10.11.2023 Today’s insights from Business Insider: Top Interview Mistakes, According to A Google Engineer
Dear Students,
If we asked you to guess the most common interviewing mistakes, you might think for a moment and offer something like “Maybe not doing enough homework on the company?” Or perhaps not answering “Why are you interested in this position?” too well. Other young professionals like you have suggested the following additional possibilities: “Being too verbose? “Not directly answering the questions?” “talking too fast?” or “not being professional?”
Daniel Rizea, Engineering Director at Google, maintains that the most frequent errors he’s noted from among 1,000 interviews transcend experience levels (and are not what you and your friends might expect!) He specifically highlights the four below:
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Thinking you will perform well in interviews because you are good at your job
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Being tired (in the interview)
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Not picking up on (interviewer) hints and going down rabbit holes
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Not preparing for behavioral questions
For ambitious international students like you, such derailers may look like the following:
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Thinking you will perform well in interviews because you are good at your job (or classes): While you may be a financial analysis class guru or social marketing course expert, or had a summer internship in a consulting firm, such experience will not be enough to enable you to fluently respond to interview questions, under pressure, on these topics. Rizea quotes a friend who confirms that “there are no shortcuts” and that “his success was based on a lot of practice and reverse engineering of the process.”
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Being tired: A similar type of overconfidence can be an issue for candidates (not you, of course!) overwhelmed by academic work, hobbies, extracurricular activities and personal needs. When you are tired, you simply can’t perform at your best, and the wheels don’t turn as rapidly when you need to quickly come up with a new example or respond to an unexpected question during an interview. Rightly or wrongly, seeming tired in an interview also conveys a lack of motivation, because if you had been truly psyched for the interview, you would have gotten enough sleep the night before it, right?
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Not picking up on hints and going down rabbit holes: While this mistake might be a surprise, it can also come from being tired and a reflect a lack of concentration. Young professionals like you must stay present during interviews, which means keeping carefully attuned, both visually and auditorially, to “cues” the interviewer may be offering to try to help you succeed. Rieza also emphasizes the importance of capitalizing on opportunities to ask selected questions, when and where appropriate. Although aspiring international talent like you may be hesitant to do so, posing strategic questions is actually a key competency for success in all kinds of roles (including consulting).
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Not preparing for behavioral questions: While you may know to repeatedly practice your mental math and market sizing questions, you may also wrongly believe that “softer” questions should be pretty intuitive to answer. However, if you’ve been coached through our program, you are well-versed in using the STAR method to respond to such queries. We’d also include motivational questions in this arena; while seeming deceptively-easy to answer, devising very strong responses takes a lot of preparation. Isn’t it worth doing so, though, for a role you want?
Fortunately, our coaches are adept at preparing eager students and new grads like you for all of these challenges, both mental and executional. Interestingly, in a way, it’s good news that Rizea reports that these issues cut across experience levels. How so? When ambitious international students like you address, practice and prepare for them with our coaches, while early in your career, you will have mastered them for the future!