If you’re sticking to your New Year’s resolution to get a new job, hopefully you’ll have an interview lined up soon. Consider this your refresher course on how not to blow it.
A new survey from CareerBuilder asked hiring managers to name the biggest ways that someone can sink a job interview. Here’s the top 10:
1. Lying about something, 69%.
2. Answering your phone or texting during the interview, 68%.
3. Not making eye contact, 67%.
4. Acting arrogant or entitled, 60%.
5. Dressing inappropriately, 50%.
6. Swearing, 50%.
7. Not smiling, 39%.
8. Playing with something on the table, 33%.
9. Having bad posture, 30%.
10. Fidgeting too much in your seat, 30%.
The survey also found the WEIRDEST things people had ever done during interviews. Here are our eight favorites . . .
1. A woman took a family photo off the interviewer’s desk and put it in her purse.
2. A person trying to get a data entry position said their ideal job was, quote, “painter of birdhouses.”
3. A woman said her main job was a psychic and tried to read the interviewer’s palm . . . even when they said no.
4. A person put lotion on their feet during the interview.
5. A woman sang the answers to the questions.
6. When a guy was asked why he’d applied, he said, quote, “My wife wants me to get a job.”
7. A person felt the interviewer’s chest so they could, quote, “connect heart to heart.”
8. A guy on a phone interview took the phone into the bathroom . . . and flushed.