Job interviews are hard enough considering you have to showcase your skills and experience, and impress your interviewer with them. What you don’t want to do is come off like you’re reading from a script, so Glassdoor suggests avoiding these played out, oft-repeated interviewee lines that everyone’s heard before.
Photo by Andrey Popov (Shutterstock).
Some of these lines are ones you probably already know to avoid, but it’s always good to get a reminder. Glassdoor’s full list is about eight items long, but here are the first few, along with what you should say instead:
1.”I’m a quick learner.”
Be honest, when has this line been used to describe anything other than a skill or tool that you have yet to learn or master? Saying you’re a quick learner is essentially telling your interviewer you don’t have experience with something in the job description.
Compensate for your lack of direct knowledge by coming prepared with an example of how you’re already making strides to master this area. Say this instead: “My direct role has never involved community management. However, I’ve done an analysis of your company’s social media, as well as your competitors, and here’s what I’ve found…”
2. “I established a synergistic and agile marketing experience for customers.”
Cue eye rolls and sighs from your interviewers. Abstract buzzwords and jargon are alive and well in most industries. However, using concrete words in your interview will only leave your listeners remembering you as a robot spewing jargon.
As you prepare for your interview, make an effort to cut out all buzzwords and focus on better articulating your experiences. Say this instead: “I used responsive web design to make simplify customer experience with the app.”
3. “I think outside of the box.”
Just like buzzwords, using clichés to highlight your skills during your interview is also quite mechanical and drab.
Skip these overused phrases and use short stories to better hit the notes of your previous experiences. Say this instead: “In my previous role, I consistently developed new ways to engage customers to provide feedback on our services. One way I did this was…”
Some of the other items on the list are equally terrible, like the always-bad, “No, I don’t have any questions,” when you’re given an opportunity to ask, or, “Perfectionism is my greatest weakness,” or any other badly-spun positive to try and duck the actual question.
For the full list, along with alternative suggestions, hit the link below.
8 Interview Lines that Make You Sound Like a Robot [Glassdoor Blog]
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