INTERVIEWS

50 Worst of the Worst (and Most Common) Job Interview Mistakes

Karen Burns, On Wednesday March 10, 2010, US News
You may have heard the horror stories--job hunters who take phone calls or text during an interview, or bring out a sandwich and start chomping, or brush their hair, or worse. You wouldn't do any of those things, would you? Of course not.

But there are tons of other job interview no-no's you may not have thought of. Or that you've forgotten. The job hunting trail is long and arduous, and a little refresher course can't hurt. So for your edification and enjoyment, here are 50 (yes, 50!) of the worst and most common job interview mistakes:
1. Arriving late.
2. Arriving too early.
3. Lighting up a cigarette, or smelling like a cigarette.
4. Bad-mouthing your last boss.
5. Lying about your skills/experience/knowledge.
6. Wearing the wrong (for this workplace!) clothes.
7. Forgetting the name of the person you're interviewing with.
8. Wearing a ton of perfume or aftershave.
9. Wearing sunglasses.
10. Wearing a Bluetooth earpiece.
11. Failing to research the employer in advance.
12. Failing to demonstrate enthusiasm.
13. Inquiring about benefits too soon.
14. Talking about salary requirements too soon.
15. Being unable to explain how your strengths and abilities apply to the job in question.
16. Failing to make a strong case for why you are the best person for this job.
17. Forgetting to bring a copy of your resume and/or portfolio.
18. Failing to remember what you wrote on your own resume.
19. Asking too many questions.
20. Asking no questions at all.
21. Being unprepared to answer the standard questions.
22. Failing to listen carefully to what the interviewer is saying.
23. Talking more than half the time.
24. Interrupting your interviewer.
25. Neglecting to match the communication style of your interviewer.
26. Yawning.
27. Slouching.
28. Bringing along a friend, or your mother.
29. Chewing gum, tobacco, your pen, your hair.
30. Laughing, giggling, whistling, humming, lip-smacking.
31. Saying "you know," "like," "I guess," and "um."
32. Name-dropping or bragging or sounding like a know-it-all.
33. Asking to use the bathroom.
34. Being falsely or exaggeratedly modest.
35. Shaking hands too weakly, or too firmly.
36. Failing to make eye contact (or making continuous eye contact).
37. Taking a seat before your interviewer does.
38. Becoming angry or defensive.
39. Complaining that you were kept waiting.
40. Complaining about anything!
41. Speaking rudely to the receptionist.
42. Letting your nervousness show.
43. Overexplaining why you lost your last job.
44. Being too familiar and jokey.
45. Sounding desperate.
46. Checking the time.
47. Oversharing.
48. Sounding rehearsed.
49. Leaving your cell phone on.
50. Failing to ask for the job.
Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.

JOB SEARCH & INTERVIEWS

For our Cohort students who are beginning the job hunt this spring, do not forget our www.libsci.sc.edu page with the wonderful Site Index. Under J, you will find a job hunt help section and within it the following interview questions are posted as the type you might face.

Frequently Asked Interview Questions
1. Describe your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Considering your education and work experience, why do you feel you are qualified for this job?
3. What do you see as the value of belonging to professional organizations?
4. Why did you apply for this job?
5. What is your philosophy of collection development?
6. Do you like working with people?
7. Do you have any experience with audio-visual materials?
8. Do you have any experience in setting up displays?
9. How do you feel that your education has prepared you for this job?
10. Where do you expect to be professionally in five years?
11. How would you handle a person who objects to a sex education book on the shelf?
12. How would you handle a question over the phone that you can't answer immediately?
13. Is there any time that you would refuse to answer a patronís request?
14. If we ask your present supervisor what your present strengths are, what would he/she say?
15. Why should we hire you?
16. Name two books you have read within the past two months and describe one of them as though you were recommending it to a patron to read. Why would they want to read it?
17. What qualities do you think we should look for in a prospective reference librarian?
18. Considering your working career, tell about the most stressful event you ever faced, and how you coped with it.
19. Picture this: It is 5:00 PM and you are relieving the day shift. You are the only reference librarian on the desk and the following are waiting for help. In what order would you answer them and why?
a. A young child with a homework assignment
b. A trivia question; the contest is on now.
c. A woman who has just read Jannette Daileyís latest book and wants a recommendation for a similar book
d. An elderly couple wanting advice on how to do their genealogy.
e. The city managerís office is on the telephone.
20. What did you do to prepare for this interview?
21. What is your style of leadership?
22. Describe your ideal job.
23. What was your most challenging supervisory experience?
24. What do you like most about archival work?
25. Describe differences among patrons in a public library, an academic library, and a special library.
26. If you were assisting a person at the reference desk and the telephone rang, what would you do?
27. After you have eliminated the backlog, how do you see this job as challenging to you? What will motivate you to come to work?
28. Why did you elect to attend the University of South Carolina?
29. Why did you choose librarianship as a career?
30. Can you tell us about a particularly tense or chaotic situation at the reference desk and how you handled the incident?
31. What would you do if you heard a staff member provide a patron with an incorrect answer?
32. Tell us about a team or group project you have worked on and how you have contributed to it.
33. Tell us about your experience with information technology.
34. Why are you interested in this particular career?
35. What strengths do you bring to a reference position and what areas would you like to improve?
36. What are the things you particularly like about your present job?
37. What was your most important work-related accomplishment in the past year?
38. What contributions could you make to our library?
39. How would you describe your management philosophy?
40. What type of management style do you prefer?
41. What sorts of people do you enjoy working with most?
42. What kinds of situations do you find stressful?
43. What would you do if you were at the desk and both the phones were ringing and there were three or four patrons already waiting and a demanding professor interrupted?
44. Outline your science background, including: science coursework, library school coursework in science reference, and science library experience.
45. What is your public service experience, including bibliographic instruction, reference desk, and collection development?
46. What is your knowledge and/or experience of library technology?
47. How does this position fit into the career path you have set for yourself?
48. Give us an example of a time in which you felt you were able to build motivation in your coworkers or fellow students in school.
49. Describe the most significant achievement or written project/presentation/report which you have had to complete.
50. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a librarian?
51. Give us an example you did in a former job that contributed to a teamwork environment.
52. What would you do if you were unsure of how to answer a reference question?
53. What are your current research interests?
54. The role of the reference librarian and the reference department has changed a lot in the past five years and will probably continue to change. How do you see reference service changing in the next five years?