What turns off an Interview?

   Business is not ordinarily thought of in terms of fashion, and yet all things go through their own swings and phases. In the 70’s Japanese managerial styles was a rage, in the 80’s the est training, in the 90’s six sigma and it is imagined when someone gets more perspective on the twenty hundreds they may well point to the power of social networking.
   So too the process of becoming employed. Cover letters and resumes have trends, subtle shifts in advice (though overall it tends to be ever refining) in all aspects of the employment process.
   Among the trends lately is the variety of deadly interview questions.”Tell me something about yourself that you would not ordinarily tell me” is such a trap. Without formal preparation, how is one supposed to answer such a question effectively to best effect? Do you really think you can ad lib excellence in such a moment?
   Kate Lorenz, an editor at CareerBuilder.com and author Martin Yates, of the Knock ‘Em Dead series of books, have both written insightfully on this martial arts aspect of the interview. Interviewers have been known to cull questions directly from these types of works. This is, at the very least, another way to determine how much homework you have been willing to do.
   The great thing about scanning this literature in a meaningful way is the ability to integrate the rationale given, the techniques offered on why such questions are being asked and how to offer up one’s presumed absolute best. This would be heard as … “you did your homework”!