5 Interview Mistakes To Avoid

hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video we are gonna talk about 5 mistakes that people make in interviews

when they are trying to get jobs this is a video that I have been wanting to make

for a long time and I was recently inspired to do it because I posted a job

opening for English Full-Time and I got a lot of applicants who responded to it

and I noticed lots of mistakes that people were making so I started taking

notes and I decided to make this video once and for all

ok so that brings me to my next point for those of you who don't know I run an

online business called English Full:Time we help students all around the world

make real progress and transformations with their English through the courses

and programs that we create and run so I don't just run a YouTube channel I'm not

just a youtuber I have a team that I work with around the world and we have

thousands of students in countries all over the world so it's a huge project

it's a business and I've learned so much through this business through creating

this business starting at running it etc about how to hire people who to hire

what to look for how to do the interviews when I first started I did

not know how to run a business but you learn by just doing it right and my

experience with interviews before running my own business was just the

experience that I had you know applying for jobs getting jobs etc but you really

learned so much about interviews and what companies are looking for once you

run your own business because then you see everything from a totally different

perspective and I want to share some of that perspective with you guys today

because when you are able to understand what a company is looking for and what

their expectations are in an interview setting then you will be able to perform

better and showcase your a talents and abilities better and hopefully get the

jobs that are best suited for you ok now before I get into these five mistakes

I just have a few announcements and updates that I want to make the first

one is that on July 1st we are starting a new fluency breakthrough challenge

this is a 30 day challenge that helps you use your English actively so you can

quickly get some major breakthroughs in your fluency and confidence I have done

this challenge twice already we've had thousands of students sign up from

around the world they've gotten phenomenal results we cannot wait to

start so again the challenge starts on July 1st but registration closes on June

28th so if you're interested if you want more information if you want to join us

check the link that I'm gonna leave in the description it's gonna have all the

information and it will take you to the registration page where you can sign up

and join the challenge next this is the first video that I'm making from our new

home and my biggest announcement of all I am going to be a mom so Renzo and I

are super excited our baby is due in September and yeah it's gonna be a huge

life change but we are going to carry on with everything at English Full:Time

because this is what we do so that is it without further ado let's get into the

video 5 job interview mistakes that people

make and how to avoid them ok so the first mistake people make when they are

applying to jobs and doing interviews is that they come in with an attitude of

desperation they are super needy and it's like please give me the job please

just give me this opportunity I really need it I'll prove to you that I can do

the best job in the world and and this attitude ok I know where it's coming

from it's coming from the fact that you really want the job okay but neediness

is not attractive it's actually a turn-off it does not make people want to

hire you and it actually makes you look inexperienced because when you have to

beg for something it makes it sound like you don't actually deserve that thing

right so you don't want to appear as needy or desperate even if you are in a

situation where you're like oh my gosh I don't know how

I'm gonna pay rent next month I really need this job or I want this job you

don't want to come at it from that perspective and that attitude of

neediness and desperation imagine you're at a park or a bar or a random place and

a total stranger comes up to you and it's like oh my gosh please go on a date

with me I really need a girlfriend or I really need a boyfriend

that would be super awkward right you're like what I don't even know you you're

asking for this huge thing from me this is weird right like that neediness that

desperation it's not attractive in anyone at any time so instead what you

want to do is when you approach an interview with your application with

your cover letter in the interview itself you want to approach it with the

mindset of hey this sounds like a cool opportunity I'd like to learn more about

it and see if I am a good fit for your needs right because you understand that

the business has certain needs this is why they created the job position in the

first place the business has a problem and they're looking for something very

very very specific and you may be the solution to the problem where you may

not right and so you want to go into it with that attitude again hey this sounds

like a cool opportunity I'm interested and I'd like to see if I'm a good fit

for your needs this means that you are acknowledging that you understand that

the business has specific needs and again you may or may not be a good fit

but you want to dig in a little deeper to see if it could work out and

employers like that and they respect that and it will make them want to talk

with you okay so the next mistake that I see people doing when they are applying

for jobs and going to interviews preparing for interviews or anything

like that is they try to act with a type of

persona that is professional or whatever they think professional is and they end

up portraying themselves as a person that is actually boring and fake okay so

first of all being professional does not necessarily mean being overly

and stifling your personality right people want to work with other people

they don't want to work with robots so for example if in your cover letter you

write something that you think sounds super professional right like to whom it

may concern it is with great pleasure that I write to you today to submit my

application for the position of blah blah blah that is all grammatically

correct and that might sound wonderful to you but to the person reading it

especially if they've been reading a hundred different applications they're

just gonna go oh my gosh this is so boring please somebody entertain me make

me want to read your cover letter make me want to call you in for an interview

so again the mistake is simply being fake right trying to be professional

being overly formal and stifling your own personality and coming across in

just a very bland and boring and vanilla kind of way so again realize that when

people are interviewing you for a job they're interviewing many people and you

need to stand out so show your personality this doesn't mean that you

have to be super over-the-top and energetic especially if that's not how

you actually are you don't want to be over-the-top you also don't want to

downplay your personality you just want to be yourself and remember that being

professional is an attitude it's a behavior it's hey you have great work

ethic you show up on time you are reliable dependable that's what it means

to be professional it's not this sort of suit and tie kind of I don't know formal

image of yourself or some way of being that you actually aren't okay so the

third mistake that I see people making is they sometimes are just super

arrogant when they apply for jobs and they come out and they literally say hey

I'm the person you've been looking for and this is why and it's just kind of

like hold on you just heard about this job opportunity you don't know me you

don't know anything about my business you really don't know if you're a good

fit I don't know if you're a good fit for this so like calm

a little bit a simmer down and let's talk let's actually have a discussion

let me see some samples of your work let me see what you've done show me that you

are what I'm looking for don't just tell me that you are what I've been looking

for because again that comes across as arrogant and arrogance is not attractive

so really you have to stay humble you may be really good at what you do you

may even be a genius you may be the best in the world but you can't say that and

I think that some people do this because what they're trying to portray is

confidence and it is good to be confident and have confidence and

display confidence through the job interview process but you have to

understand the difference between confidence and arrogance and what will

come across as confidence and what will come across as arrogance so instead of

saying hey I'm the person for the job you could say hey this sounds like a

really interesting opportunity and then you can explain your experience in the

field and demonstrate your ability you can show samples of work that you've

done you can quantify your past results you can talk about your past experience

you can provide references and another really good tip is you can simply ask

questions about the problem that the company is having to demonstrate your

knowledge and your ability to solve those problems right rather than coming

in and assuming that you know and understand what the problem is and

exactly how to solve it ask questions about the problem because this is what a

true professional does actually they don't just assume that they can figure

everything out barely knowing anything about the problem they ask lots of

questions they might spend half an hour or an hour or even longer really digging

into what is the problem that you're having and why is it a problem and what

kind of solution are you looking for and what is your budget and how can I help

and you know they really dig into problems before they provide any kind of

solution because there's so much information that they have to weigh and

figure out what the best solution is right so actually from the employer

perspective anytime someone comes up starts offering solutions before they

fully understand the problem that's a red flag right there and we know ok this

person's not truly experienced because a person with real experience isn't gonna

start offering solutions before they truly understand the problem ok so the

next mistake that people make and this is really specific to people on my

channel is in a job application or an interview saying but I'm not a native

English speaker as if that is some kind of disadvantage first of all there are

so many people in the world who are successful who are non-native English

speakers so being a non-native English speaker is not a disadvantage in any way

actually it can be an advantage because that demonstrates hey I had the ability

to learn a foreign language master a foreign language I can now work in this

language that shows that you are dedicated that you know how to learn and

apply yourself you can overcome obstacles so instead of seeing it as

some kind of disadvantage you have to realize that it is an advantage and it

really demonstrates a lot of your abilities to learn to grow to overcome

etc and you should never be bringing this up in an interview like in some

kind of way that's going to disqualify you

especially if nobody is asking so a few days ago I made a job posting and I was

looking for something very specific but nowhere in this job posting did I say

it's a requirement to be a native English speaker yet I got a bunch of

responses from people and in their responses they said hey I'm interested

and here's my experience etc etc etc but I'm not a native English speaker and I'm

like thinking why is that even a problem I have hired so many non-native English

speakers and whether they're native or not has never been an issue for me

because I'm looking to find out if people can do the skill that I need them

to do and if they can do it well and if they can be professional and have good

work ethic it's not about what your first language is or is not and actually

in my particular business being a non-native English speaker in working

with us is advantage because that means that you

understand my audience the same way I understand them and I don't have to

explain anything to you I don't have to explain why the work that we do is

important you already know why it's important okay so after hearing this

some of you might be thinking that sounds great Stefanie but what about

those job postings that say native English speakers only or we are only

looking for native English speakers or something like that

here's the deal usually when companies specify requirements and qualifications

what they're really looking for is someone who is super competent because

maybe they've had the experience where they've created job postings and then

they get people who don't communicate well in the English language and in

order to work with that company and with the clients that they work with a high

competence in the language is necessary so it's not enough to be an intermediate

English learner or maybe even not enough to be an advanced english learner maybe

they need someone with native like competency in the language now a lot of

people have that and they are non-native English speakers so I would say go ahead

and apply anyways and prove that they would be lucky to work with you several

years ago there was a job that I applied for and I remember the requirements for

that job it said I needed a bachelor's degree I needed four years of experience

and all kinds of other things that I didn't actually have but the job was to

be a sales representative and I thought a sales rep I can do this it doesn't

matter if I don't have a bachelor's degree or four years I can learn I can

work hard and I had other experience that was related not exactly the same

not exactly what the company was looking for but similar enough for me to feel

confident in applying for the job and confident doing the interview and saying

hey I can do this and I would really love to work with you guys

anyhow in that particular situation I did get the job everything worked out

wonderfully and the moral of the story there is I was not qualified okay I

didn't have the requirements that were laid out in the job description but I

applied anyways and I proved to the company that

I could handle what they were asking for so if you do see a job description that

says native English speakers only or something like that realize that what

the company really really needs and wants is people who are competent in the

English language at a native-like level okay so my final tip for you is don't

get angry rude or offended if you get feedback constructive criticism or if

you just simply get rejected for the position altogether so I told you

earlier that recently I posted a job opening and I received a lot of

applications we are looking for a writer for our company and I have very specific

requirements in mind so anyways I'm going through all the submissions and I

wrote back to one guy I thanked him for applying but I let him know that his

writing was not the type of writing that we were looking for and his response was

oh well can you tell me more about what you mean so I wrote back and I gave him

feedback about his writing and he got super offended and he got really nasty

with me and he was just like peace out your loss like you don't get to work

with me too bad and I was just like wow disaster averted

I am so glad I didn't hire that guy so anyways you don't want to leave people

with this impression I have a background in writing I know what I'm doing I know

what I'm looking for and his writing was simply not at the level that we needed

he needs more experience but he did not like hearing that he did not like my

feedback I took my time to help him to give him constructive criticism that he

really could have used to improve his skills but instead he shut down didn't

listen to it and got rude with me so instead of doing that when someone gives

you feedback or constructive criticism or if they reject you all together and

say hey sorry this isn't what we're looking for or we need someone with more

experience or better skills or whatever it is don't take it personally

say hey I realize that I didn't think of it thank

you for taking the time to give me your feedback I really appreciate that then

you can go on and you could say maybe I'll come back in a year and my skills

will be improved by then and I'll have more experience and perhaps we can chat

then right so if you have that kind of attitude you know people might say hey

maybe why not you know try again next year we'll see what happens at least

that way you leave the door open for yourself for the future the other thing

you can do is you can say hey do you know of any other opportunities that

might work better for me right now where I'm at with my experience and my ability

and perhaps the people will send you on to a different opportunity okay but this

is how you can keep doors open for the future and open new doors right again

rather than getting offended getting mad because we're all learning we're all

growing we're all going to improve and again when a company is hiring someone

they have something very very specific in mind you might be the solution you

might not but your job is to figure out what they need and if you are a good fit

okay so that's it I hope these tips were helpful and I know that there are lots

of successful professionals who follow this channel so if you have experienced

positive negative experiences getting hired or hiring other people feel free

to share those experiences in the comments maybe you made some mistakes in

an interview process but you learn from those mistakes maybe you've hired other

people as well and so you now know what to look for when you're hiring people

and what are some red flags you can share those with us what are your tips

so that is it again I hope you enjoyed this video if you're interested in the

fluency breakthrough challenge go ahead and check out the link below we start on

July 1st and I will see you in another video take care bye