Less is More: How to Avoid Becoming Long-Winded Job Candidates

‘Tell me about yourself. What brings you here?’

Upon hearing such questions during a job interview, do you think the hiring manager wants to know everything about you all at once? Well, if you presume this, you are wrong. This question is not a cue for you to babble non-stop for minutes. Slow down and take it easy!

No matter how many times you have been invited to job interviews, each session always comes with different surprise and experience for most people. Often seen as the most daunting step in hiring process, some people might suffer from interview stress. If you find sweaty palms, dry throat, nausea, pounding heart, and even trembling hands before entering the interview room, you need to calm down.

Interview anxiety might affect differently to different people. When they are nervous, some people can be extremely shy that they find difficulty in arranging their words and answering to questions. On the other hand, some other people could become very talk-active when they are tensed, that they often end up talking too much.

Neither being overly shy or talkative is good for your image during an interview. When you close yourself, the interviewer will not gain much information from you. However, if you showcase your gift of gab way too much, you might lose out on the opportunity to land a dream job too. Some job seekers are screwing up on interviews simply because they don’t know how and when to stop talking. The moment they open their mouth, they keep going on endless, revealing too much information (even the irrelevant ones) and thus boring the interviewers.

Here are some tips on how you could avoid talking too much during an interview:

1. Ask for clarification

Sometimes, job seekers end up talking way too much because they do not understand the question in the first place. If you face similar situation during the job interview and are not sure of what is expected in response, don’t be afraid to seek clarification from the interviewer. Only when you understand what the real question is, can you provide better answers.

2. Ask the interviewer

The question is thrown and the answer has been given accordingly. But why do the interviewer says nothing and keep staring at you? Within such scenario, you might think that they demand some more information from you. Rather than start your babble, don’t hesitate to ask the interviewer if they want further details. If they say your answer is not sufficient, explain the necessary details, concise and straight to the point.

3. Ask a question

Indeed, there are some questions that require long answers. Nonetheless, it is inevitable that sometimes interviewers are distracted and lose their focus. To avoid pointless rambling without getting the interviewer’s attention, you should make sure that they stay engaged in the discussion. You can ask questions such as, ‘Do I make myself clear?’ or ‘Would you like some details?’ The purpose of such questions is to keep the interviewers alert with your answer.

You might think that a job interview is the perfect place where you can sell yourself to the future employer. However, it is important to make note of the fact that an interviewer is a human, they can be bored too.

As the old adage goes, ‘less is more’. Rather than going on endless irrelevant explanations, long and pointless mumble, it would be better if you could communicate your answer effectively in short, brief straight points.

Since you will not be the only one on the candidate list to be interviewed, you should stay precise, control venting emotions and make sure to retain employer attention – to leave a positive impression on their minds.