Sometimes you need to learn by demonstration – and few social media accounts have such entertaining demonstrations of life in the sales profession than that of our friend Corporate Bro.
If you’ve ever taken a creative writing class, you’re probably familiar with the principle of “show, don’t tell.” If you want readers to understand that a character is a hero, don’t simply say “she’s a hero” – write a scene with her saving a puppy from a burning house. Here on the Betts Blog, we do a lot of telling – lots of how-tos, tips and tricks – and that’s great. But when presented with an opportunity to show, we always take it.
That’s why we’ve teamed up with Corporate Bro to bring you “Interview Screwups”, a new video showing you what it looks like to truly bomb a job interview. In the video, you’ll see some classic lines that, in a moment of misguided overconfidence, you may feel tempted to deploy. Don’t. These demonstrations amount to a cautionary tale. Imitating them is a great way to end up spending your weekday afternoons binging reruns on Netflix instead of crushing quotas. We’ve told you how to answer job interview questions – this video shows you how not to answer them.
Watch the video here or on Corporate Bro’s Instagram account (congrats on surpassing 100 thousand followers, you savage). Then keep reading for our take on some of the highlights.
Read our Interview Handbook to learn how to actually, you know, do well in your next interview.
Corporate Bro really tanked that interview. Here’s where he went extra-wrong.
None of Corporate Bro’s answers were particularly good. In fact, the whole job interview was pretty disastrous. But everyone loves watching a good trainwreck, so here are some moments where he really went off the rails.
“Man, you really stumped me with that question.”
In this case, Corporate Bro couldn’t even answer the question of why he wanted the role he was interviewing for. The video is obviously an exaggeration – we would hope that, in reality, you’d have an answer ready for something as basic as “why this role?” – but it makes a good point. You should have an answer for any question you could reasonably expect to get – and then some. Do your research. Find out what kinds of questions this company typically asks job candidates, and prepare your answers in advance. This could easily include questions that aren’t directly related to the role. Learn what to expect, and be ready!
“I love role-play exercises – my safe word is sasquatch.”
Okay, yes, alright – humor can be a great way to connect with your interviewers and show your human side. And even being a little edgy sometimes can leave the kind of impression that leads to a callback. But it’s important – and we really can’t stress this enough – to tread lightly. A little humor is usually safe and even helpful, but verging too far into the taboo is like a hail-mary: much more likely to fail spectacularly than to achieve its goal.
“I’m conversational in Spanish if you wanna hablar un poquito.”
Multilingual fluency is a great skill to have, and a great addition to a resume. But unless it’s related to the job, leave it there. It’s a decoration. Bringing it up in an interview takes time away from showing your qualifications for the position. It also signals that you don’t have enough qualifying experience to fill out the interview, and need to reach.
You’d have to work pretty hard to screw up your next interview as badly as Corporate Bro did. But the video shows an exaggeration of some real issues people face when they’re underprepared or misguided going into their interview. Stay away from these mistakes and you’ll improve your chances of getting a step closer to your dream job.