{"id":3094,"date":"2021-05-01T15:19:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T19:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/2011\/07\/29\/5-ways-to-screw-up-a-purchasing-job-interview\/"},"modified":"2023-11-30T11:08:43","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:08:43","slug":"5-ways-to-screw-up-purchasing-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.certitrek.com\/nlpa\/blog\/5-ways-to-screw-up-purchasing-job\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Ways To Screw Up A Purchasing Job Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preparing for the purchasing job interview can be daunting. Many candidates still commit a lot of mistakes during their purchasing job interviews.\u00a0Ensuring that your resume does not get lost in the shuffle is an accomplishment in itself\u2014the volume of people looking for work and bombarding job postings with their resumes.<\/p>\n

If you get a rare purchasing job interview<\/a>, you best come prepared. Unfortunately, people make one or more of these five mistakes and end up not getting jobs that they may have had:<\/p>\n

Avoid These Mistakes<\/h5>\n
Mistake #1: Taking An Interview Late In The Process. <\/strong><\/h6>\n

If you are given a choice, take the first interview you can. When the last interviewee walks into the hiring manager\u2019s office, a decision has probably already been made. Once a hiring manager finds \u201cthe one,\u201d all future candidates are compared to that person. It\u2019s tough to be good enough to defeat the memory of a great candidate. In fact, if the first thing you say is less impressive than the best thing that \u201cthe one\u201d said, your chances of getting the job are probably already up the creek less than a minute into the interview. Plus, have you seen the faces and body language of people who have interviewed 20 people in a week? They are weary. It\u2019s hard to sell yourself to \u2013 or even be listened to by \u2013 someone so mentally exhausted.<\/p>\n

Mistake #2: Not Being Prepared For The Most Ridiculously Common Interview Question In The History of Man-Freakin\u2019-Kind. <\/strong><\/h6>\n

What is this question, you ask? It is \u201cCan you tell me a little bit about yourself?\u201d You\u2019d think if there were one question that people would have anticipated and practiced for, it would have been this one. However, I\u2019ve seen plenty of interviewees be totally unprepared for this question. And then they ramble on and ramble on and ramble on and include some really irrelevant stuff. Four or five sentences can sum a person up pretty well. Here\u2019s an example\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI am a purchasing professional with nine years of experience. My three most recent employers were ABC Company, Widgets \u2018R\u2019 Us, and Big Bank. In all three of those roles, I achieved several millions of dollars in annual cost savings, improved relationships between the purchasing department and its stakeholders, and transformed supplier performance. I am a person who loves overcoming challenges and exceeding my goals, so I\u2019m very excited about discussing the purchasing manager position here at your company.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mistake #3: Not Distributing Eye Contact.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

It\u2019s pretty common for multiple people to interview you. Make sure that you distribute eye contact as evenly as possible to every single person on the interviewing team, not just the person who asked you the question. Keep in mind that the decision-maker \u2013 or at least a strong influencer \u2013 may not ask any of the questions but sits back and quietly observes.<\/p>\n

Mistake #4: Saying Something \u2013 Anything \u2013 Negative.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Saying something that sounds like a complaint makes you naturally unattractive. Even beyond that, seasoned hiring managers believe that candidates should have read enough about interviewing to know better than to say something negative. They may even see if they can draw negativity out of you. For example, if you said, \u201cMy last job was a great job. It was stressful at times, but overall it was great,\u201d the hiring manager may follow up with, \u201cSo, what was stressful about it?\u201d They will give you a rope to see if you will hang yourself with it. Can you go an hour without saying anything negative? You better be able to if you want to maximize the number of job offers you get.<\/p>\n

Mistake #5: Misusing Slang. <\/strong><\/h6>\n

Business taboos fall year after year. Still, the purchasing profession tends to be more conservative than other disciplines like marketing<\/a> or IT. So, be careful how you use slang.<\/p>\n

Look to your interviewers for clues about how casual the conversation should be and try to match the level of formality displayed in their speech. Even if the interviewer is young, that doesn\u2019t mean that they embrace informality or informal company culture.<\/p>\n

One time, I had a candidate tell me in an interview, \u201cI\u2019m really anal about things like that.\u201d I knew what she meant. I\u2019ve used the term myself in casual conversation. But the candidate\u2019s comfort in speaking like that in an interview process made me uncomfortable about how the candidate might fit into the company culture. Sure, I said \u201cMan-Freakin\u2019-Kind\u201d in this blog post, but would I say it in an interview? Uh, I don\u2019t think so!<\/p>\n

Become a member of one of the world\u2019s largest procurement associations today.<\/a><\/p>\n

Recommended Reading:<\/b><\/p>\n