The world has gotten competitive; there will be many other graduates from various educational backgrounds applying for the same job as you. So what will give you an edge over your competition? There is no sure way to ensure that you get the job but what you can do is give your best at the interview.

Here are five ways that if followed wwill help ace your job interview.

Brag modestly

It may sound confusing and yes, it is self contradictory but this tip is one of the most important ones. Make sure the interviewer knows all the skills you have that would be perfect for the job. Mention all the relevant experiences that you have had, but do not be boastful. Convey your achievements in an informative manner, but don’t brag too heavily on it. Don’t forget to mention what you can bring to the job.

Be enthusiastic

Companies need to know that you would like to work for them. They don’t want to hire somebody who doesn’t really want the job in the first place (and therefore would give a mediocre performance) so make your enthusiasm known.  Show that you’re passionate about the job and would give it a hundred percent. Your interest and passion is what will set you apart from other candidates. If they ask whether you have applied for any other jobs, make sure you let them know that you give their company the priority and are excited to be a part of their team.

Ask questions

At the end of the interview, the interviewer usually asks if you have any questions. Don’t wave that opportunity away; ask questions like how would the position help you achieve the goals you have set for your life or how it could help you develop as a person. Also ask much do you live up to their expectations of their ideal candidate. Asking questions and asking for feedback shows the interviewer that you are not only interested in the job and hence want to know how it aligns with your personals goals but also are willing to take feedback and improve upon what you may be lacking.

Ask for clarifications

If the interviewer poses a question that you don’t fully understand, don’t be afraid to ask him/her to clarify. It is possible that the interviewer might want to ask one thing and you understand it completely differently and give an irrelevant answer. Answering the wrong question can be disastrous for your interview. Politely ask the interviewer to explain the question or rephrase it. This can not only save you from answering incorrectly but will also save you from giving off an unwanted arrogant attitude.

Be concise

Give an answer that is “to the point” and ensure that you do not give long explanations unless you are asked. Interviewers are not usually interested in your life stories. Refrain from giving additional details like “my brother’s fiancé’s uncle’s sister” etc, substitute these lengthy phrases with “a friend”. But only give examples from personal life if inquired. If a question can be answered with a simple yes or no, then there is no need to give any additional details unless they really accentuate your qualities and are highly relevant.

Keep these simple tips in mind next time you go for an interview to ensure that you stand out amongst the other candidates. After getting a job, the next step is to create a personal budget using your income ratio.

Staz Johnson has been passionately blogging about personal finance, investing, bugeting, economic news and more.

It’s as good as in the name that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and with most of us having it hammered in from a young age that first impressions are everything it’s unsurprising that we spend so long agonizing over what to wear and what to say at interviews.

We usually try to second guess interview questions and plan answers for weeks before dedicating no more than an evening to choosing what to wear, but research suggests that we might be doing it all the wrong way round.

Implications of the research

The figures say that as much of 55% of the opinion people form of us is based on how we look and how we behave, and that there’s only a 7% weighting on what we actually say. For most of us this will come as a slightly unbelievable shock – does it mean I can go into an accountancy interview and discuss my favourite musician so long as I’m dressed well?

Well, no, it certainly doesn’t. If you’ve made it to the interview stage then it’s generally assumed you’ll know what you’re talking about on the subject, and the things you say will, sadly, probably be at least slightly similar to hundreds of other candidates – interviewers are bound to turn off when they hear the same things over and over.

That means that they’re looking for other things to distinguish you from the pack, and that’s why that 55% figure is so high. So with that in mind, what sort of colours should you be wearing?

The colours

The first thing to emphasise is that you should wear colours you like and that you feel you look good in; most of us fall victim to buying a horrible top at some point or another just because we ‘don’t have anything in that colour’, but inside the world of work there’s nothing wrong with sticking to a few staples. ‘How we look’ is not just the colours we’re wearing, but also how well the clothes fit.

When deciding on what exactly these staples should be then, you should consider the kind of impression you want to give off.

The best colours – in order

If you’re going for a calm, authoritative and trustworthy impression then blue is the best choice. Because of these properties and the fact that blue is more people’s favourite colour than any other, it’s often heralded as the ultimate interview colour. That said, there are arguments that blue is forgettable, and that because everyone’s told to wear it you’ll make more of an impression in something else.

That ‘something else’ is often grey. Grey denotes a similarly confident and commanding character, and looks chic without being overwhelming.

Your third choice is brown – which is good for making the wearer seem trustworthy and honest, though it can be a bit drab if overdone.

What to avoid

One colour to avoid is black. Wearing small black accessories such as scarves can be elegant, but full suits or dresses appears distant and closed. Red suffers at the other end of the scale because it seems wild and impulsive.

Of course, all this should be taken with a pinch of salt. A good guide on what to wear is to study the environment of the company – if it’s creative or casual you can often get away with a little more.

Rob likes to write about fashion for Direct Sight – a supplier of cheap prescription glasses.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by bpsusf

Top companies often use very creative methods to evaluate management candidates. These methods are often subtle and easy to miss. Top companies developed these clever evaluation processes because it costs a lot to make the wrong decision when hiring someone. Moreover, these methods are based on management research studies as well as the hiring manager’s experience dealing with a wide variety of candidates.

Naturally, there is no playbook by which these methods are devised and each company has developed its own unique formula. In addition, there are numerous methods used to decide on the best candidate. However, these methods are used because they are simple to implement yet often yield astonishing insight into the person under evaluation.

Five Popular Screening Methods

Five methods that are often used are pre-employment tests, insisting on honest answers, asking for verification of achievements, talking about high school jobs, and noticing how candidates dress and conduct themselves.

1. Issuing pre-Employment Tests

Considerable research has gone into devising pre-employment tests with the results that they are often surprisingly accurate in predicting how an applicant will behave on the job. These tests are also fairly useful in helping a company evaluate the future potential of an applicant.

In fact, top companies often will not even consider interviewing someone who did not do well in a pre-employment test. While some pre-employment tests do ask for subject knowledge, most mainly focus on developing a psychological profile. Questions asked in these tests are often repeated in different ways to gauge whether the answers are consistent.

2. Insisting on Honest Answers

Hiring managers often understand that jobs applicants are liable to exaggerate their talents, abilities and work ethic. It is often difficult to know when someone who is lying, exaggerating, or telling the truth. For this reason, a hiring manager may begin the interview by making a declaration that any answers they receive that later turn out to be false if the person is chosen for the job are grounds for instant termination. Research has shown that just making this statement has improved the quality of information a hiring manager receives during an interview.

3. Asking for Verification

If a management candidate begins to boast about their accomplishments, then one technique used to discern the truth is to ask for the names and telephone numbers of people who will verify the story. If the stories are indeed true, then the applicant is almost eager to share this information; or, if they don’t have it on hand, they are eager to report back with it. Conversely, those who have been exaggerating their past performance, tend to become suddenly subdued.

3. Talking About High School JobsAlthough it may seem off-topic to ask a person who has had numerous careers since high school about what jobs they liked when they were young, there is actually a high correlation between jobs people did in high school and their talents and preferences. For instance, one study showed that people who apply for management jobs often pursued customer-service jobs when they were in high school, rather than mechanical or physical labor jobs.

5. Evaluating Physical Appearance

There appears to be a high correlation between someone who is neat and wears the appropriate attire for an interview than someone who has more casual attire. Observing if someone is well groomed and dressed well may seem like a superficial way to assess their character. After all, most people are often told that they should dress up before an interview. However, someone who dresses up shows that they take their role in society seriously and do their best to make a good impression.

Dory Miller is a HR administrator and guest author at Human Resources MBA, a site with information and resources for potential students.

We all know the feeling. Imagine this; Sitting in a waiting room trying to act cool and relaxed whilst you twiddle your thumbs and grind your jaw whilst your forehead induces a waterfall of sweat – constantly listening out for someone to call out your name so you can be led into a room where you will receive a thorough personal interrogation. Sweaty handshakes, weird vocal sounds and fear of saying something stupid all parts of this….

Yes, you definitely know the feeling.

This is a job interview.

However, this whole lengthy (perspiration inducing) process may become something of the past. Online interviews, rather ‘Skype Interviews’ as they have been coined, are beginning to take over. This is due to companies looking at new ways to cut costs and time spent on the interview process – a simple way to interact with perspective candidates for a job. The job applicant also benefits from this new form of online interview also, not being hassled with going to a certain location just to wait and let nerves shake them around like a pneumatic drill.

Advantages

As previously stated, both sides benefit from online job interviews. It is not unheard of a company spending hundreds or even thousands flying out a candidate, housing them, feeding them etc . So, from a company’s perspective this would be a step forward in cutting costs dramatically and we will be seeing Skype interviews being far more in the future. Why fly twenty job applicants out, they can fly out the 2 or 3 finalists?

For the applicant, being able to being able to attend an interview from the comfort of one’s own home is perhaps a godsend. In the past, People have perhaps struggled with the medium of phone interviews as you cannot see the person interviewing you. Lack of sight in a phone interview cuts out a level of crucial analysis of body language both for the interviewer and interviewee, and can lead to things being misinterpreted. With Skype interviews this is not a problem as you can see fully what is going on. Also, the internet is constantly gaining a faster connection speed so dropping frame rate and lag is becoming less of an issue. On top of this, if you haven’t noticed there is a recession going on, which means people are sometimes not able to afford to travel across the country to an interview they might not even land; resulting in online interviews surely paving the way forward.

Disadvantages & Techniques

There surely are some horror stories floating about online, which probably range from a dog bursting into the room barking its tail off or mothers knocking politely at the bedroom door enquiring if there is any dirty pants that need washing. However, all a candidate needs to do is make sure that this won’t happen and prepare themselves accordingly. Here is a checklist of things you might need to do before, and during, an online interview:

• Make sure your flat/house is nice and quiet before and during the interview.
• Make sure where you are conducted your interview is suitable, clean and in order. Besides from your face, the interviewer will inspect what is around you naturally.
• Make sure you are not badly lit, for instance a window or bright light behind you will only make your face darker to the interviewer.
• When you answer a question look into the camera, not at the image on the screen.
• Dress accordingly, but avoid patterns and the colour white – you want your interviewer to be mysteriously drawn to your glorious eyes and teeth.
• Sit in your chair straight, don’t slump and give off the wrong impression. You should have the top half of your body showing – perhaps to just below your shoulders.
• Remember to smile!
• Have your resume ready to send as an attachment.

With not many disadvantages it is clear to see why Skype and online interviews are the future, and you will begin to hear about them more. Hopefully the stress of not having to travel and not be in your own comfort zone will reduce the nerves of a job applicant…and online interviews will definitely eliminate all the psychology needed behind that dreaded simple handshake!

This article was put together by the kind folk at Telegraph Jobs – search a wide range of job vacancies and read up on advice and tips for securing your dream job!

The best way to ensure that you do well in an interview is to prepare. Reviewing information about the company and rehearsing your answers to expected questions are two recommended activities that will enhance your performance. Being prepared boosts your confidence level and makes a positive first impression.

Making a Positive Impression

The importance of the chemistry component of interviewing should not be discounted. People hire people they like. It is critical to make an effort to smile and connect with company representatives. An interested demeanor wins the approval of hiring executives. Equally important is making eye contact during the interaction. Studies show that people who do not make eye contact during an interview often receive comments later about poor communication skills.

>Body language definitely impacts another person’s impression of you. Interview candidates need to be hyper aware of posture and other subtleties that impact perceived professionalism. For example, it is a good idea to pause before answering serious questions. Even if you have rehearsed the answer one hundred times, pausing before making an important statement is sure to earn more points for being thoughtful and serious about your answer. Using your hands and eyes to emphasize certain answers makes you seem more human and enthusiastic.

Treat everyone you meet at the company like a VIP. There are many cautionary tales about a job candidate not being hired because they were impolite to a receptionist or some other company representative, based on the assumption that person had no clout in the hiring process. Making that type of assumption can cost you a job.

Don’t joke around too much. If the interviewer makes a joke, then it is alright to laugh. As the job candidate, if you initiate jokes you might be perceived as not taking the job interview seriously. It is best to remember that an interview is a formal setting and should be treated as a serious interaction with definite rules to follow.

Do Your Homework

Hiring professionals expect you to conduct a search on Google at the very least to research the company. Anyone who has obviously completed some basic research on the company will be considered unprepared and unprofessional. Research is also critical for preparing a list of thoughtful questions. If you don’t ask good questions, you don’t really appear to be interested and prepared.

Another part of being prepared includes reviewing any requirements posted and gaining as much information before and interview as possible about the most important requirements for the job. Human resource professionals who schedule interviews can usually give you information about job requirements. As an interested party, it is up to you to get as much of this information as possible beforehand for the purpose of preparing answers to satisfy interviewers.

Deadly Interview Mistakes

There are certain interview practices to always avoid. Never say anything critical about a previous employer. Another definite issue to avoid initially in the interviewing process is bringing up salary or vacations. Let the employer be the first to bring up these subjects after there is some serious interest shown by the company. If you bring up these subjects too early, you risk being viewed as presumptuous and overly concerned about what the company can do for you, instead of what you have to offer the company.

Damian Wolf is freelance writer and part time blogger. He contributes on mining recruitment blog, one of the best Australian online destinations for job seekers.

Jobs are hard to find these days and even tougher to get – it’s now a fact of life. The job search is daunting – even the highly skilled and highly educated can find themselves out of work for months as they search for a career. If you find yourself at an interview for a highly sought-after job, you will also likely find yourself in a pool of many candidates. This can mean that the hiring manager could see twenty or more resumes and host ten or more interviews in a day. You need a great way to stand apart from the crowd? Following up with the person who interviewed you is one way to keep your name and interview fresh on their mind.

There is a professional way and a non-professional way to follow up with a potential employer. A non-professional way would be to try to friend the hiring manager on Facebook following your interview. Instead, making a quick phone call or compose a brief email to let the hiring manager know that you are appreciative of the opportunity and look forward to hearing back from them.

To give more specific examples, when making a phone call, be prepared to express the following. (And don’t be afraid to rehearse for a little confidence, that will only serve you better during the call.)

• Remind the hiring manager of who you are, what job you interviewed for and when the interview took place
• Tell them that you are appreciative of the opportunity to meet with them
• Then reiterate how you could best address their challenges and goals based on your education, experience or capabilities

The most important thing to remember is keep it brief. You don’t want to hold that person up from their own job, so a quick, polite call to follow up with what you said during the interview can go a long way.

When choosing to email instead, stick to the same ideas of content: Remind , be appreciative, and reiterate your fit for the job.

An example email might read:

Dear Mr. Cooper,
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to interview for the corporate sales position at TAO Communications. I feel my prior experience as a sales consultant in the print publication business can positively serve the corporate sales associate position at TAO. After 12 years of media sales, I believe I am an ideal candidate for the position at TAO and am confident that my knowledge base will generate positive results in the sales department.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss anything further with me, please feel free to contact me at (123)456-7890 or email me at JohnW@ johnw.com. I look forward to discussing how I can best meet the goals and challenges of the sales associate position.

Sincerely,

John West

If you interviewed with more than one person, consider approaching the person you most recently interviewed with, as this is likely to be the decision maker.

By following up either by phone or email, you ensure that you stand out that much more than the people who didn’t bother to follow up at all. The job search is tough, and following up is one more way to gain a competitive edge. The follow-up expresses confidence and interests and assures the hiring manager that you are genuinely interested and not afraid to stand out.

Diane Johnson graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in political science. When she’s not traveling she enjoys writing articles about online education, reading books and shopping.

The following is from a new series in which we take a look at the inner workings of a particular career industry.  Each article in this series will feature a guest contribution from an industry insider.

I have spent three years as a Customer Service Supervisor

My typical day consists of coming in and running through my daily reports. I then take the trends I find to my Customer Service Reps (CSRs) to go over their previous days performance. I try to spend at least 50% of my day on the floor answering questions and coaching as needs be, but some days meetings prevent me from doing so.

I’m a white male, but I do not feel that has held the progression of my career back any. I work for a nation-wide, American bank which focuses on diversity, but also promotion based on performance. Anyone who works, performs and adds to the bottom line can move up regardless of their race, sex, or any other diverse aspect they may bring to the table.

I would rate my job as a five. There are a lot of office politics played where I work. The problem is a lot of the managers incentives are based off of attrition goals. The lower their attrition numbers, the bigger their incentive. In theory, low attrition is a good thing, but when management consistently turns a blind eye to unethical behavior to protect that incentive, it makes for an unproductive and disheartening work environment.

I learned the hard way early on in my time in this position to choose my battles carefully. When I started I was young and stupid. If I felt someway about something, I had no problem expressing my opinion about it. I ticked off a few higher ranking people, and in the short run had to eat some crow to get back in their good graces. Looking back, it was just me making rookie mistakes. I will still speak up about things, but I have learned to do it in a tactful manner, and only on things about which I’m truly passionate.

Piggybacking on that last response, I wish there was a class in school which taught you how to view things in a more strategic manner, and also be able to read the underlying issues of the situation. That would have aided in me keeping my mouth shut on the more trivial things of our office.

I moved up through the ranks to get to where I’m today. I started in Collections, and was a phone collector for three years. I got tired of harassing people and moved over to our Customer Service department. After a few years on the phones there I wanted to make more money and get off the phones, so I began pursuing the supervisor job path. If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn’t change much because I’m happy with where I am now and where I’m going.

One of the strangest things that happened to me was we had a team member who was rather larger and would randomly faint. No real serious issue caused this, it would just happen. While out on the floor one time we were walking towards each other and sure enough she fainted. I did my best to catch her, but being bigger than me, we both ended up on the floor with her on top of me. We had the Senior Management team in town that day, and they came around the corner to find this large woman laying on me in the middle of the floor. Explaining that took a bit of tact, and we all had a good laugh after the fact, but it was still pretty strange.

The best feeling I have on days when things go well is when my team is out performing everyone else and I get to buy them lunch on the company dime to say thank you. It is fun to have a free lunch, especially when everyone else on the floor gets to see it and knows it is because we rock!

I don’t like dealing with team members who are just there to collect a check. The bulk of my performance is based on their performance, and if they truly don’t want to be there, it is hard to motivate them to do better than the minimum.

My job can be stressful if I make it that way, but I take one day at a time and most things with a grain of salt. I have a great support system of family and friends, and when that five o’ clock whistle blows, I’m out the door to be with them.

I currently make about $45K/year, with a monthly bonus between $400-$600 after taxes. In reality, for what I do, this is a really good wage.

Prior to the Bank Bailouts, my company used to sponsor an all-expenses paid trip for the top 100 employees every year. I won this a few years ago and was able to take my wife with me. It was a huge honor and one of the highlights of my career.

I think the most challenging moment I faced was when we had a team member suffer a heart attack and die on the floor. Although I was off when it happened, my peers who were there handled it poorly so we had to deal with the backlash from that after the fact as well as grieve and help our team members to be able to grieve. That was horrible, and I hope I don’t ever have to do it again.

I have found a lot of success in my ability to communicate and help my team through our every changing environment. I also have a heart for people. This has helped me immensely. If I ever get to the point I find myself not caring about my people, I’ll know it is time for me to find another line of work.

If I had a friend wanting to get into management, I would tell them, you have to love people, and want the best for them.  If they’re getting into it for the money, they will be sadly disappointed.

With this position, I get five weeks of paid vacation, and I take it all. Whereas I like what I do, this job can burn you out if you let it. My time away from the office is very important to me.

One of the common misconceptions, and running joke around the office, is that supervisors are nothing more than adult babysitters. Some days this can be very true, but I try not to buy into that because I don’t want to become jaded about what I do.

A lot of days this job does move me. Especially when I can promote one of my team members or see them succeed, or in those instances where we are speaking with a customer who is in a tough spot and we can help find them a resolution. On those days, it really is fun to be me.

In five years I would like to be a little further up the management chain. The more people I can work with from a management standpoint, the more people I can potentially impact for the good. I would also like to think being a little further up the ladder would allow me to change some of the things which are pain points for us today.

I’m nothing special, although my friends and family might argue differently. I was raised with a strong work ethic which I have employed to get me to where I am today. I would like to think that same ethic would continue to propel me further in my career. I’d also like to think anyone else who works as hard as me can find similar success as well.

Considered working as an Lab Technician? This interview will take you through the ups and downs you can expect in the position, what it takes to land the job, what you can expect to earn and more. This is a true career story as told to LatPro.com for its What They Don’t Teach series and a collection of interviews with Hispanic and bilingual professionals from a Division Leader to a Digital Marketing Contractor, and everything in between.

1. Get general information about your potential employer. You can use the internet to research the business operations of the organization that you want to work with by looking at their recent articles posted on the press or their annual reports. You can also find information about the businesses that they compete with and with this information; you will cause your interviewer to have a feeling of admiration and respect for you.

2. Find information about the businesses that offer stiff competition to the organization you want to work with so that you will display this information in your job interview. You can get information about competitors by researching the companies that sell similar goods or services to the company you want to work with. Having this information will be impressive especially if your interviewer is a manager.

3. Find adequate information about the job you want to get. You can do this by getting detailed information about the specifications of the job from other employees working for the organization. For example, you can ask an employee working for the human resources department about the vacancy and its relationship with other jobs in the organization. You can also get such information from people who work in the field that you want to pursue and find out about what interviewers want job seekers to have when interviewing for such positions.

4. Find information about the values and ideas that the employees of the organization you want to work for regard highly. For example, they may regard values such as entrepreneurship and consensus highly and this can influence the organization to hire different types of people. It will be good for you to talk to other people and find out about these values before your interview date.

5. Get information about the employees who work for the organization you want to apply for a job at and find out the kind of people who do well in the organization. You can do this by using your network of friends to find information about the people who work for the company and you can get information that will help you pass your interview.

6. Find information about the current challenges facing the organization you want to work for from employees. You can have your friends refer you to people who work at the firm and then get this information. It will help you ask and answer interview question efficiently and impress your interviewer.

7. Get some information about your interviewer by searching for the person’s name on websites such as Facebook or Linked In. You can also ask other people if they know about the person. Most interviewers will be impressed if you know something about them.

Having this information with you as you participate in the interview will enable you to portray a good image to your interviewer and increase your chances of getting the job significantly.

Phone interviews are usually the first interview done when someone decides, after looking at your resume, that you could qualify for the open job. That person decides you are “worthy” of a face-to-face interview from what you have on your resume along with your experience, and job skills. The purpose of the phone interview is to confirm that what you say matches the resume. That confirmation then moves you on to a face-to-face interview.

Showing you have the relevant job skills

Your entire goal for the phone interview is to show you have the job skills to do the work. If you show you have the job skills, you can get a face-to-face interview.

This is the time to bold, highlight, and underscore that you possess the skill sets the employer is looking for.

Tie your job skills to business results

Most people can talk about their job skills. Very few take the necessary next step and tie the job skill to a business result they have achieved. That negotiation job skill they have? Great, but then show how that negotiation skill helped resolve a business conflict and helped the business reach a goal. Superior experience in finance? Explain how that experience improved the relevant aspects of your previous department and those around you.

Without this tie between job skills and business results, you won’t make as great an impact on the person doing the interview. Connect your job skills plus business results and you have a competitive advantage over almost all others.

Have interview stories that show using job skills to get results

People remember stories. They may or may not remember facts. After the interviewer has done a full afternoon phone interviews and begins to make recommendations for who to move forward to the next interview phase, who will they remember the best? Most likely the one that told the story of job skills producing business results. They will associate the story with you. So make the interview about job skills and the ways you used them to create results through stories or similar creative methods.

Print out your resume

Phone interviews typically go along with the chronology of the resume. What’s on page one gets asked about first, then the next page. If you’ve done several versions of resumes to more accurately show your work for a given position, having the resume you submitted for that job in front of you will not only help you understand the context of the question asked, but also help you see what is coming next. This improves your answers compared to your competition.

You didn’t sound enthusiastic

You don’t need to be a cheerleader, you must be energetic and lively. Act like you are very interested.  Try getting warmed up before hand. People want to work with people that bring energy to the organization not those that suck the life out of the room.

You weren’t prepared

You weren’t quite sure what the role was or you didn’t know what level the position was. Be sure you gather whatever information you might need to breeze through the interview.  If you are working with a recruiter, they can usually give you the gist of what the client wants and expects. Otherwise you will need to gather information other ways. Reading the job description is always a good start and you can peruse the job descriptions for other jobs with similar titles for additional information

You didn’t know anything about the company

There is no excuse for not looking at the hiring company’s web page, or googling them at a bare minimum.  Knowing not only what the company does, but learning something about their history and culture can always be helpful.

You talked about what you wanted

Most employers don’t really care about what you want or what they can do for you, they want to know what you can do for them.  Plain and simple, your prospective next company wants to know what you bring to the table – Tell them clearly why you are a good value, i.e. you are worth more than they are going to pay you.

You couldn’t discuss your accomplishments

You had better be ready to answer questions about your resume and your background.  Far to often candidates can’t elaborate on their own resume. Remember: the resume is just an outline of yourself, you need to be able to fill in the blanks during an interview.  Read your resume over and over until you know it upside down and backwards.  Be prepared to provide additional details for everything on your resume and in your cover letter.

You didn’t ask any questions

Asking questions about the company, the role, etc. is expected; asking about salary or benefits is not.  Prepare 3-5 questions beforehand.  Be engaged in the process.  It will help you stand out from the crowd.