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You want to be seen as smart in a job interview. But it better not come at the expense of your future boss or teammates.
Suppose you're interviewing for a dream job that calls for both intellectual chops and attention to detail. (Is there a job that doesn't?) Naturally, you're eager to impress.
While preparing, you found a non-trivial mistake in a document created by the team you're interviewing for. You might have spotted it in a research report, on a page from the company's Web site, even in a book your interviewer wrote. Do you find a way to mention it to demonstrate how much you're on the ball?
Zip Your Mouth
Don't you dare. No matter how diplomatic and non-judgmental you try to be, the risks simply outweigh any possible benefits. Even if you've seen hedge funds boast they only hire "geniuses" or people who "walk on water," don't be fooled - appearing arrogant or egotistical is the kiss of death for any job candidate. And that's exactly what you'd risk if you cited a mistake in your interviewer's work.
In an interview, "The goal is to get the job," notes Richard Lipstein, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search. After joining a company, don't hesitate to head off errors to improve your team's work quality. An interview, however, "is not the place to bring up an error that was made by your prospective boss," Lipstein says. (This assumes the error wasn't a misstatement that could cast doubt on the company's credibility - like an overly rosy account of its own performance. In that case, a candidate should make a considered decision whether to associate with that employer.)
Career coach Win Sheffield agrees. "I would stay clear of" mentioning the error, he says. "I can see no instance where it would be helpful for the person to know the mistake." Showing you're smart at someone else's expense is simply bad politics in any interview situation. Even when speaking of past supervisors and colleagues, Sheffield says a candidate being interviewed should always praise, never criticize: "Your boss was never wrong."
The bottom line, as summarized by another advisor: "Find some other way to show you're smart."
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