Better Recruiting

Interview Tip from Wikipedia: Avoid Weasel Words

Wikipedia, the massive, free online encyclopedia, which is famously editable by anybody, has tightened its belt in the last few years, working hard to allow the Wisdom of Crowds without losing credibility.

To get there, Wikipedia added a section to their Manual of Style that cautions article editors to avoid so called Weasel Words, and this is excellent advice for job-interviewing as well:

Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without attributing opinions to verifiable sources, lending them the force of authority without letting the reader decide whether the source of the opinion is reliable. If a statement can’t stand on its own without weasel words, it lacks neutral point of view, and the lack of given sources also implies a verifiability issue. Either a source for the statement should be found, or the statement should be removed.

Remember: The purpose of a job-interview is to allow you to confirm or refute the opinions the recruiter or hiring manager has already made about you. If you can’t verifiable confirm strong-statements you make (over the top promised about how you “blew away sales quotas” or “the whole company is using the tool I created”) then you’d better think twice about saying it.

While I respect and admire confidence in interviewees, I do not tolerate lying. Overstatement is as much a red-flag to me as overly self-effacing humility. They are both different than what actually happened, which is all I really want to know.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Tags: Employee Performance, Interviewing Tips, job interview tips, Misc, People