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· Workforce

Ten Things Never, Ever To Reveal In A Job Interview

One of the first things I noticed when I became an HR person was the incredible amount and variety of personal information job applicants often share in their job interviews.

Job interviews can be scary. When you show up at a job interview, you have no idea what to expect. Will the interviewer be friendly, or awful? Will the setting be warm and inviting, or harsh and cold?

If you get to the interview and the interviewer is even a little bit human with you, you can easily go too far.

Your relief at being able to relax and be yourself on the interview can cause you to say too much.

I would not hold it against a job candidate if they inadvertently shared personal information that could be unfavorable to their cause.
However, I worried about candidates who said too much at their interviews because if my company did not hire them for some reason, their over-sharing could hurt them at the next interview.

At the same time, I never found an appropriate way to say "In case you don't get this job, I want to give you a bit of advice. Don't tell an interviewer that you got fired from your last job. Don't tell an interviewer that you sued your last employer for sexual harassment, and won. Sadly, a lot of companies would reject you from consideration  for employment if you shared details like that."

I felt it would be out of place for me to tell someone "Don't tell any other interviewer that your last boss was a bully. Unfortunately, a lot of companies are afraid to hire people who have had bad experiences at past jobs, even if the bad experience was not your fault at all." How could I tell someone not to tell the truth, because it might hurt them to do so?

People should feel free to tell the truth wherever they are — but in a job interview, that might not be your best plan.

It is sad but true that you can hurt your job-search chances by speaking too much truth at a job interview.

Here are ten things to keep to yourself!

1. The fact that you got fired from your last job — or any past job.

2. The fact that your last manager (or any past manager) was a jerk, a bully, a lousy manager or an idiot, even if all those things were true.

3. The fact that you are desperate for a job. Some companies will be turned off by this disclosure, and others will use it as a reason to low-ball you.

Learn more | forbes.com