Interviewing Tips: What NOT to Do
Throughout the year, CAAS receives feedback from employers about their interviewing experiences. Here are some of the biggest complaints or reasons students were not selected:
- Failure to research employer or particular office/branch of employer and demonstrate a good “fit”.
- Stalker students who over-researched the interviewers and commented on things found only through google or social networking sites.
- Overbearing/over-aggressiveness/conceited/know-it-all
- Inability to express oneself clearly
- Late to interview
- Lack of planning for career with no apparent goals or purpose
- Interest(s) too narrow
- Lack of knowledge of field of specialty
- Over-emphasis on money
- Excuses, evasiveness, hedging on unfavorable factors in record
- Condemnation of past employers, associates, students, professors, and schools
- Lack of vitality/failure to look interviewer in the eye / limp, fishy or sweaty handshake
- Poor personal appearance
- Little sense of humor/cynicism/inability to take criticism
- Failure to express appreciation for the interviewer’s time
- Snoopy students who attempted to read the documents on an interviewer’s desk or pick up items. (This may signal a lack of sensitivity to confidentiality concerns, which is damning in a law interview.)
Don’t be “that” student.
Coming soon: Part 3: What Not to Wear
Don’t forget, the Legal Interview Guide can be found in the Symplicity Document Library.
Tags: Fall Recruiting, Interviews, Job Searches