We’ve all been there and done that; especially in an interview. When faced with a group of prospective employers, we’ve all fallen to the temptation and somehow managed to come out sounding like someone else and describing attributes that we don’t even possess. Why do we oversell ourselves during interviews and why should we avoid doing this? Read on to find out.
Making impressions
If it’s your first job, then you want to make the right kind of impression. But then you don’t even have the experience about which you can talk comfortably to your interviewers. So what do you do? You oversell yourself and say stuff which might need a stretching of imagination to be true.
If you feel compelled to polish your resume and then compound it further by talking about talents that you may have just in passing, then remember that you might get the job, but eventually you will feel the consequences.
An interview is the place where you will be making an impression upon your future employers about the kind of work ethics you follow. Don’t get off to a wrong start by creating an impression that is not entirely true.
Represent yourself
Remember that an interview is where you are representing yourself. Just as you appear well groomed, it is important to present your true intellectual self to employers instead of pretence or airs.
Be honest and truthful about matters related to experience and references. However, the other spot where people tend to oversell themselves is by making promises they can’t deliver. This is the worst possible thing that you can do because it lulls employers into believing things about you which might affect the later working of the organization.
Why do they oversell?
Overselling usually happens because of the following reasons.
- Overconfidence – Some people are blessed with confidence. Others however tend to take it to a further level and become overconfident. They feel that they can handle the situation when it occurs as long as they get the offer letter now.
- Desperation – You might be desperate for a job or you might badly want to change jobs. What do you do in such a scenario? Oversell yourself at the interview, hoping to wing it somehow.
- Quick thinking – Sometimes, quick thinking isn’t such a good thing at all. If the interviewer asks you about something and you’re not really sure about it, if you’re a quick thinker you end up answering in the affirmative and confirm that you know everything there is. Slow down pal. A pause before you answer lets you understand whether you are capable or not.
- Misunderstanding your own capability - Some people misread a situation completely. They don’t really understand what is required and they jump in thinking they can do it.
Dangers of overselling
Employers who believe you possess certain attributes which will prove to be useful to them will not hesitate in trying you out as soon as the opportunity occurs. So be careful in that aspect.
Also the overselling bit could be related to a real accomplishment of yours, which you managed to magnify in an interview. This factor might rub up some people the wrong way if you talk about how you managed to steer the situation boastfully.
Ultimately, remember that humility and truth always win.
