THE CAREER DOCTOR CLICHÉS

“I believe that I’m …” “I think …” “I feel …” “I would say …” “I suppose …” Banish passive, equivocal responses that begin this way from your delivery. Qualifying what you are going to say (particularly about yourself) de-values everything that follows. Be concrete and specific. Give third-party evidence of your abilities in answer to open questions – how you solved a difficult problem, or feedback that a superior gave you. You never hear a newsreader say, “I think this is the nine o’clock news.” Practise using crispy, unequivocal language that doesn’t creep into arrogance.

“I only have …” “I’m afraid that I only have …” “I don’t have much …” No apologetic language either! They think you can do this job. You think you can do this job, otherwise you would not have applied. So don’t apologise. An interviewer who is trying to advocate another candidate may introduce leading questions to make you use this sort of tone. Don’t.

The word, “challenge” – it has been used to death. What do you really enjoy in your work? Is it getting your teeth into something meaty? The intellectual tickle? Winning? Finding an elegant solution to a problem? Pulling disparate personalities together into a cohesive team? Let your competition use extinct terms like “challenge” – show them up by being focused and unambiguous.

The phrase “I’m good with people” – it is meaningless and you sound like a contestant in a beauty contest when you say it. Be specific about your interpersonal skills. Key terms: your ability to empathise, your ability to listen and your ability to articulate a point plainly and clearly.

Admitting to “perfectionism,” “overworking” or “not suffering fools gladly” as a weakness. A trained interviewer will draw a line through your name on the spot if you try this sort of nonsense.

Little jokes about sitting in the interviewer’s chair in five year’s time – yawn. There are a lot of reasons for asking the, “Where do you plan to be in five years time?” question; but the smart-alec answer will satisfy none of them.

Name-dropping – unless you are 100% certain it will get you the job. Name-dropping just makes the interviewer feel unimportant and excluded from the decision-making process. Not a good idea. Name-dropping to lend weight to your opinions or research is OK, as long as you don’t overdo it.

Any negative reference to a current or previous employer. This is often quite difficult to avoid, but showing up on a first date and spending the evening bitching about your previous boy/girlfriends wouldn’t exactly endear you to the person on the other side of the dinner table would it?

Rowan Manahan is MD of the career management firm Fortify Services and author of Where’s My Oasis? Visit www.fortifyservces.com or telephone 01 230 1313.

Irish Independent, Jobs & Careers supplement, February 24th 2005.

If you have any job problems you would like answered by our panel of Career Doctors, please email: careerdoctor@whitespace.ie or write to Jobs & Careers, Career Doctor, Whitespace Ltd., Top Floor, Block 43B Yeats Way, Park West Business Park, Nangor Road, Dublin 12.