If you worry about every possible way you can blow a job interview -- from mispronouncing the boss's name to babbling¹ incessantly² when you don't know what else to say -- you're going to walk in there feeling like you're destined³ to fail. True, job interviews are rife⁴ with opportunities for you to embarrass yourself, but hiring managers are more forgiving than you might think.

如果你担心任何可能会导致你面试告吹的事情——比如把老板名字念错，或是不知道该说什么而唔唔啊啊个不停——你在走入面试现场时就会有注定失败的感觉。不错，面试中充满了令人窘迫的陷阱，不过招聘经理可比你想象的要宽容。

We consulted some hiring experts about what is really going on inside their heads when interviewing job applicants⁵. They offered the following insights:

我们咨询了一些招聘专家，询问他们在面试中的真实想法。他们分享的见解如下：

They like you. They really like you.

他们喜欢你。真的是喜欢你。

"I tend to walk into every interview wanting to hire that person," says Christine Peterson, Senior Vice⁶ President of Marketing⁷ for TripAdvisor. In addition to having the right skills and experience, she says, candidates who come across as "nice, smart and fun...are going to have to work pretty hard to convince me NOT to hire them," Peterson says. She's seen her fair share of applicants who didn't meet these standards, including one otherwise-qualified candidate who was cut from consideration after she insisted that the receptionist who greeted her for her interview throw out a perfectly⁸ good pot of coffee and make her a fresh pot. While Peterson is willing to give most applicants the benefit of the doubt -- after all, they put in the time and effort to submit an application and come in for an interview -- she believes no amount of qualifications will make up for "jerkness."

TripAdvisor市场营销资深副总裁Christine Peterson说：“每次面试新人时我都希望能雇用他”。她说，那些拥有所需要的技能和经验，又“善良、聪明、幽默的求职者得‘非常努力’才能让我不雇他们呢”。她也见过那些达不到这些标准的应聘者，其中就有一位本来合格的人选，但是由于此人坚持要求接待她的工作人员为她换掉一壶上好的咖啡、另泡一壶而被排除在考虑范围之外。虽然Peterson愿意对多数应聘者往好处想——毕竟这些人花了时间和精力、投简历来面试——但她认为即使这个应聘者再有能力，公司也不能接受一个“蠢蛋”。

They don't want to hear what you think they want to hear.

他们不希望听到你认为他们希望听到的话

"Interviewers have gotten very smart to pick up if someone's saying just what a book is telling them to say," says Mary Gormandy White, a professional consultant⁹ in Mobile Ala. By only saying what they think the employer wants to hear, job candidates are simply putting on an act, and employers can see right through that. "You have to be yourself in an interview and you have to be sincere," she says.

Mobile Ala.的职业顾问 Mary Gormandy White说：“面试官都很聪明，能觉察出这个人是不是在说套话。”应聘者仅仅说那些自认为面试官喜欢听的，就等于在逢场作戏，雇主一眼就能就看透。她说：“在面试中你得做自己、要真诚。”

They don't expect you to have all the answers.

他们没有期待你能回答所有问题

"Employers are more interested in how you find answers to things you don't know than in having you pretend to know something you don't," says Linda Finkle, executive coach at a management consulting firm based in Potomac, Md. In some cases, she says, the interviewer may ask a question that he or she doesn't expect you to be able to answer simply to see how you handle it. If you ever find that you don't know the answer to an interviewer's question, the best thing to do is to admit that you don't know, but either add that you could give an educated guess or provide a way you might go about finding the answer. Most importantly, if you don't know, don't try to fake it. "Not knowing is OK. Making something up or pretending to know is not," Finkle says.

马里兰州一家管理咨询公司的企业高官辅导教练Linda Finkle说：“雇主更感兴趣的是你如何寻找答案而不是不懂装懂。”她说，有时候面试官会问一个他/她不期望你能回答的问题，就是看看你如何应对。如果你不知道答案，最好承认不知道，但你可以补充你愿进行合理推测，或者给出你寻找答案的方法。最重要的是不要作假。Finkle 说：“不知道没有关系。瞎编或是假装知道就有问题了。”

They want you to want them.

他们希望你也愿意接受他们作为雇主

According to Michele Minten, director of Centralized Recruiting for a Chicago-based recruiting company, one of the worst things a job candidate can do is not express genuine interest in the job or the company. As much as the recruiter wants to sell the candidate on the position and company, he or she also wants to know that the candidate actually wants to work in that position or for that company. Peterson agrees. "When I hear applicants expressing energy and enthusiasm for our company and our product, I want to hire them," she says.

芝加哥一家招聘公司Centralized Recruiting部门的主任Michele Minten认为，应聘者最大的错误之一就是对公司或工作表现不出真正的兴趣。招聘人员希望向应聘者“推销”公司和职位的意义；他们也想知道应聘者是不是真地希望要这个职位或为这家公司工作。Peterson也认同这一点。她说：“当我听到应聘者对公司和产品表达热情和活力的话，我就想雇用他们。”