How not to get hired

I participated in a job interview and review today where we opted to pass on a candidate for the sole reason that he was too negative.

He had worked at a company that was, by all standards, dysfunctional (and is now shut down). He worked on a project that has been poorly received in the marketplace. He took on a wide variety of tasks on that project and completed them effectively.

Here is how he presented that history: he worked with idiots, his project sucked, and he kept adding taks to his plate because his coworkers were unwilling to do unattractive (though necessary) jobs.

When asked directly what he would have changed about the company or the project, he had no ready answer. He really had to think, and even then his answers were composed entirely of "not do this" and "fix that" and "correct this person's mistake." None of his answers were positive or actionable, such as "do this" or "add that" or "redo my work in this superior way."

We tested him thoroughly, as we do all candidates. He complained several times, to several different people, about the amount of work required to complete our tests (even mentioning more than once that he should be paid to do that much work).

Here are some examples of how he could have experienced exactly the same set of circumstances, and been exactly as honest, and also been positive (and likely have been hired):

"My last project could have been successful if we had..."

"I did my best to help the team get everything done, whatever it took."

"Your tests are very thorough. You must have highly qualified staff!"

When faced with tough times, the successful and inspiring and desirable approach is: Take on what you can handle. Encourage your teammates and seek ways to meet goals while keeping everyone sane. After the tough times are over, use hindsight to look at the situation anew and figure out ways it could have been made easier or been handled more effectively. Focus on what people did right and how to do more of that.

Being negative doesn't just make the hard times harder. It can directly prevent you from getting into a better situation (as it did in this case), because people want to work with positive, supportive, solution-oriented, learning coworkers.