Interview Mistakes Job Applicants’ Perspective

Abstract

Interview mistakes are common. However, the significance of the mistakes done by interviewees and interviewers affect job seekers as well as organizations badly. Therefore, as an interviewee or interviewer, interview mistakes should be minimized or removed. As an interviewee, there may be interview mistakes faced at the interview. However, there are no any Sri Lankan research findings regarding this phenomenon. Therefore, the problem of the study was to examine what are the common interview mistakes done by interviewees and interviewers at the interview process. Using snowballing sampling methods, 152 undergraduates from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura were used to gather the primary data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyses the primary data using SPSS version of 16. The findings of the study were that lack of interest or enthusiasm, arriving unprepared, understanding worth of applicant, no shows and acting hapless were the common mistakes done by interviewees at the interview process. Hello effect, central tendency, personal prejudice and first impression error were common interview mistakes done by interviewers perceived by the interviewees. The recommendation of the study is that before facing an interview, interviewee should be enhanced the theoretical and practical aspects of interview for better results.