What are the most annoying behaviours of job candidates?

Job candidates being late is the biggest annoyance for all hiring managers when carrying out interviews - whether in-person or virtual, according to a new report.

In a Ringover survey, which polled 1,200 people with interview experience, 35.8% of respondents said being late to the interview gives them the "biggest ick." Other causes of annoyance for them include:

• Not researching the company before interview (30.7%)
• Getting name of the company wrong (28.4%)
• Not dressing appropriately (28.2%)
• Discussing personal topics (25.4%)
• Using filler words like "umm" and "err" (25.3%)
• Using words such as "like" and "literally" numerous times (24.7%)

For in-person interviews

The means of carrying out the interview process have undergone massive changes over the years, but according to 95% of the respondents, they still prefer in-person interview with candidates.

Their biggest ick in this form of interview is seeing the jobseeker arrive late to the interview (38.4%). The second: candidates avoiding eye contact (33.7%).

A previous survey from Intelligent.com revealed that younger jobseekers are more likely to be guilty of this behaviour during interviews.

But Diane Gayeski, professor of strategic communications at Ithaca College, also underscored that younger employees have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Employers need to recognize that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young people graduating from college had more than two years of disruption in their education as well as their social and professional development," Gayeski said.

Meanwhile, other biggest icks of hiring managers during in-person interviews include:

• Not being polite to other staff (30.8%)
• Not dressing appropriately (29.6%)
• Not bringing copies of resume (26.4%)
• Not taking care over personal appearance (25.6%)

How job candidates smell also affected hiring managers' experience during interviews, citing bad breath (25%), overpowering perfume (24.6%), and smelling unpleasant (23.8%) as their biggest ick during interviews.

For virtual, phone interviews

Meanwhile, remote interviews have grown more prominent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But even with the pandemic declining, the findings revealed that 82.2% of hiring managers still use Zoom or Microsoft Teams in interviewing candidates.

Arriving on the call late is also a pet peeve for majority of the respondents (32%), and so is talking to someone else off-camera during the interview (30.1%). Other red flags for employers on virtual interviews include:

• Having their camera switched off (30%)
• Having something inappropriate in the background (27.1%)
• Someone appearing in the background (25.9%)

Appearances still matter even during virtual interviews, according to the respondents, with them taking offence over inappropriate attires (25.5%) and not taking care of personal appearance (25.4%).

Where job candidates decide to carry out the virtual interview also matters to nearly a quarter of hiring managers, as some expressed being put off if their interviewee was in a coffee shop (24.8%) or in a park (24%) during the interview.

Meanwhile, eight in 10 of the respondents (81.8%) said they also used a phone call to interview a candidate, where they can explain their resume in an informal setting likely before an actual in-person meeting takes place.

The respondents' biggest annoyance in this form of interview is getting interrupted before they finish a sentence (33.8%). Other red flags for them include:

• Speaking to them on speakerphone (33.1%)
• Interviewing while driving or doing other activities (32.1%)
• Could hear others in background (31.9%)
• Eating or drinking during conversation (30.8%)
• Audibly yawning (30.3%)
• Not answering the call the first time (29.5%)
• Not talking with authority (28.1%)