I’ve always thought it’s incredibly unfair that a good candidate should miss out on a job simply because of a lack of experience in how to handle interview questions, but in today’s tough job market it’s more critical than ever to know how to navigate an interview.

An interview is more than a meeting to prove why you’re the best person for the job. It’s a testing ground to see how you think and respond to situations. Most important of all, it’s the interviewer’s way of determining how well you’ll fit in with the organization.

Your interviewer may reassure you that there are no right or wrong answers. Don’t be fooled. There may not be a right or wrong answer, but some answers are definitely better than others. Look out for these common mistakes:

1) Telling More Than You Should.

I routinely ask candidates to tell me about the worst boss they ever had. One chatty interviewee responded with, “Oh gosh, there were so many…” Fifteen minutes later, I still hadn’t heard the last of her bad-boss adventures. Discretion counts for a lot in an interview.

2) Ducking a Question.

Questions asking for specific examples about how you dealt with something require actual examples in your answer.

If you’re asked to talk about how you dealt with a workplace conflict situation, the interviewer doesn’t want to hear your philosophical musings about the best way to handle these situations. If you’ve never dealt with such a situation be honest, and give a brief explanation of how you think you’d respond.

3) Ego Overload.

Job-seekers should remember that it’s not a one-way street; just as the employer is deciding if they want to add you as an employee, you should be interviewing the employer to decide if it’s a workplace you want to join. But there’s a difference between asking questions and taking a stance about what you expect. The second your interviewer gets a whiff of a condescending or controlling attitude, the interview’s over.

4) Being Insincere.

Remember that part above about your interviewer wanting to know how you’ll fit in? That doesn’t mean you should channel your inner Robert DeNiro or Meryl Streep to pretend to be someone you’re not.

If you can’t or won’t deliver what you promised—directly or indirectly—during your interview, it won’t work out in the long run. Everyone knows you’re on your best behavior during an interview, but how your dress, speak, and interact socially during that meeting should be reasonable representation of what the employer can expect from you on a daily basis.


5) Being Coy About the Salary Question.

You may have read articles suggesting that, when an employer asks you for your salary expectations, you trot out the tried-and-true “Negotiable” or his cheekier cousin, “Negotiable depending on other compensation.”

These responses are perfectly fine, but be aware that there’s a difference between someone fishing around for your salary expectations and someone who needs to know your bottom line. Helpful hint: if you’re ever asked what your bottom line is, don’t counter with something like, “Please tell me what your usual salary is for this position so I can tell you if it fits with what I’m looking for.”

Recession or not, one thing remains constant: employers want to attract the best possible candidates, and job-seekers want to find the best job possible. By giving employers what they expect in an interview without compromising who you