One example he gave was when he was consulted by a Airline company to hire managers for their airports. One of the questions he asked was, “If a man came up to you, and he was middle eastern looking, with a full beard what would you do?” He said many people gave wild and unprofessional answers, like one women who said she would have notified security and another man said he would have kept a close eye on that person.

The instructor’s answer was, “How do you know what to do when we haven’t even trained you yet? How do you know what to say when we haven’t even told you what your job is? What if your job was to handle middle eastern clients?”

He also gave examples where one women was so nervous she took out a nail filer and started filing her nails. She did not catch herself until she realize that all the people interviewing her were staring at her hands.

Another example was a man’s cellphone went off and he actually told the interviewers to hold one second while he read his message. This was when he was in the middle of answering a question.

Most of the tips he gave are mentioned in this article and what he emphasis was be professional. Answer questions in a professional manner. Also to be truthful in your answer, people will know when you lie, many of these interviewers have been trained to catch lies, and the questions they ask are made to expose those lies.

Along with practicing your interview questions, practice your body language. There is a saying that 50% of the time people pay more attention to your body language than your words. Practice with a buddy to catch weird actions that you would do under nervous situations, like rubbing your neck or shaking your legs. I use to constantly touch my chin when I was answering a question, now I try to keep my hands in front of me and sit straight, I only use my hands to emphasis a point, then they go right back in front of me on the table.

Also, I interview a lot of people too, and I strongly disagree with the following:

1) “….gone so far as to excuse yourself from an interview to make notes ….” – Wow, if someone did that while I was interviewing them, I’d label them as a weirdo at the best! You usually have 30-60 minutes per person in an interview. Do you really wanna spend that limited amount of time by leaving the room???

2) “Send a handwritten thank you within 24 hours of the end of the interview” – this never made any difference. A short and polite thank you email is good enough. Again, sending a handwritten note is an indication of possible boundary issues….

3) “Don’t be afraid to stop by the office at some point in advance of your interview to talk to people…” – most of the companies won’t let you roam their offices without having an appointment. And, again, even if you could just drop by to an office as you please, and I’m one of your interviewers, I wouldn’t talk to you before the interview. Because, if I do it for you, I’d have to do it for all other candidates. And that would just double time and costs associated with interviewing process. And yes, I’d think you’re weird.

The one thing that did send up a red flag though was your comment that you’ve gone so far as to excuse yourself from an interview to make notes on a business card about your interviewer. While I’m sure you used your judgement, I would certainly not recommend this strategy. I think it would be perceived by most as arrogant and rude. You should wait until the interview is over and you’re alone to make any notes.

Handwriting makes it too personal when I think it should all be on a business/professional level.