more favorably.

That’s all I have for today.  Happy Interviewing.  As always feel free to email me with any questions, concerns or suggestions at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

As always please let me know if you have any questions or comments.  I can be reached by email at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.  I’ll see you then!

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

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Six Interview Tips Part I