Silly Interview Mistakes: Criticizing the Past
By Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter
In this video I talk about another stupid thing people do in interviews – criticize the past.
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I’m Jeff Altman, Big Game Hunter, Head Coach at JobSearch.Community. I want to introduce you to one of those stupid interview mistakes that people often make. How frustrating. I just wanted to shake them.
As the title suggests, the mistake lies in criticizing the past. It could be a tirade to a co-worker who eats your lunch and then eats it out of the refrigerator. It could be a rant like, you know, I’ve been working at this company for five years and I’ve missed out on promotions over and over again, but I’ve made it.
In other words, my boss is an imbecile. You can do this in a gentler way. But, you know, it eventually translates to this.
We are all so picky about one thing or another that you sound like a complainer. If someone is sitting across from you in an interview, you know what they’re thinking, they’re saying to themselves, well, I wonder how long it will be before this happens to me. Well, I could have brought cancer into our midst, but I would have just nodded, smiled and called it a day.
So, to effectively communicate why you want to change jobs, here’s what you need to do. So, an example of feeling passes. You don’t want to focus on the parts that are ignored.
Here’s how to do it. You basically say, hey, look, I’m really good at my role. My company loves me for this role.
But I don’t want to spend the next 25 years doing the same thing over and over again. I knew I would probably have to join this company and improve myself here to show what I could do. But what I was looking for was an organization where I could learn, grow and advance.
My company is basically willing to let me do the same job for the rest of my life. That really doesn’t suit me. So, I’m willing to prove to you again that I’m capable, capable, and pay my dues here.
But I also want to know the benefits. They know immediately that you are looking for future promotional opportunities. Not a bad thing, right? So, this is one approach.
The coworker who ate my lunch or the coworker I had a problem with. I worked with a problematic coworker who would steal from coworkers. So, if I were being interviewed, I might simply say, you know, I’ve been with this organization for a long time.
But, you know, after a while, some personality doesn’t necessarily emerge in people’s behavior. And, you know, I don’t want to come across as a complainer or a whiner. I’m not.
But, you know, there are problems in the office when people go to the refrigerator and take out my lunch, or in my particular case, they steal resumes and present them to other recruiting companies. When management doesn’t want to address the issue because of this person’s writing business, I ultimately have to ask myself, who is looking out for me? That’s why I say, you can come up with your own version. My boss is an imbecile.
Never go that route. Never in a million years go down the path of criticizing your boss. This is just a failed proposal.
You’d be better off giving a speech about wanting to join an organization where you can learn, grow, and advance. I don’t start this to criticize your boss. So, you know, again, not wanting to criticize the past.
You want to focus on the future you are looking for. Even the example of the coworker in question, if I were in that situation, I would conclude by saying, I’m sure in this organization, things like, hey, things are going to happen. People are people.
But, you know, if someone steals from the company, that won’t be tolerated. That’s why I trust you to handle things in a professional manner and take care of the people. Very elegant way to sum this up.
I hope you found this video helpful and that you have a great day. careful.
About Big Game Hunter Jeff Altman
People hire big game hunter Jeff Altman to provide no-BS career advice around the world because he’s done so much in people’s careers
Easier. These things may involve job hunting, recruiting more effectively, managing and leading better, career transitions, and advice on problem-solving Workplace issues. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 job search podcast on iTunes with over 3,100 episodes.
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