How to Overcome Negativity and Become the Interviewers' Best Candidate
Posted March 6th, 2019 -- 12:43 AM

Guess why you're not hearing back after job interviews 

Most job seekers are perceptive enough to know when an interview isn’t going well.  If you arrive late, can’t answer a question or give a wrong answer you’re not exactly surprised when you don’t get a call back to move forward. But every once in a while, you’ll have an interview that you think went well only to get rejected by the recruiter. 

You might wonder if the interviewers saw you as unqualified, or if the position went to an internal candidate (someone already working with the company). One common disqualifier you may not have considered is that you came off as too negative during the interview. 

Negativity in any form automatically taints the interview and gives a bad impression that’s impossible to ignore by the recruiter. The recruiter’s focus during the interview is to get to know you and see how you can contribute to and elevate the company. A candidate’s approach should be focused on presenting yourself as a solution and path towards some kind of elevation The moment you become a problem or present yourself as anything other than a solution, the interviewer puts up a mental red flag.  Here's how you can tell if you are negative and how to fix it. 

A. How recruiters identify negativity during the interview process

Generally, recruiters don't go about trapping you to exhibit negativity. However, there are responses to certain quetions and how those responses are presented that provide enough signal for a recruiter to form a judgement on the degree of negativity a candidate exhibited. Below are a few

A1. The response to the question "Why you left your last job?"

To be clear, you don’t have to be a negative person in general to come off as one in a job interview. Even the most cheerful and optimistic among us fall victim to negativity from time to time, particularly in response to certain topics, such as why you want to leave your current job. Candidates often feel the best answer to this question is to cite the shortcomings of their previous employer, which can quickly lead to a description of the faults of managers or a list of a company’s shortcomings. The main purpose of a job interview is to sell yourself, your ability to fill a void, fit in with a company and be a positive addition to a team. Your interviewer isn’t exactly interested in how bad your previous manager was or how poorly the company was run.            

A2. Clues from your character

Besides wasting valuable time that could be used to highlight how great you are, these rants reflect poorly on your character. Experts share that those who complain about former employers often come across as someone stuck in the past or feeling like a victim. Also, any employer who hears you speaking negatively about a past company in a first meeting will assume you’ll do the same about them.         

A3. Appearing cynical

It’s also easy to sound overly cynical and/or self-critical when you talk about weaknesses and mistakes, given that they are an inherently negative topic.           

A4. Simple gestures

Other indications your interview has taken a turn for the worse include “sighing, breaking eye contact, seeing fewer smiles or head nods, noticing longer pauses in between their questions, ending an interview earlier than the scheduled time or getting the feeling that the tone of the conversation has taken on a slow, heavy energy. 

B. How to fix negativity, becoming the interviewer's best candidate 

Like most problems in life, diagnosis is the hardest. Given that we have an idea what this problem is, below are a few remedies from experts, coaches and seasoned recruiters.

B1. Focus on solutions

In talking about the reason for leaving your current job, a great candidate will push on with the aspects of growth, challenges and opportunities he or she tends to pursue in the future. S/he may also consider aspects of learning and development that are necessary and the constraints that the current job puts on such. Tying these with the prospective next employer, especially with the opportunities they give their workers is a great way to not only prove a candidate is of the growth mindset, it also show the candidate did an excellent job in understanding the working environment. 

B2. Turn weaknesses to strengths

The section whereby the candidate has to talk about their weaknesses is always a tricky one. However, the prepared candidate will use this as an opportunity to highlight how being aware of her weaknesses has been used to integrate in the organization in a way that the organization is stronger, better and more elevated.       

B3. Use a tone that exhibits confidence

Experts recommended several key strategies to avoid exhibiting negativity. For example, don’t talk about why you want to leave your current job — instead, try describing the traits of the work and workplace you’re seeking for your next move,. When you focus on your own agency and the positive attributes you want, you can take a potentially very negative situation and turn it into a positive opportunity.       

B4. Always potray the positive end

Similarly, if asked to bring up an example of a mistake you’ve made or a challenge you’ve encountered, talk about each negative comment and how you were able to make the situation positive in the end. For example, if you experienced a significant period of unemployment, explain how you took courses to update your skills, learned a craft or spent time volunteering to give back to your community.  You can also try talking about the lessons you learned from a challenging situation and mentioning all the methods you now use to handle similar issues differently to find better resolutions.        

B5. Practice makes perfect

The most important thing you can do is practice answering common interview questions aloud before your interview takes place. Experts advise that If you know that you have buried negative feelings about a point in your career that might come up in your interview, prepare your answers for those topics beforehand. Instead of getting triggered by a negative feeling and failing an important interview question, you’ll be able to provide well-thought-out answers that offer a positive perspective on an otherwise difficult topic.

Yes, life is always going to be full of both positives and negatives, so you don’t need to pretend that nothing bad has ever happened to you. But there’s a big difference between experiencing something negative and dwelling on it. If something bad happened to you, don’t ignore it completely or pretend it didn’t happen.

Interviewers should get transparency and authenticity from you in the interview to be able to feel like they can trust you.  Ensure that as you reflect, you show signs of separation and growth from the situation rather than coming across as still deep in the consequences emotionally.

Written by:

Sylvia Waindim, Writer & Digital Marketing Intern