Ex-Google recruiter shares 3 major red flags: Don’t use these in a job interview

Nolan Church was a recruiter with Google for about three years. (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Nolan Church worked as a recruiter at Google and DoorDash for six years before eventually becoming the CEO of salary data company FairComp. Speaking to CNBC Make It, the Utah-based entrepreneur revealed the major red flags that can possibly cost job seekers their shot at the dream job.

"To begin with, when an interviewer asks what you can improve on, don’t use phrases that make it sound like you think you have nothing to learn," Church told the publication. "These can be phrases like 'I work too hard' or 'I’m a perfectionist,' says Church. They’re framed as character flaws when, really, they’re compliments."

Phrases like these also build the perception that the candidate is "inauthentic.” "They could think you’re either not being honest about who you are as a person or you genuinely think you can’t get better as a worker," Church said. “I’m not hiring you to be perfect. I’m hiring you to grow with us.”

Instead, he recommended using an example of a mistake the job seeker made and what they learned from it.

Using negative remarks about former colleagues during a job interview is also a major red flag. Whether it’s a former colleague, manager or company, “anything that transfers blame from you to someone else” sounds bad, Church told CNBC Make It. “The people you want to work with take full ownership and accountability,” he said adding that taking responsibility indicates that the job seeker is humble enough to admit that they are not perfect and are willing to learn from your mistakes to get better.

“You want to work with people who have the self-awareness to know when they were wrong and to update their own mental models to fix it,” Church said.

The final piece of advice that the former Google recruiter shared was to not respond to queries with "I don't know".

Finally, avoid answering questions with “I don’t know.” When recruiters hear that they perceive that it's the end of the conversation without the job seeker even interested in finding the solution to the problem.

For freshers, however, he suggests using a toned-down version such as ‘I don’t know, but here’s how I’d figure it out' instead since they wouldn't have a lot of experience to draw from.