From the book How to Prepare for an Employment Interview.
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[Chapter 4: continued from here]...Employers don't choose the best person when they're hiring. There's a good chance that person never even made it to the interview. What employers actually select is the person who offers them the lowest perceived risk, or the person who best taps into their ambitions.
When you don't want to alleviate the employer's worries
You don't want to remove all of the employer's fears about making a bad hiring decision. Ideally, what you'd love to do is leave them worrying about hiring the wrong person, but feeling comfortable with the decision to hire you.
This means that sometimes you'll actually want to reinforce an employer's fears-let them see in gruesome detail just how easily they could be led astray and the horrible effects of a bad decision. Then you'll show them how, in your case-but just your case-such fears are unwarranted.
A warning-although you'd be quite happy if the interviewer concludes that all of the other people being interviewed are flawed, the last thing you want to do is tell them that directly. Never badmouth the other interviewees-either as a group or individually. Making negative comments about anyone will only make you look bitter and unkind, and will likely kill any chance you have of being made an offer.
You must take an indirect approach. Don't say anything about the other interviewees. You want to help steer the employer toward using the measuring sticks that will make you look better than the competition. Help them see the high costs of selecting someone who doesn't measure up by those standards.
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