Employers identify most common interview mistakes
If you want the job, you’d better bone up on the company, according to executives responding to a recent survey.
Accountemps, the world’s largest temporary finance staffing service, wanted to know what companies identified as the most common mistakes candidates made during job interviews. An independent research firm asked Canada’s 1,000 largest companies that question and received responses from 100 executives.
The executives named the following as the most frequent interview shortcomings:
•Little or no knowledge of the company – 37 per cent
•Unprepared to discuss career plans and goals – 26 per cent
•Limited enthusiasm – 22 per cent
•Lack of eye contact – seven per cent
•Unprepared to discuss skills and experience – two per cent
•Late arrival – two per cent
•Other/don’t know – four per cent
Given that information about employers is readily available on the Internet, it’s perhaps surprising that so many candidates are ill-prepared for interviews. Accountemps suggests that, at a bare minimum, job seekers find out the following information about prospective employers:
•What business is the company in?
•What products and services does it sell?
•Who are its primary competitors?
•What current industry issues or events are of interest to the company?
•What are the firm’s mission, vision and values?
Accountemps, the world’s largest temporary finance staffing service, wanted to know what companies identified as the most common mistakes candidates made during job interviews. An independent research firm asked Canada’s 1,000 largest companies that question and received responses from 100 executives.
The executives named the following as the most frequent interview shortcomings:
•Little or no knowledge of the company – 37 per cent
•Unprepared to discuss career plans and goals – 26 per cent
•Limited enthusiasm – 22 per cent
•Lack of eye contact – seven per cent
•Unprepared to discuss skills and experience – two per cent
•Late arrival – two per cent
•Other/don’t know – four per cent
Given that information about employers is readily available on the Internet, it’s perhaps surprising that so many candidates are ill-prepared for interviews. Accountemps suggests that, at a bare minimum, job seekers find out the following information about prospective employers:
•What business is the company in?
•What products and services does it sell?
•Who are its primary competitors?
•What current industry issues or events are of interest to the company?
•What are the firm’s mission, vision and values?
