Piv­ot­ing in your career is stress­ful, espe­cial­ly prepar­ing for a job inter­view. Each ques­tion is designed to test your abil­i­ties and per­son­al­i­ty and deter­mine whether you fit the role. Among this pres­sure, cer­tain phras­es can unin­ten­tion­al­ly derail the con­ver­sa­tion, leav­ing a neg­a­tive impres­sion on the inter­view­er. While inter­views are a two-way exchange, your words play a sig­nif­i­cant role in shap­ing the nar­ra­tive.

Some com­mon phras­es might seem harm­less or hon­est, but they can lead to mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion. Instead of leav­ing your inter­view­er with doubts about your skills or atti­tude, it’s cru­cial to rec­og­nize these pit­falls and reframe them into pos­i­tive, pro­fes­sion­al respons­es. Thir­ty-three per­cent of recruiters know if they’ll hire some­one with­in the first 90 sec­onds of an inter­view.

Below are three com­mon missteps—and how to turn them into oppor­tu­ni­ties to impress.

ForbesTop 3 AI Jobs For 2025 And How To Tran­si­tion Into The Posi­tionsBy Cheryl Robin­son

Phrase One

“I don’t have any weak­ness­es.”

On the sur­face, this might seem like the per­fect answer to the dread­ed “What’s your biggest weak­ness?” ques­tion. How­ev­er, claim­ing you have no weak­ness­es can come across as arro­gant or lack­ing self-aware­ness. Every pro­fes­sion­al, no mat­ter how accom­plished, has areas for growth. Employ­ers ask this ques­tion to assess your abil­i­ty to reflect on your per­for­mance and work toward improve­ment.

Why This Derails You

When you claim to have no weak­ness­es, you miss an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show humil­i­ty and your will­ing­ness to learn. It may also sig­nal to the inter­view­er that you lack the crit­i­cal think­ing skills nec­es­sary for self-assess­ment.

Reframe It

Instead of deny­ing weak­ness­es, acknowl­edge an area for devel­op­ment and empha­size the steps you’re tak­ing to address it: “One area I’m con­tin­u­al­ly work­ing on is improv­ing my pub­lic speak­ing skills. I’ve joined a local Toast­mas­ters club to prac­tice and gain con­fi­dence in pre­sent­ing to large groups. I’m proud of my progress and am eager to keep improv­ing.”

This response high­lights three key traits: self-aware­ness, proac­tive prob­lem-solv­ing and a growth mind­set. By show­ing you rec­og­nize chal­lenges and take action­able steps to over­come them, you posi­tion your­self as a can­di­date who val­ues per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment.

Phrase Two

“I just real­ly need a job.”

It’s nat­ur­al to feel a sense of urgency when search­ing for a new role, espe­cial­ly if you’re between jobs or deal­ing with finan­cial pres­sures. How­ev­er, stat­ing this out­right can make you seem des­per­ate or unfo­cused. Employ­ers are look­ing for gen­uine­ly inter­est­ed can­di­dates in the posi­tion and the com­pa­ny, not just some­one seek­ing any avail­able oppor­tu­ni­ty.

Why This Derails You

This phrase shifts the focus to your needs rather than how you can con­tribute to the orga­ni­za­tion. It may also sug­gest that you haven’t researched the com­pa­ny or will leave when a dif­fer­ent oppor­tu­ni­ty aris­es.

Reframe It

Show enthu­si­asm for the posi­tion and align your goals with the com­pa­ny’s mis­sion: “I was drawn to this role because it com­bines my pas­sion for [spe­cif­ic field or skill] with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute to [com­pa­ny goal/mission]. I’m excit­ed about the chance to grow here and add val­ue to the team.”

This approach demon­strates that you’ve done your home­work, under­stand the com­pa­ny’s objec­tives and are moti­vat­ed to make a mean­ing­ful impact. It reframes the con­ver­sa­tion to high­light your align­ment with the com­pa­ny’s needs rather than focus­ing on your cir­cum­stances.

Phrase Three

“I did­n’t like my last boss or team.”

When asked about pre­vi­ous roles, vent­ing about a dif­fi­cult man­ag­er or tox­ic work envi­ron­ment is tempt­ing. How­ev­er, speak­ing neg­a­tive­ly about past employ­ers can raise red flags for inter­view­ers. They may won­der if you’re dif­fi­cult to work with or prone to cre­at­ing con­flict.

Why This Derails You

Crit­i­ciz­ing a for­mer boss or team sug­gests a lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism and matu­ri­ty. It can also make the inter­view­er ques­tion your abil­i­ty to han­dle chal­lenges con­struc­tive­ly.

Reframe It

Instead of focus­ing on the neg­a­tives, frame the expe­ri­ence as a learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty: “I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with a vari­ety of lead­er­ship styles in my last role, and while there were some dif­fer­ences in approach, I learned how to adapt and col­lab­o­rate effec­tive­ly to meet our goals. It taught me the impor­tance of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and under­stand­ing dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives.”

This response shifts the focus to what you gained from the expe­ri­ence, show­cas­ing your abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate chal­lenges with a pos­i­tive, solu­tion-ori­ent­ed atti­tude. It also high­lights your adapt­abil­i­ty and will­ing­ness to learn from diverse work envi­ron­ments.

Why Reframing Matters

Every ques­tion in an inter­view is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to tell your sto­ry and demon­strate your val­ue. While cer­tain phras­es can inad­ver­tent­ly derail the con­ver­sa­tion, refram­ing them allows you to turn poten­tial pit­falls into moments of strength:

• It demon­strates emo­tion­al intel­li­gence.
• It keeps the focus on val­ue.
• It builds trust and rap­port.

Inter­views are as much about what you say as how you say it. You’ll leave your inter­view­er with a last­ing impres­sion of your poten­tial by approach­ing these sit­u­a­tions with self-aware­ness and pro­fes­sion­al­ism.