Came across this article the other day and I totally dig...

1. Don’t step on the last 3 words of someone’s conversation.

It is only polite to let people finish their sentences.

 

2. Sit up straight and lean slightly forward

 

3. Take notes during your interview

It shows interest and eye for details. Although, I heard from a hiring manager he interviewed a candidate who wrote one word on his note book, throughout the whole interview and it was the date. It didn’t impress the hiring manager…

 

4. Pursue the job even if your interview is going badly.

This largely points to the fact that you don’t give up half way through the interview just because you think you didn’t answer the first few questions positively. First, it is hard to judge the interviewer’s reaction so let’s don’t. Second, even if you think the interview seems to be going badly, it shows good form to pursue the length of interview – you can ask if you have managed to provide answers to their questions or anything they would like to you share in more detail and do your best.

 

5. Your interview is not over until you drive down the road.

Yes! So do not start talking loudly on your mobile and swearing at your friends over the phone telling them how it went standing at the life lobby!

 

6. Promptly send a thank you note after your interview. Yes, it is only polite!

 

On top of these:

Ask relevant questions – do not say you don’t have any questions!

It comes across as not interested. I had a pretty technical strong candidate who didn’t asked any questions after the interview simply because he feels he has found out everything he knew about the company. My hiring manager was not impressed and was rather disappointed that he didn’t show interest in wanting the role – there could have been good questions like what makes YOU work for this company? What will be the most challenging thing to overcome in this role? What would be the some of the things other people in the same role elsewhere would do to prepare for a good start to the role? In short, he felt that it showed a certain lac of maturity, lack of thought and initiative.

 

Don’t say we did this, the team did that, the group did those…. We are interested to hear what YOU did. Not your team.

Each time we asked a question, usually following the STAR routine, we do want to know what you did to turn the situation around. A lot of times it is about how you solve problems. People are hired to solve problems. Jack Ma has said in one of his articles – the bigger problems you solve, the higher you are paid. I totally agree. So we don’t really want to know what your team did to solve the problem because we are not hiring the team. Some candidates told me it is because it is “nicer” to use the “we” word instead of the “I” word which largely in a social context yes, but if saying that hinders how people perceived your involvement, then the answer is no. It is then easily for the interview to say “that candidate needs a team to support him”, “he is not a self starter” etc. There are many ways to give credit to the team too, don’t get me wrong. You can always share the team’s action as well as yours and how as a group, the objectives were met.

 

Don’t smoke before coming to the interview, makes people cut the interview short.

Enough said! Half the time I couldn’t bring myself to lean forward and wanted to just cut it short mentally. Although each time I persisted to finish asking what I need to cover the required areas, I have a mental dialogue that says “shouldn’t smoke, shouldn’t smoke, smells bad” all the time...

 

Reference: http://www.job-interview-wisdom.com/interview-etiquette.html