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This
blog post follows on from my previous blog post: Interview Preparation: What to
Do When You Can’t Answer a Question. Now, if you’re one of those savvy
individuals who thinks they can or will be able to answer interview questions, have
you thought about how you’re going to answer – literally. I’m not talking about
the structure of your content; I’m talking about how you are presenting your
content. The most important thing to remember is that your interview is not a
presentation it is a Q&A. There is a distinct difference. For example, the
interviewer may ask ‘In relation to your CV and past experience, tell me a bit
about yourself?’ one candidate may spend 40 seconds to 1 minute answering and
another may spend 8 minutes answering. Content wise these answers could be just
as good as each other, but the point is that the latter candidate isn’t being a
savvy interviewee.
Here
is what I mean by that:
1) Duration
Talking
at your interviewer the whole time is not going to earn you any brownie points.
You may feel that a longer answer is essentially a better answer but it isn’t. You
should aim to keep standard answers below two minutes, this will ensure that
the interviewer can take the lead with questions, won’t get bored or god forbid
start looking at their watch. The more succinct and concise you can be with
your answers then the better.
2) Don’t
explain everything
The
reason for keeping the duration of your answers down is because it will prevent
you from digressing, and if you’re not careful you could forget the question
you were even asked. As well it will ensure that you don’t over explain everything.
If your interviewer is seeking clarification, they will certainly ask for it.
3) Keep
it relevant
This
expands on the pointer above. You should keep your answers as relevant as
possible. For example, if they are asking you about a specific marketing
placement that you undertook, don’t start talking about any other placements in
your answer unless it has in direct relevance.
4) Don’t
give too much away
It’s
important to keep composed in an interview so that you can provide succinct and
concise answers. However, I’ve known some interviewers to ask the same question
twice. For instance, they may ask ‘what do you consider to be your weakness?’
you may then produce your prepared answer, but your interviewer may not be
satisfied with it. When they ask again, the worst answer that you could give is
something along the lines of ‘another weakness is that I can be lazy’. This
answer will set alarm bells off in the interviewer’s head. So, even if you have
to sit for a minute and think about your answer, then that is better than
giving too much away.
5) Body
language
As
a last pointer, you may want to think about the body language you’re presenting
to your interviewer. For example, you should keep your arms unfolded, shoulders
down and relaxed, keep consistent eye contact and sit in an upright posture.
You would be surprised at the amount you can give away or the negative
impressions you can impose through use of body language.
You
can also take note of the body language of interviewer especially when you are
answering their questions. For example, if you’ve been talking for too long
your interviewer may look away, look at their watch, fidget or blankly stare at
you. These are all signs that you should be aware of when answering interview
questions.
Lastly, have a listen to the Guardian Careers podcast: Five Steps for Interview Success http://careers.guardian.co.uk/audio/careers-talk-five-steps-for-interview-success, I found it interesting.
Do
you have any suggestions/requests for upcoming interview blog posts? Send or
tweet them to me.
