The interview question applicants should avoid

Asking for feedback during a job interview is the biggest faux pas a job applicant can make, job recruiters said in a survey released Friday.

“How was I?” was the least favorite question that job applicants asked companies at the end of an interview, said JobKorea, one of the country’s major job information portals.

According to the agency, 19.2 percent of 1,190 interviewers disliked the question. Eighteen percent of employers said they disliked when applicants asked whether they have to work overtime, while 16.5 percent disliked irrelevant questions.

About 86 percent of recruiters said they give applicants an opportunity to ask questions. Eighty percent of recruiters said questions from applicants serve as a determining factor when deciding whether to hire them.

Among recruiters who gave applicants a chance to ask questions, 37.4 percent said they did so to gauge the applicant’s interest in the company.

Another 23.7 percent of recruiters said they allow questions to provide information, and 6 percent of them said they are trying to assess applicants’ creativity.

Recruiters said applicants should ask “What are some areas that I can prepare ahead of time to get used to the job as early as possible?” rather than “What kind of job will I be doing?”

The employers also recommended that applicants refrain from asking about salary or benefits during the interview, since it might make recruiters think they are only interested in compensation rather than the job itself.

It’s important, however, for applicants to ask something.

“‘I have no further questions’ is the worst thing for applicants to say during the interview,” said JobKorea. In fact, 69 percent of recruiters said they want applicants to ask questions.

Job seekers should avoid saying something like “I will do my best,” since it might suggest they haven’t done their best so far.

BY KIM YOUNG-NAM [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]