A careers coach has told people who want to stand out in a job interview there’s one thing many people don’t even think about doing which could help you make a great impression.

When doing your job application, you could be contending with a field of dozens, perhaps even hundreds of fellow applicants all trying to get that one position.

If you’re fortunate enough to make it to the interview stage for a job you’ll still be jostling with plenty of people for that one spot so you need to know how to stand out.

There’s plenty of preparation you can do on questions you could be expected to answer, and what questions you yourself ought to ask if you want the best chance of getting a role.

However, there’s every chance that the people you’re jostling for a job with have also been doing their preparation and will step into that employment thunderdome having learned the same tricks and techniques as you.

“Congratulations, you’re hired and your lengthy job search is at an end.” (Getty Stock Photo)

Should that be the case, then careers coach Louise might have something which could help you stand out, even if everyone is putting their best foot forward.

Posting on TikTok, she explained that there’s something you can do which might help you stick out that little bit extra and make a prospective employer take a chance on you.

She said there was something lots of applicants ‘don’t think about or don’t bother to do’, which can help your chances, and that’s to ‘send a follow up email to say thank you’.

“Here’s what you’re not gonna do, you’re not gonna just send it and say ‘thank you, it’s great to meet you I’m really excited about the job,'” Louise told her followers, and said how they should try it.

“That is generic and we don’t want generic, hiring managers are looking for specificity, they are looking for the one perfect candidate for their one job.

The careers coach said you should send a follow-up email saying thanks, and also to be specific about why the employer needs you. (Getty Stock Photo)

“Your job is to show them that you are the one candidate for that one job.”

As for how to do that, she explained that you should send a follow-up email that got to the point quickly saying thank you for the interview opportunity and saying how excited about the job you are.

She said you should then say you ‘genuinely believe that I am the right candidate because’ and then said this was the time to list your reasons.

While this might have been covered in the interview, the careers coach said a ‘recap of why you are the best person for the job’ would really help.

She added: “Then you’re going to say this, ‘from my conversation at the interview it’s clear that one of your company’s biggest opportunities or challenges or threats is this, and my experience and expertise coupled with my skills in x, y and z puts me in a really good position to help support you with that.'”

To finish things off, she said you should ask if they had any follow-up questions for you and say that you’d ‘love to stay in touch’ as a message like that would show you’ve really thought about the job, the company and what you could bring to it.

Remember, it’s all about the follow-up email and being specific with what you’re asking.

Have you heard of the ‘coffee cup test’?

When you step into the job interview room you’ve got to be prepared for all sorts of questions to be thrown at you, but you might want to be on your guard against other tricks they might try.

Going into that interview, you’re going to be acutely aware that you’re under the microscope while your interviewer is going to know they’re seeing you at your most presentable.

It’s not a naturalistic environment to really get to know what someone is like and what they’ll be like once they’re actually hired.

The job interview is over, what are you doing with your coffee cup? (Getty Stock Photo)

That’s why Trent Innes, former MD of Xero Australia, cooked up the ‘coffee cup test’ to put prospective employees through their paces.

He explained that when he had someone in for a job interview he’d make a point of showing them where the office kitchen was and making sure they left with a cup of coffee.

From there the job interview would be conducted as normal, but once all the questions and CV examination was over the ‘coffee cup test’ really kicked in.

The test all hinges on what the applicant will do with their coffee cup once the interview is over, having been shown where the kitchen is and having the time to take it back.

This guy is a big fan of the coffee cup test, having invented it, but others aren’t so convinced (X/@trentinnes)

In essence it’s a secret test of character to see what someone will do once they no longer think they’re under interview conditions, and Innes wouldn’t hire people who failed the test by not taking their coffee cup back to the kitchen to be washed.

It’s a novel technique, but not everyone is a fan as an interview expert had some things to say about this.

Job interview expert Victoria Gates picked apart the test on TikTok as she poked some holes in this interview technique, pointing out that these kinds of approaches could backfire badly on the interviewer if it got around that they were trying this.

The interview expert said: “What interviewers need to understand is attitudes and actions are best evaluated with actual job related experience and not made up social experiments.

“Candidates have choices and if you find out that you didn’t get a job because of this weird social experiment you’re probably better off.

“Because if this is how they interview with mind games and social experiments, just imagine what it would be like to work for them.”

It’s all well and good to set prospective employees hidden tests, but the dangers might involve ignoring really good candidates for not knowing the coffee cup policy in an office they’d never been in before.

Job-hunters have been warned about a recruitment technique which could fail you an interview within the first few seconds.

Job hunting can feel like a total slog – between filling out the longest application form on Earth, and endless interviews – sometimes it can feel like you’re fighting a losing battle.

Well, one bloke managed to completely screw an interview up within seconds of walking through the building doors, and recruiters have urged others not to make the same mistake.

It can be hard trying to second guess what hiring managers are looking for, but a generally friendly attitude is often seen as a given.

Well not for this lad, whose attitude didn’t go down too well with hiring staff.

The story was shared on Reddit’s ‘Life Pro Tips’ forum, and said: “Today, a candidate blew his interview in the first 5 minutes after he entered the building.

“He was dismissive of the receptionist. She greeted him and he barely made eye contact.

Job-seekers have been warned about the secret test. (Getty Stock Photo)

“She tried to engage him in conversation. Again, no eye contact, no interest in speaking with her.”

What the candidate failed to realise, is that the receptionist wasn’t a receptionist after all.

It was actually the hiring manager.

“She called him back to the conference room and explained how every single person on our team is valuable and worthy of respect,” the post continued.

Talk about catching red flags early!

The post went on to say: “Due to his interaction with the ‘receptionist’, the hiring manager did not feel he was a good fit. She said ‘Thank you for your time but the interview is over’. Be nice to everyone in the building.”

“Be nice to everyone in the building.” (Getty stock photo)

It’s difficult to understand why the bloke would have gone into the office with a dismissive attitude in the first place. And it seems as though this wasn’t a new tactic to people in the comments.

One person said: “I’ll add as someone who’s been on every step of the hiring ladder, even if the receptionist wasn’t the hiring manager, that receptionist will still get her two cents in at the water cooler while decisions are being made.

“In a few fields I’ve worked in, it wasn’t just the people in the conference room that were consulted before making an offer.

“Be on point at all times, every employee is a potential team mate and they’re all assessing you.”

The moral of the story – be nice to everyone! You never know who you’re speaking to…

“What’s your greatest strength?”, “What’s your weakness?” and “Tell me a time you overcame a challenge.” Just some of the many run-of-the-mill dreaded things you hear in a job interview.

But then, even worse, there’s the questions and scenarios they come out with to throw you off. Or perhaps they’re like Steve Jobs who had a ‘beer test’ for interviewing people.

One man has revealed a ‘sneaky’ interview test employers use to find the cream of the crop, not hiring candidates who fail.

Yep, apparently someone at the Reserve Officers’ Training Crops (ROTC) Nuclear Power School over in the US is quite the stickler for it.

Job interviews are bad enough already. (Getty Stock)

A man claimed to the Mirror US that those going for interviews at the school are truly put to the test – often without even realising.

He explained: “My brother was in ROTC in college, and he told me this story.

“An applicant for ROTC Nuclear Power school would sit the chair in front of the desk of the interviewing officer during the interview.”

Apparently, there would be a ‘second/similar’ chair available in the room for the applicant to sit, just positioned ‘off to the side’. And it was there for a very, very specific reason.

“The chair in front of the desk for the applicant had one leg of chair – cut shorter – so the person sitting in the chair would wobble – during the interview,” the person continued.

“The successful test was to see if the applicant would be bold enough to stop the interview for a moment – to request to exchange his chair, for second/other chair – so they did not wobble.”

I mean, it’s fair to say a lot of us in that situation – especially us notoriously too polite Brits – wouldn’t say a thing.

Don’t struggle through the wobbling lads. (Getty Stock)

We’d simply grin and bear it out of politeness, probably even apologising ourselves for the chair being wobbly.

Let’s be honest, most of us wouldn’t be getting a second job interview after that, would we?

And if you’re now worrying about sitting in a wobbly chair in your next job interview, here’s something else for you to worry about – the ‘reception test’.

Yep, job-hunters have been warned about a recruitment technique they could fail within just the first moments of arriving.

The story was shared on Reddit’s ‘Life Pro Tips’ forum, and said: “Today, a candidate blew his interview in the first 5 minutes after he entered the building.

“He was dismissive of the receptionist. She greeted him and he barely made eye contact. She tried to engage him in conversation. Again, no eye contact, no interest in speaking with her.”

Even worse, turns out the receptionist wasn’t the receptionist, it was the hiring manager. So while you might not want to be so polite you don’t swap chairs, remember to be polite to people, lads.