Know When To Stop Talking In Your Interview
Darin Ward
IT Leader | Strategic Planning and Execution, Program Management, Business Alignment, Continuous Improvement, Efficiency Driver
Recently I found myself helping someone practice questions for an interview. She handed me a long list potential questions for her upcoming interview and together we began drafting thoughtful answers.
As I read through the questions, I had a flashback to a previous interview I had and I mentally rolled my eyes at a few of the questions. Some were awful. But since you never know what you will be asked, it’s best to be prepared for anything that may come your way - the good and the bad.
One of my favorite questions on the "bad list" is, “Why should we hire you”? This is a telltale sign that the interviewer really doesn’t know how to interview a candidate. Often it comes at the end of the interview. It’s a catch-all question that shows the ill-prepared interviewer hasn’t either asked all the right questions or doesn’t know how to tack a conversation to ask the deep-probing follow-up questions to your answers. In other words, they lack active listening skills.
So how do you answer this question? I recall receiving this question in a face-to-face interview myself. For a split second I thought to myself, “Wow, this woman is 25 years my senior and didn’t hear a word that I said for the last hour.” I was able to steer the conversation a bit where it needed to go, but it seemed like we met mediocrity. To be fair, there were others on the interview panel who impressed me. So overall my feelings were positive.
Finally, the manager hit me with the last-ditch, catch-all question, “Why should we hire you?”, I kept it short, looked right at her and answered, “Because you won’t regret it.”
That’s it. I stopped talking. I was careful not to exude arrogance with my body language. She was quiet for a moment as she absorbed the idea. The unspoken message I delivered was clear. Confidence. "You asked all the questions you wanted to ask. I am capable of doing this job well."
If I would have taken the opportunity to talk, it would have been defensive posturing because all I would have done was recapped topics we already covered. And I could have talked myself out of the job. At that moment, silence spoke louder than words. The next day she offered me the position.