As a job seeker, unless you’re my grandmother, you’ve got no business calling me honey, sweetie, dear or sugar pants (Okay, I threw that last one in just for fun).  Especially when you’re interviewing for a job! As a recruiter for FutureStaff, I see men & women do it every day.  It’s the verbal equivalent of wearing glitter to an interview!

Most people prefer to be addressed in the manner they introduce themselves.  “Hi, I’m Bob…Katie…Mrs. Smith…or simply- Goddess of Staffing.”  If you forget someone’s name in any situation, good old ma’am and sir still work!  This is crucial in an interview.  You may have only minutes in a job interview to convince this person why they should hire you over the one hundred or so other people who applied for the same job.

How to score with Lisa
When you go to a restaurant, there’s an entire process the waitress will go through to make sure you’re using the correct name.  She’ll introduce herself as “ Lisa” and point out that she also has a name tag to reinforce that this is how she’d like to be addressed.  Waitresses are BUSY!  I’m pretty sure “Lisa” wouldn’t go through all that trouble if it wasn’t important for her to be called “Lisa.”

Have you ever noticed folks at a restaurant addressing their waitress as sweetie, honey, sugar?  Have you ever done it?  I challenge you to make a specific point of learning and using your waitresses’ name the next time you go out to eat.  See if your service is better than the next table where they’re calling the waitress “sweetie.”  See if the waitress doesn’t give you a little extra attention.  She may not even realize consciously that she’s doing it! 

Please don’t sue me!
Most interviews are conducted by Human Resource Managers.  Name games are irritating to them, but there’s another reason this will knock you out of the running.  HR Managers are trained to look for ways to eliminate potential lawsuits.  By calling them sweetie, you’re putting up a red flag.  You call the wrong person sweetie on the job and you could be looking at a big sexual harassment case.  In most cases, they will just go with another candidate.  You’ll be stuck wondering why you didn’t get the job.

Not Common Sense?
About a million books have been written about first impressions and relationships.  My personal favorite is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.  One of the main messages in this book is very simple.  People just love to hear their own name (caveat-you must be sincere).  Learning and using other’s names can make a HUGE difference in how they interact with you.    This is true in interviewing and in your whole life.  Try it!