By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
New suit? Check. Neat hair? Check. While head-to-toe visuals are perfectly prepped for on job interview day, almost half of job seeking respondents said in a recent survey that speaking without confidence is their biggest interview screw up.
In a poll asking job seekers what were their major interview mistake, nearly half of the 664 respondents identified ``answering questions in a soft and shaky voice'' as their top slip, online recruiting company JobKorea said Friday.
More women showed regrets with the delivery issue as 58 percent of female respondents highlighted the answer, while among men 42 percent did so.
``When going for an interview, you must always show enthusiasm for the job. You don't have to be a David Letterman, but a little bit of eagerness can work wonders for you,'' said professional job consultant Heather Eager.
Following speech difficulties, about one-fifth of those surveyed said ``lack of question comprehension'' was their stumbling stone.
More men were in this category, with 25 percent saying understanding was hard, compared to 14 percent of women.
``When attending group interviews, I noticed that women ask for the question to be repeated more often than men. So, I guess double-checking the question is better than not knowing what to answer,'' said Lee Hae-ryung, a 26-year-old active job seeker.
Next on the top ``interview mistake'' list, 11 percent said tardiness, 5.6 percent said responding with negative answers and about 5 percent said being boastful was their biggest regret.
Also on the list were the lack of company knowledge (1.7 percent), untidy hair and makeup (1.4 percent) and dirty clothes (0.5 percent).
``When interviewers are under the heat, it's easy to make mistakes one after another,'' said theCEO of JobKorea, Kim Hwa-soo. ``But by practicing a little bit of mind control, those slips can be avoided.''