I’ve decided that interviewing people is actually the most stressful part of hiring. Turns out, some people are incredible writers, who make a great impression with their cover letter and resume, but then are total duds at interviewing. Others, who were almost a stretch to make it into the interview pile, have actually wowed me.

So here’s my take on some do’s and don’ts when interviewing.

#1 – Do research the company, but don’t cut off the person interviewing you when they tell you stuff you already know. My boss and I are sitting through all these interviews together. He really loves the history of our theater…. which is also readily available on the website.

As he began to wax philosophical on the merits of the architecture and our Shriner history, one of the candidates actually cut him off and said she knew all that already. Don’t get me wrong, you actually got a few bonus points from me, because that was the 8^th time I’d heard that speech in 2 days, but more importantly, I know you lost points with him. And that was unwise.

#2 – There’s a fine line between confident and cocky, but you need to find it. Be careful with how you’re coming across with your choice of words or how often you repeat some phrases.

A big thing for us was trying to gage whether or not the Production Assistant would make good decisions when they were the production manager on site during events. Whenever you’re applying for an assistant position, I think it’s a good idea to emphasize that even when you’re responsible for making the decision, you’d report back everything that happened as soon as possible, keeping your supervisor in the loop.

On the flip side, easily one of our best resumes, with the best references, turned out to be the quietest, most introverted person I’ve ever met. It was almost painful to talk with her and she didn’t display even an iota of confidence.

#3 – If life has been giving you lemons lately… keep it to yourself. Along a similar line, one candidate told us her sob story about living at home with her parents and working barely part time at a craft store. Seriously, I felt for her. So did my boss. But both of us were also really uncomfortable, which isn’t the impression you want to make on the people interviewing you.

#4 – Don’t arrive ridiculously early. Seriously, I think you want to be at the reception desk about 5 minutes in advance, even if that makes you loiter in a nearby Starbucks for 20 minutes first. Our first day of interviews was nuts, not because of the interviews, but because we had 4 other meetings, including two with pretty psychopathic clients, scheduled around the interview times. One girl was 35 minutes early, and we felt very rushed trying to finish up what we were doing to get to her.

#5 – Double, triple and quadruple check your Internet connection if it’s a Skype interview. Also, make sure that you provide your Skype or Google Hangouts screen name, don’t make me chase you down to get it. Try to remember that even though it feels unnatural, when you’re staring up into the camera instead of at the screen, it looks to us like you’re looking at us. Don’t forget to check what’s behind you in the camera shot too – a week of dirty laundry and an old pizza box don’t really project the image you were going for… I hope.

How about you guys? Would a sob story make you more or less likely to hire someone? Have you ever committed an interview faux paus?