How you screw it up in the first 5 minutes
Anyone who goes to the interview is prepared: information gathered, answers ready, the hairstyle is right. This behavior can still cost applicants their acceptance.
An interview is nerve-wracking for most people. Anyone who desperately wants or urgently needs a job tries to do everything right: Applicants try to make a good first impression, to prove their own professional competence and, of course, to appear charismatic. Job seekers can also fail because of this claim. Of course, a bit of luck is also part of it. So it’s no wonder that according to a JDP poll 93 percent of job seekers have great respect for the interview. An example shows how quickly the appointment can be ruined. A Reddit user told by an applicantwho almost screwed it up the moment he entered the company – a lesson that can be learned for life.
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Mistake in the interview: disrespect
No acceptance in the interview: “Be nice to everyone in the building.” (Graphic: Shutterstock / Reddit)
The Redditor describes in its posting how a candidate “ruined his interview in the first five minutes after entering the building”. The applicant was greeted warmly by a receptionist, but the man did not reply. According to the Reddit user, he ignored the woman at the counter and did not even make eye contact. That only changed when the applicant was asked into the interview room. Suddenly he was friendly, open-minded and approachable. What he didn’t know, however, was that the receptionist was the recruiter, and the greeting was already a test. And the job seeker did not pass that at that moment. The man could not put the first impression left in the right light, as the HR manager also let him know.
“Every person on this team is valuable and deserves respect.”
When the recruiter took the man into the interview room, she explained to him that friendly cooperation is important to the company. “Every person in this team is valuable and deserves respect,” she told the applicant, according to the Redditor. You understand if there is no eye contact immediately due to excitement or an introverted being, but he obviously behaved in a rowdy manner and gave her the feeling that the woman was under him. “The interview is now over,” said the recruiter. The posting went viral with 45,200 upvotes and 2,400 comments. “Be nice to everyone in the building,” writes the Reddit user. Many of the commentators then join in and say: friendliness is a basic requirement.
However, many commentators also let it be known that this is often mutual. One user says that he once turned down a job because the HR employee was arrogant towards the receptionist. Another user reports that a department head even behaved disrespectfully towards himself during a conversation. Just as bad applicants can be identified using forms of politeness, bad managers can also be identified by it. In the absolute worst case, the manager even represents a corporate culture in which no value is placed on appreciative cooperation. People’s behavior often reflects the environment they come from.
