Why Do Interviews Die? That Sinking Feeling and How to Avoid It.

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Interviews may die because a mistake occurred. Sometimes, you’ve made a mistake; sometimes they die because someone who screened a resume did.

1. Interviews often occur because someone has reviewed a resume and interpreted something that you have written in ways that you didn’t intend. Sometimes, they die because someone believes that you have a skill that you didn’t list; sometimes, they misread something in your experience. Within 15 minutes, each of you knows that something is wrong but because interview etiquette doesn’t permit it, the conversation languishes on.
2. Sometimes it is your mistake. Sometimes you have overstated an experience or skill in your resume. In job markets like these, it is common for people to include every skill or experience they have been near or around in their resume in the hope that they will get an interview. As I screen resumes, it has become too common for me to find out about people having 4 months of experience with the core skill of the job I am trying to fill. That is rarely adequate for my client in the searches we are attempting to complete, yet, like mission inspectors in Iraq, I have to ask a follow-up question to deduce that the experience is inadequate.
3. The interviewer is off in…