Don’t say that in the job interview

Student affairs interviews are already incredibly challenging. There great tips out there for what you SHOULD do and how you should prepare for regularly asked interview questions. But there are also certain things that you just shouldn’t DO in any interview.

This article will cover what you SHOULDN’T do during the student affairs job interview and how you can pivot to present your best self and demonstrate that you are the best candidate for the role.

Badmouthing

One of the things that you should definitely avoid in any interview is badmouthing. That means saying anything bad about your former (or current) institution or supervisor. Saying something like “my boss is the worst boss ever” will definitely reflect badly on you. Even saying something as benign as “I don’t get along with my boss that well,” is ill-advised.

Instead, what you can say is that you’ve had some challenging circumstances in your past jobs and what you’ve done to address them. Pivoting in your interview response to pose yourself as a growing professional – rather than a bitter colleague – will do you wonders. Remember: it’s not about the problems that you’ve had in the past: it’s what you’ve done to address and overcome them.

Lack of immediacy

Frankly this means that you’re not responding in the moment and you’re not paying attention. This specifically happens with entry level student affairs candidates in addressing cell phone etiquette. Don’t interrupt the interviewer to answer or check your phone. It’s just bad practice.

In addition, you should welcome opportunities to explain and paint a picture by telling your interviewers a story about your professional accomplishments. Never answer a question with “it’s on my resume.” That sounds both uncouth and unprofessional. Responding with a more detailed story about a particular bullet point on your resume is a much better response. That’s because the interviewer wants to hear the story from YOU.

While stories are great structures for communicating your past experiences and professional accomplishments they need to be structured properly. Stories need to be relevant to your professional accomplishments. While your service trip to Costa Rica or your study aboard program to South Africa may have been great and educational; it doesn’t do you any good if those stories don’t directly respond to what the interviewer wants to know: how well will you do in this position. Answering that question for your interviewer should always be your top priority.

Lack of information

You don’t want to go into your interview without any background information on the institution or your interviewer. So asking a questions like “who does this college serve…” or “…are there mostly commuter students here?” screams of someone who hasn’t done any basic research.

This is especially true if you have information about your interviewer but haven’t done any research about them. Not knowing about their office, functional area, or basic duties is definitely a no-no. You don’t have to have a complete history of what they’ve done and where they’ve been (though that is useful). But, you need to know the basics of what they do at the institution.

Lack of presentation

While delivering really great responses to your interviewer is a great step in the right direction; you also need to present yourself well. That means avoiding verbal fillers like “um” and “like.” The worst offenders are those entry level job candidates who weave a really compelling story about their professional accomplishments and then end it with a shuddering “So, Yeah...”

In addition, you don’t want to go down the “try-hard” path of indicating to everyone and anyone that you’re a “SELF-MOTIVATED, QUICK LEARNER WITH LEADERSHIP SKILLS.” This is honestly the kind of qualities that ALL employers want to find their candidates. So explaining to your interviewer that you have these traits is the equivalent of bragging that you know how to use a keyboard and can write an email. Those traits and skills will assumed.

Lastly, don’t fall for the trap of indicating a weakness as a strength. This is especially evident if you answer with something like “My weakness is that I’m a perfectionist.”

What the interviewer is trying to determine here is where you’ve witnessed a lacking in your skills, abilities, or character, and what you’ve done to change and address it.

Lack of questions

Finally, the biggest culprit for most common mistakes made during a student affairs job interview is not having any questions left for the interviewer at the conclusion of the interview. Saying that you don’t have any questions indicates that you either weren’t prepared for interview or you weren’t enthusiastic enough to ask anything.

Note: you don’t always have to ask tangible “objective” questions of your interviewers. Instead you can always rely and ask cultural questions of the institution. Examples include “What is like to work here?” or “Why do you continue to work here?”

Personally my favorite question to ask at the end of most interviews is “If you had to describe the culture of this institution / office / unit as a day of the week; then what day of the week would it be and why?” I like it because it’s a creative question that asks for a single unambiguous answer. Also, my interviewers aren’t paralyzed in responding because they only have 7 options to respond with. The real answer is how they justify why they believe it’s a Monday, Wednesday, or Sunday.

Takeaways

There are many things that can go right during a student affairs interview. But there are also a host of things that can go poorly. That happens if you choose to badmouth a past employer; lack attention in the interview; fail to prepare; have poor presentation skills or don’t have any questions prepared at the end of the interview.

This article helped shed some light on what not to do during an interview. Now use your new found knowledge to be the best candidate you can be!

If you found this helpful and need some additional tips on navigating the student affairs job search then check out the free eBook Getting Started in your Student Affairs Job Search available here.

Happy searching,

Dave Eng, EdD

Provost, The Job Hakr

@davengdesign

References

30 Things You Should Never Say in a Job Interview. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/30-things-you-should-never-say-in-a-job-interview.

Adeshola, A. (2019, June 13). 7 Things Top Candidates Never Say In A Job Interview. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adunolaadeshola/2019/06/13/7-things-top-candidates-never-say-in-a-job-interview/#ae0c0093c97b.

Burnett, J. (2019, May 16). Don't say these 5 types of words during a job interview. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/dont-say-these-types-of-words-during-a-job-interview.

Doyle, A. (2019, June 12). 25 Things You Should Never Say During a Job Interview. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.thebalance.com/never-say-during-interview-2060574.

Eng, D. (2019, September 30). Your Greatest Weakness - Job Hakr: Student Affairs Job Search. Retrieved October 17, 2019, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/9/30/your-greatest-weakness.

Moore, E. (2018, July 13). Never say these 6 things in a job interview. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90201358/never-say-these-6-things-in-a-job-interview.

Cite this Article

Eng, D. (2019, October 22). Don't say that in the job interview. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/10/22/dont-say-that-in-the-job-interview

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