03/08/2016
9 Signs Your Job Interview Isn’t Going Very Well
1) The interview seems disinterested. If the general tone of the conversation just doesn’t seem to go well, you could be in trouble. This could mean that you’ve made a poor first impression and the interviewer has already given you the thumbs down. It could also indicate that another star candidate has already been selected, and so they’re just going through the motions with you.
2) They don’t try to sell you on the company or job. Employers are happy to hire new people; it’s exciting to add members to the team. If they like you and have decided that you might be ‘the one,’ they’re going to try to get you excited about taking on the role. They’ll pitch the benefits of working for the company and of the job. If the employer makes no effort to convince you to want the job, they’re probably not terribly interested.
3) The interview is short and sweet. Your interview only lasted a few minutes and basically just covered the information listed in your resume. You weren’t asked any behavioural, hypothetical or mind-testing questions. Great, that was easy! Actually, easy is bad. If the interviewer doesn’t ask you any challenging or probing questions, you’re likely not being seriously considered for the job.
4) Salary didn’t come up at all – or seems to be an issue. Once an employer has decided they want you, they have to see if they can afford you. Usually at some point in the second half of a first job interview, you’ll be asked about your salary expectations. If this doesn’t come up at all, it could be a sign that it doesn’t matter how much you’d like to be paid, because you’re not being hired.
5) Similarly, if the interviewer indicates that your going rate is higher than they were expecting or had budgeted for the role, it could be a deal breaker, unless you’re prepared to negotiate.
6) The interviewer offers some friendly career advice. Sometime a nice gesture can be the kiss of death. So if the employer kindly points out some things you could do in order to be more qualified for the sort of jobs that your applying for, it generally means that they don’t think you’re there yet.
7) You aren’t asked when you’re available to start. Employers hire people because they have work that needs doing. They need to know when they can have the additional help coming in, and they’ll need to get everything set up for the new hire. If they show no interest in when you’re free to begin working for them, it can indicate that it’s a moot point.
8) The interview ends with no mention of next steps. When things go well, your job interview will end with a brief discussion of what the next steps are. The employer will let you know if there’s any work samples they need or a follow-up interview with more people at the company. At the very least they should give you a rough estimate of when they expect to make a hiring decision. If you leave the interview hearing, “Hey, thanks for coming in. Best of luck with your job search” instead of discussing what comes next in the hiring process, you’re out.
9) They don’t ask for references. If there is no follow-up interview required, then the final step in the employee screening is usually to check your references. If the employer doesn’t schedule a future appointment or show an interest in getting a list of references from you, your candidacy probably ends there.
