Things you need to stop bragging about during job interviews
By: Chi Ngo
Tags: Recruiting, Startup Lessons, Hiring, Interview Tips

Things you need to stop bragging about during job interviews

Advice from a hiring manager, who learned this the hard way so you don’t have to.

Photo by Michael Mroczek on Unsplash

Once upon a time, there was a young, first-time hiring manager who was wowed by “sparkling” responses by candidates during their first interviews only to be disappointed by their attitude and performances later. Here are some of those stories.

Which is a fancy way of saying: “I learned these lessons the hard way, so you don’t have to.”

If you’re a hiring manager, here are some red flags to spot during interviews with a candidate. If you’re a job-seeker, here are some of the things you need to stop doing during your interviews with hiring managers.

Being too busy

Being busy is often mistaken for being productive, and many candidates (and even some of my friends) often brag about staying late and working overtime like it’s a badge of honor.

There’s a difference between “dedicated” and “poor time management”, and in today’s all-in work culture, it is difficult to distinguish between the two. As a hiring manager, 8/10 candidates I interview would brag about staying late as if that alone can show their dedication to their companies. The truth is, if you’re staying late because of your failure to manage your time, you should reconsider your time management strategies, and stop bragging about it during interviews.

I once asked a candidate how he would manage stakeholder expectations when it comes to last-minute tasks, and his answer was: “I’ll work my ass off and stay late if I had to.” (Translation: “I have no real strategy and I’ll just wing it”).

You shouldn’t be afraid to set your boundaries with work to maintain a healthy work-life balance, starting with communicating your expectations clearly to your stakeholders at work (i.e. please don’t call/email after 6 PM) and manage your time effectively so you can accomplish all the things you need to do during office hours. Work/life balance is rare these days and it’s a much, much better thing to talk about during interviews.

Being “so close” to your team

I have nothing against being best friends with your teammates, in fact, it’s good that you have a sense of camaraderie with your team at work.

However, people seem to think that “being friends” with your team equals a healthy, collaborative and open working culture. Sometimes, that’s the case, but if you have no boundaries with your team, it can turn into groupthink, clan-like behaviors, passive-aggressiveness, and a general avoidance of confrontation.

A candidate I interviewed answer a question about work culture like this: “I am so close with my team. Everything we talk about is where to hang out after work. We go drinking together all the time.”

While I can’t comment on the lifestyle, I don’t think this answer satisfies the question “How do you maintain a healthy working culture?”

Instead of bragging about being friends with your team, how about telling hiring managers about how you manage expectations, maintain healthy & collaborative communication, and challenge one another’s ideas?

Claiming successes that aren’t your own

“Be humble, b*tch, sit down.” — Kendrick Lamar, Pulitzer prize winner

I am guilty of doing this from time to time, saying “I did…” or “My company is…”. Working at one of the handful Start-up Unicorns in Southeast Asia, I couldn’t help but feel entitled to claim that spotlight.

But every campaign, every business deals, every success you’ve ever had is, without a doubt, the fruit of an entire village’s labor.

I have a big problem with candidates walking into the interview acting like I am privileged to be graced by their presence just because they went to an Ivy League school or they’re working at a big-shot agency.

You’re not entitled to claim the success of an entire organization unless you can prove how you contribute to that success, and even then, let’s not be jerks about it.

Instead, show hiring managers that you understand how you fit within the organization, and how your tasks/projects make an impact for that organization.

“Perfection” or “no failure”

No sane person is ever completely sure of anything. — Iain S. Thomas, poet

When I was interviewing for the Chevening scholarship, I was surprised when the scholarship committee asked me about my worst failure. After I shared about the worst TVC that I’ve ever written (which inevitably failed spectacularly), I told them what I learned and why I would never make the same mistakes again.

“Well, what matters is that you learned and grew from it, right?,” said the interviewer.

That response changed my perspective about failure, and now I ask this question in every single one of my interviews.

Although there’s no right answer, I can tell you the wrong answer: “I can’t think of anything” or “I’ve never failed,” to which my response is always disbelief.

If you’ve never failed, you’ve never learned or grown from your experience either. I also don’t think such a “perfect” person exists, people who said so are either lying to me or themselves about their failures. I’ll let you decide which is worse.

NYTimes’ Tim Herrera even goes as far as recommending we keep a “failure resume”, because “you learn much more from failure than success”.

So, next time you’re at a job interview and get asked that question, own it. Bring your failure resume.