Steer clear of these six words in a job interview. Take a look.
It is best to avoid using absolute words – always, never, impossible, none, all, and every – in a job interview.
🎯 Absolute words might give an impression that you view things in extremes and miss the nuances.
🎯 Using absolute words can make your responses sound cliché and fluff. It is better to share specific and real-life examples instead.
🎯 These words can make the candidate come across as clueless and delusional.
In a landmark study, it was discovered that 89% of hiring failures are the result of people having the wrong attitudes, not their lack of technical skills. So no matter how advanced your technical skills may be, you’ve still got to convince your prospective employer that you’ve got the right attitudes to succeed in their organization.
One of the attitudes that nearly every company wants to avoid hiring is black-and-white thinking. Black-and-white thinking is evaluating the world around us in terms of black or white, amazing or terrible, always or never. We see things in extremes, and we miss the nuance and shades of gray. And, of course, the overwhelming majority of the world is shades of gray; few things in life are truly black or white, or always or never.
The words black and white don’t often get uttered in job interviews, but always and never make lots of appearances, as do words like impossible, all, none and every. Technically, those words are known as absolutes.
In a study, it was discovered that that low performing candidates used absolutes, such as “always” and “never,” 103% more than high performers.
Imagine that an interviewer asked a candidate, “Could you tell me about a time you got tough feedback from your boss?” Now imagine that candidate responded with this answer:
“All feedback I get from my manager is taken very seriously by me. I take steps to work on it. I always believe in learning and growing in my career to meet company standards and never fail to meet expectations.”
If you think that this sounds like a canned and fluff answer, you’re absolutely correct. And that’s because absolute words like all, always and never are clear signs that the candidate is not sharing specific examples and instead entering the realm of puffed-up cliché answers.
By contrast, imagine a candidate responded with this answer:
“Sometimes I think faster than I type and was in a rush to get my idea out on paper without checking it over myself. I sent the work to my supervisor for a second eye read. In private, my supervisor praised my idea and then asked me to re-read it and correct a few of my words. From that, I have trained myself to slow down my mind as I put my ideas and work down on paper.”
This sounds like someone who is giving a real-life example and not regurgitating canned fluff. And further, this sounds like someone who is actually open to receiving tough feedback from their boss.
While you’re rehearsing your answers to likely interview questions, you should focus more on reviewing the specific situations you’ve experienced in your past jobs. Trying to memorize canned fluff answers usually results in answers that sound contrived at best and evidencing black-and-white thinking at worst.
There’s a reason why our research discovered such a negative reaction to absolute words like always, never, impossible, all, none and every. It’s incredibly difficult to use those words in a way that doesn’t paint the candidate as clueless, delusional or full of nonsense. So spend less time rehearsing canned answers and more time reviewing your real-life experiences. Your candidacy will benefit, and your interviewer will be greatly appreciative.
(Source: www.forbes.com)