Mira Zaslove is a HR expert, and has hired hundreds of people in her career.
You should never swear when being interviewed for a job. Most individual words by themselves won’t really impact your chances and can be used, depending upon the context, and meaning. However, swear words show bad judgement and can only hurt, not help your chances.
I actually made this mistake on my first job interview out of college. And it cost me the job.
And the reason I made the mistake? I was so comfortable in the interview, that I began talking to the interviewer like he was my friend. I let my guard down and came off as immature and rude.
I was interviewing for a job at eBay, in 1999, which would have been a great opportunity. All of the initial and early round interviews went well, and on the final interview I was interviewing with the decision maker – the man who would be my boss.
The conversation was flowing smoothly and we had instant rapport. I thought it was going great. Then at the end, the interviewer mentioned a mutual acquaintance — an infamously rude person. This mutual acquaintance was a huge jerk, and without thinking I called him a total asshole. We laughed, and I felt like we were sharing an inside joke.
I left, thinking that the job was mine. However, when I got the call from the recruiter, it was to tell me that I was not hired. Initially I figured I didn’t get the job because I didn’t have enough experience – after all, this would be my first full-time job.