Experts list job interview 'no-nos'

• Tweet

CHICAGO, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Don't answer your cellphone, send a text message or talk negatively about previous employers during a job interview, U.S. experts say.

A nationwide CareerBuilder survey of hiring managers and human resources professionals says 'no-nos' for job interviews include:

--Don't dress inappropriately.

--Don't chew gum.

--Don't come off as arrogant.

The annual survey includes some of interviewers' more memorable and unusual experiences when interviewing candidates.

One candidate asked, "What company is this again?"

Then there's the candidate who wore a Boy Scouts uniform and never told interviewers why. Another brought a "how-to-interview" book to the interview.

One was arrested by federal authorities during an interview when a background checked showed the candidate had an outstanding warrant. Another told the interviewer she wasn't sure if the job was worth "starting the car for."

One asked for a sip of the interviewer's coffee.

"It may seem unlikely that candidates would ever answer a cellphone during an interview or wear shorts, but when we talk to hiring managers, we remarkably hear these stories all of the time," Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, said in a news release.

The online survey of 3,023 U.S. Hiring managers and human resource professionals was conducted Nov. 9-Dec. 5, 2011.