Interview 101

I've been doing a lot of interviews lately and I've observed a few things that interviewees should be aware of:

• Don't be arrogant. There's confidence and then there's plain arrogance. No matter how good you think you are, don't think you're a God. Remember that during an interview, you are trying to get the interviewer to like you not dislike you. And yes, we can tell the difference between being confident and arrogant.
  
  
• Don't oversell yourself. Yes, we know you can do anything if you want to. But don't oversell yourself that you're almost coming off as begging. You should be confident enough to know that you can win the interviewers off through your answers and attitude during the interview.
  
  
• Don't put items in your resume that you cannot explain. And read your resume before an interview. It's funny how some do not recall some of the items in their resume. If you cannot explain your experience on a specific item, it will make us doubt everything else in the resume and assume that you're just making it up.
  
  
• Pace yourself when answering. Don't talk like you're being chased by a thousand lions. Remember we need to understand what you are saying and talking like a machine gun might not be a good idea.
  
  
• Place yourself in an area with good reception. It doesn't give a good impression if you continuously ask the interviewers to repeat the question. 'Uhm. Can you repeat that again? I don't get you.'
  

Anyhow, these are just some of the things I've observed during our marathon interviews. These are probably something everyone knows already but sometimes it's good to be reminded. =)