A job interview is a session where you meet your potential employer and have a good chat with each other. The role of the interviewer is to judge whether you are suitable for the position and for the company. Your role, on the other hand, is to be honest to yourselves and to the interviewer so that you will be able to decide whether the job suits you.

I do understand that in certain conditions, you might be quite desperate for a job. And when you are desperate, you tend to come out with lies and become dishonest. You will start saying that you know this and that, but in actual fact, you know none of them.

By doing this, you might be able to get your desired job. But at what cost? What if the interviewer realized that you are not who you said you are? Believe me, if you try to cheat your way into a job……you will end up suffering because the job might not be what you want, and you might struggle to do things that you do not know.

So it’s important for you to be honest in the job interview and also for the interviewer to be honest with you. Set the expectations right. The key elements here are your honesty, your experience and also your attitude.

Remember, there’s no point to cheat your way into a job that you are not suitable, only to change job again few months later. It’s not good for both yourselves and for the company.

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p/s…. I went for a job interview on Monday. I passed the technical test but it didn’t work out because the interviewer was looking for a potential technical architect and I’m not. On the other hand, I’m looking for a job with more client interaction, which they don’t have. So our expectations were pretty different. Some people said I should’ve lied and get the offer first but I chose not to do that. I prefer to be honest upfront since I don’t want people to waste their time.

One of my HR friends (she’s a recruiter) told me about an incident which happened to her few weeks ago. There was this candidate who went to her company for a job interview. The scheduled time was 1pm and the entire interview process (the test, the form filling and the interview process itself) took 2 hours 30 minutes. It ended at approximately 3.30pm.

Guess what happened next?

The interviewee, or in other words, the person who needs the job, started complaining to my friend in a not-so-polite manner. The person told my friend why didn’t she inform him earlier that the interview process was going to take so long, bla bla bla and he has this appointment he needed to attend in another far far away place at 4pm.

When my friend told me this, my first response was “Friend, just fail that guy. He’s an idiot who doesn’t know how to manage his time and he’s too unprofessional to blame others for his own mistake”.

As a job candidate, one should always allocate at least 3 hours for the entire interview process. I’ve been to an interview which took me 5 hours (the manager forgot about my existence). This is because each interview process can be quite different from one company to the other. Some companies require you to take a lot of tests, some don’t. Some companies have long-winded interviewers, and some just don’t bother that much. So it’s pretty hard to predict how long the actual interview is going to last. That’s why it’s very dangerous and risky to schedule another important appointment right after the interview. Always leave a buffer of 2 to 3 hours between the 2…. unless you can fly or teleport.

Remember that time management is very important. If you cannot even manage the schedules for your interviews and appointments, what makes you think your employer will give you the job? You are just another disorganized person to them.

Oh, and even if nothing is going right for your schedules……you should never ever blame the interviewer. That’s way too unprofessional.

In every good CV, there will be a section reserved for referees, their positions and their contact details. This is a very important section and is often overlooked by the job candidates.

Why is it important? Because job interviewers will most likely call the referees for a reference check if you managed to pass the interview process. And this is where your past behavior will either help you in your job application….or ruin your chance.

And it wouldn’t help if you are only putting your friends or relatives as referees. You can put at most 1 close friend but most of the referees should be those individuals who have worked with you before. They should be the people who know how you work, and what is the attitude that you bring to a workplace. They should either be your supervisor, former supervisor or senior colleagues.

Also, by putting your supervisors/colleagues as your referees, it is very obvious that you have nothing to hide and you are willing to let the interviewer knows about your past records. If you can’t find anyone from the company or your ex-company, then finding someone (from within the same industry) who knows you well will help too. It’ll even be better if that someone holds a senior position in a reputable company.

However, one thing that you must always make sure is that these referees will say good things about you and not the other way round. You wouldn’t want to get a referee who would back stab you. Also, always remember to ask permission from the person before you actually put their contact details inside your CV.

Last but not least, be honest in your job interview. The referees are important but they are only there to prove whatever you said during the interview is correct. They are more like the supporting casts. The main cast is you.

As for me, I’m very fortunate that I have good supervisors (former and current) who are willing to help me out by becoming my referees.

p/s…… if you don’t have any good referee…maybe it’s time to perform better in your job so that you can get good testimoninals from your bosses or even ask one of them to be your referee.