Interview Guides
Top 20 Interview Mistakes Australians Make (And How to Avoid Them)
Updated 2026-10-03 · Interview Buddy team
Most interviews are lost on avoidable mistakes, not on a lack of ability. The candidate was qualified — they just rambled, stayed vague, trashed a former employer, or froze on a question they could have prepared for. The good news is that nearly every common mistake is fixable before you walk in.
Here are the twenty mistakes we see most often in Australian interviews — behavioural, AI/video, and government panels — grouped so you can fix them fast, with what to do instead.
Reading is step one — practising is step two
Answer one real interview question out loud and get instant AI scoring — free, no account.
Behavioural interview mistakes
•
Being vague: 'I'm a hard worker' with no example. Fix: every claim gets a specific story with a result.
•
Saying 'we' instead of 'I': the panel can't score what the team did. Fix: own your personal actions.
•
Rambling with no structure: a two-minute point stretched to six. Fix: use STAR and land the result.
•
No quantified outcome: stories that trail off without impact. Fix: add a number or a concrete change.
•
Badmouthing a past employer or manager: reads as how you'll talk about them. Fix: stay factual and neutral.
•
One story for everything: suggests thin experience. Fix: prepare a bank of six to eight examples.
•
Not answering the actual question: a rehearsed story that doesn't fit. Fix: listen, then pick the right example.
STAR and preparation mistakes
•
Skipping the Result: all situation and action, no outcome. The result is the part that scores.
•
Over-scripting: word-perfect answers that sound robotic. Fix: rehearse the structure, not a script.
•
No examples ready: freezing because you prepared opinions, not stories. Fix: build the story bank early.
•
Ignoring the job ad: generic answers when the ad told you exactly which competencies to evidence.
•
No questions for them: 'No, I'm good' at the end reads as low interest. Fix: prepare two or three real questions.
AI and video interview mistakes
•
Looking at your own face, not the lens: breaks eye contact with the 'interviewer'. Fix: look at the camera.
•
Wasting the prep time: starting to answer before you've framed it. Fix: use the seconds to pick your story.
•
Overrunning or finishing in ten seconds: misjudging the time box. Fix: aim for a tight ~90 seconds to two minutes.
•
Poor setup: backlighting, noise, a cluttered background. Fix: face a window, quiet room, plain background.
•
Treating it as low-stakes: it's a scored, real stage of the loop. Fix: prepare for it like a live interview.
Government panel (APS) mistakes
•
Not addressing the capability: a nice story that never names what it's evidencing. Fix: map answers to the criteria.
•
Thinking the scripted feel is a bad sign: it's the rubric working. Fix: stay structured and keep going.
•
Examples that don't match the level: pitching too junior or over-claiming for the classification. Fix: calibrate to the level.
The fastest way to fix most of these
Almost every mistake above comes from one root cause: candidates prepare in their head and never say their answers out loud. Thinking 'I've got a good example for that' is not the same as delivering it in two tight minutes under pressure.
1.
Build a story bank of six to eight STAR examples before anything else.
2.
Say each one out loud and time it — aim for under two minutes.
3.
Record yourself (or do a mock interview) and watch for vagueness, 'we', and missing results.
4.
Prepare two or three questions to ask them, and a one-line honest framing for any gap.
5.
Rehearse the specific format — a recorded video round needs different pacing than a live panel.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most common interview mistake?
Being vague — making claims ('I'm organised', 'I'm a team player') without a specific story and result to back them. Interviewers can only score concrete examples, so every claim needs evidence.
Is it ever OK to criticise a previous employer?
Keep it factual and neutral. You can explain why a role wasn't the right fit or why you're moving on, but disparaging a manager or company reads as a red flag — the panel assumes that's how you'll talk about them one day.
How long should an interview answer be?
For a behavioural answer, aim for roughly 90 seconds to two minutes — enough for a full STAR story without rambling. In timed video rounds, respect the time box shown on screen.
What do I do if I blank on a question?
Take a breath and buy a moment: 'That's a good question — let me think of the best example.' It's fine to pause. If nothing fits, offer the closest adjacent experience rather than inventing one.
Why do I keep saying "we" instead of "I"?
Because you're describing a team effort. Interviewers need your personal contribution, so consciously narrate what you did: 'I proposed…', 'I handled…', 'I decided…'. Use 'we' only for the shared outcome.
Are AI/video interviews scored differently?
They assess the same substance — structured, relevant answers — but the format punishes different mistakes: looking away from the lens, poor audio/lighting, and misjudging the time box. Treat them as a real, scored stage.
How do I stop making these mistakes?
Practise out loud under realistic conditions. Interview Buddy runs spoken mock interviews and scores each answer on communication, relevance and structure, so you can catch rambling, vagueness and missing results before a real interviewer does.
Put it into practice
Reading only gets you so far. Run a realistic mock interview with Interview Buddy's AI coach — tailored to the company you're targeting — and get scored feedback on every answer.
Start free — 3 mock interviews
Try one question free — no account