What Employers Can Deduce 30 Seconds into the Job Interview

Two seemingly nonchalant questions most employers ask before the interview even starts carry a lot more weight than you'd think: "How about this weather?" and "Did you have a hard time finding us?" Although it might seem like an easy way to commiserate—and bond—with strangers, bringing up the temperature or traffic tends to backfire here, even if you've had to navigate an unfamiliar office complex on a massively humid day. "The interviewer knows very little about you, so she's soaking up every little thing to assess who you are," says Allison Green of AskAManager.com. When you gripe about the small stuff, you might as well be saying, "If you hire me, I will respond to every request with an eye-roll and a heavy sigh."