Job seekers often go into interviews with a set of assumptions in their heads — for example, that the company is a great place to work, that the interviewer is likely to ask particular questions, that the company is most interested in a certain aspect of their experience and all kinds of other beliefs that may or may not be correct. Some assumptions, though, can be downright dangerous for job seekers to make. Here are five common ones that you should avoid.
1. You’re highly qualified, so surely you’re a top candidate. The employer is probably talking to multiple well-qualified candidates, so it’s dangerous to assume anything about your standing in the candidate pool. Even if you’re in an in-demand field with a shortage of strong candidates, there’s no way to know who your competition is or what less obvious traits the hiring manager might be looking for. After all, hiring is about more than basic qualifications. It’s also about your fit with this particular team, this particular manager and this particular workplace.
It’s especially important to keep this in mind if you’re applying for a new role at your current company. You might be tempted to figure that you’re a known quantity and therefore have a built-in advantage over any possible candidates from the outside. But while it’s true that many companies give priority to internal candidates, it’s still quite possible to lose the job to someone else. That’s even more likely if you approach the process as if it’s a formality, since that may make you less likely to put in enough time preparing, or you may assume that the interviewer knows your strengths and accomplishments and you don’t need to spell them out.
2. The interviewer knows how to interview effectively. It’s easy to assume that your interviewer is skilled at asking relevant questions and giving you both the opportunity to assess your fit for the position. But in reality, many interviewers are inexperienced, unskilled or otherwise unprepared to conduct effective interviews. Many interviewers get little to no training in interviewing and are simply thrown in and expected to figure it out as they go. That means that if your interviewer is rambling or not probing into your qualifications, you should be prepared to weave examples of your professional achievements into the conversation, ask questions about the job itself and the challenges the team is facing, then talk about how you’d approach those challenges. If the interviewer is really off-track, you might even say, “Would it be OK to take a minute and lead you through my professional background? I think it will tie in well with what you were just saying about the position.”
3. The interviewer has carefully reviewed your resume and cover letter and remembers the details. It’s not uncommon for an interviewer to be pulled into the interview at the last minute. Or your interviewer might have read through your materials a week ago or more and not have had a chance to review them again before your interview. Even if she has a copy of your materials in front of you, don’t assume the details are fresh in her mind.
4. The interviewer knows that you want the job. Job candidates tend to assume that of course the interviewer knows they want the job. After all, they applied and showed up to interview. But good hiring managers know that interviews are a two-way street and that strong candidates are using the hiring process to assess the employer just as much as the employer is assessing candidates. If you don’t seem enthusiastic or make a point of explaining your interest in the job, the hiring manager may be left uncertain about whether you’re seriously interested. That’s one reason why sending a follow-up note after the interview is important. It allows you to show that you’ve gone home, digested the conversation and decided that you’re still interested in pursuing the position.
(Relatedly, don’t make the mistake of assuming that you know that you want the job until you’ve had a chance to dig into the details of the position and the company during your interview, and to do your own research as well.)
5. You can read the interviewer to figure out your chances of earning a job offer. Job candidates often try to read their interviewer’s words and behavior for clues about their chances — speculating, for example, that if the interviewer shows them around the office, it means that their chances are strong, or that if the interviewer mentions having other interviews to conduct, it’s an attempt to let them down easily. Trying to read into these actions to figure out your chances of getting a job is understandable, but it’s also fruitless and often misleading.
Even if your interviewer says, “You’re just what we’re looking for” or “We’re so excited to have found you,” it’s nothing to count on. Things may change — stronger candidates may appear, a budget may get cut, an internal candidate may emerge, a different decision-maker may like someone else better or all sorts of other things may prevent you from getting an offer. The only reliable sign that you’re going to get a job is when an employer calls you up and says, “We’d like to offer you the job.”
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Don’t Make These Bad Assumptions About Your Job Interview originally appeared on usnews.com