Biggest interviewing blunders

Thinking back to all the job interviews you’ve conducted, there may be a candidate who stands out in your mind as making a poor impression. Insulting the interviewer and eating a snack during the interveiw are just two of the interviewing blunders recalled by more than 400 hiring managers who participated in CareerBuilder.com’s recent survey.

“Job interviews are intimidating and even the most practiced job seeker can sometimes forget proper interview etiquette,” says Kirk Scott, senior career advisor for CareerBuilder.com. The site asked hiring managers to identify the most memorable interview blunders candidates should avoid. Here are the results:

* Communication: Hiring managers cited poor language skills and a tendency for candidates to reveal too much or too little information, such as repeatedly telling the interviewer that she had personal problems.

* Performance: Managers pass on candidates who are unprepared, distracted or unprofessional. One respondent recalled a woman who answered her cell phone during the interview, while another said an interviewee ate a sandwich (presumably this was not a lunch meeting).

* Attitude: Displaying a bored or arrogant attitude made it easy for managers to pass on these candidates. “He asked me to speed up the interview because he had a lunch date,” said one manager. Another said a candidate used profanity when speaking about a previous boss.

* Appearance: Some job seekers were way too casual. One candidate didn’t see the need to wear shoes to an interview, while another “showed up in jeans and a t-shirt with dirty fingernails and looked like he just woke up. He also smelled of alcohol,” according to the respondent.

* Honesty: Catching a candidate in a lie doesn’t bode well for that person, such as the applicant who mentioned his arrest during the interview after stating on his application that he had never been arrested.

Can you do one better? Let me know about the worst interviewing behavior you encountered at aschurr@nww.com