What are the negative characteristics of an applicant / candidate?

We as a Manager HR are not suppose to find out the negativity in the candidates.  We just evaluate how good he/she could be if hired.

I would say too many career paths and jobs previously held.

In other words jumping around through career from one employer to another,stability is important.

Lack of focus and preparation for the interview well

There are no negative characteristics which you can pick up in few minutes or hours from any body easily. Whatever we said here as negatives, I feel they are first impression or appearance characteristics and they will not depict what the person is...

Each person has there own strengths and weeknesses. It is very difficult to pick these things in a person, unless we use suitable tools or evaluation methods to do so. Finding the candidates strengths and evaluating whether he fits the bill is essential. But we dont see this everywhere..offcourse strengh finding is a tough task.

What we look for is whether he has EEE (Experience, Exposure, Education) and needed personality to fit the post.

His talk about things in excess of the question

Lack of appropriate choice of specialization

Could be many, but some of them are:

1. Coming late for interview.

2. Dress code not followed   

3. Chewing gum and answering phone during interview.

4. Argue on company policy and procedure.

5. Talking negative about ex-company.

6. Complaining about service you provide for recruitment- (Tip: Even if things are not going well , candidate should respect it, because he is looking for job).

7. Answering a question of "What you want to join us" with I do not need job; I just want to pass the time.

etc

when negotiating salary or discusses holidays in interview

Lack of self-confidence - Frequency

Who is not interested in knowing his roles and responsibilities doent show confidence and will only ask about salary date , salary hikes etc. Will feel very desperate for a job.

While hiring an employee we should always concentrate on the positive side of candidate,during interaction we can easily find what are positive impact and what are negative impact of a candidate.

But remember negatives can be erased easly by proper feedback and trainings.