I said "um" 4 times on my fifth interview. I said it because I stumbled in, carrying a screaming baby, and I couldn't ditch the babysitter job. And the baby barfed on the interviewer. :/
Silence is better, then give me your answer. Silently brainstorm. If you need more time just ask them to repeat the question or repeat it in a reworded manner. Get some filler words in while you think of what you should have prepared for.
Also don’t show up drunk. That guy was the worst interview ever. He spent 20 minutes explaining why he had to show up like that due to his previous boss’ retirement party. I gave him another 10 minutes just to see if he’d say anything job related. Nope, he mansplained about why I’d hire him. Wanted to kick him for wasting my time.
Are there any specific questions that otherwise good candidates should have done better on?
I haven't yet applied for any jobs myself, but I keep hearing "horror stories" about it (from both sides), and wonder if it's really that difficult, or if most people that apply just suck greatly, or both. :P
Also, I'd feel like I'm bragging by saying "I'm good at X, [...] I'm good at Y", how can you tell your qualities without it looking like you're bragging?
TomvanWijnen: There are multitudes of resources online about how to prepare for an interview. What each supervisor looks for is going to be different depending on the industry. For example, for a lab technician, I'm looking for someone analytical. So the question answers you give should highlight this quality.
If you don't feel comfortable in a 'bragging' state, then reword your answers to be more aligned with 'my past experience has shown that I...'. Don't ever claim that you know a lot, but highlight on how you have learned and continue to learn with every position, etc. Take time and go through your resume and think about how each job has helped you better yourself. Then use that.
Almost every industry is going to look for humility and personality. Don't be overly crazy or anything, but you need to be someone that the supervisor can imagine catching up with in the break room, not stoic and responding like a robot.
That's about all the info I can give regarding that in this short space. If you want, you are more than welcome to message me in a pm on the forums. Moose's mom works in HR, so I have her as a resource.
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