Signs Your Interviewer Isn’t Going To Hire You

Interviews can be both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. On the one hand, you are thinking “Yes! Finally, someone wants to interview me!” And on the other hand, you’re nervous about everything that could go wrong during an interview. It’s the perfect combination for distracting you from deciphering what your interviewer is thinking. Oftentimes, we focus on what interview questions will be asked and how to tackle them as interviewees - and we forget to look at our potential employer’s reaction. I haven’t had a whole lot of interviews, but there was an instance where I felt like a potential employer did not care about the interview. The position was semi-related to my field, and from the moment I walked into this person’s office, I knew I wasn’t going to get hired for the job, and that’s never a good sign. As the interview progressed, my suspicions escalated, and then later confirmed when I received my rejection letter for the position. Below are some of the signals that helped me translate my interviewer’s actions and responses. Hopefully you won't run into any signs your interviewer isn't going to hire you.

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The Interviewer Is Eating During The Interview

While there are several employers out there who work a busy job, and literally have no time to eat, it’s extremely rude to eat in front of your interviewee. It’s even more rude to eat in front of your interviewee as if you haven’t eaten in five days. For instance, my interviewer felt compelled to dash out of the office in the middle of our interview to grab something to eat, came back, and dropped the residue from an expired-looking apple all over my carefully crafted resume. Not only did this make me feel like my interviewer didn’t care about my resume, but it made me feel like he/she didn’t want me to be there because I was interrupting his/her impromptu lunch.

The Interviewer Is Not Listening

Again, this could be attributed to the fact that your potential employer might have a thousand things to do, so he/she wants to be over and done with the interview as soon as possible. As for my particular experience, whenever I was asked a question during the interview, I answered confidently and to the best of my ability. However, it seemed like my interviewer had no interest in what I was saying because she constantly interrupted with an “Uh-huh,” or a “Right” for most, if not all, of my answers, and in some instances did not let me finish. There was also no eye contact from my interviewer whatsoever during my answers, despite all of the efforts I made to look at him/her.

The Interviewer Doesn't Give You Hope

Once the interview is done, most employers say things like, “Thank you for coming in, we’ve still got a lot of people to interview, but if we’re interested we’ll call you.” In fact, that response is actually quite common. But when you get a response like “Good luck on your career,” that doesn’t exactly make you feel like you got the job, it certainly didn’t make me feel like I was hired for the position. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the employer doesn’t think you would be a good asset for their company, but maybe you’re just not a good fit for the particular position you were interviewing for. Regardless, the way an employer says goodbye can be another way to tell whether or not you might be considered for the job. The next time you are in an interview, try to pay attention to your interviewer’s reactions. If they are negative responses, it might help you come up with better answers or ways to engage your potential employer’s interest in your presence and what you have to say about your many talents. Photo Credit: Shutterstock