Are you talking too much in your interview?

With almost a decade of experience in recruiting, I have learned several immutable truths. One of them is this: People who finish an interview with regrets, usually did better than they believed they did and people who tell you they crushed it, very rarely did.

Why the disparity? I believe it has to do with self-awareness. A self-aware person always believes they could have done better in an interview. They think back through the questions they gave perfectly good answers to and wish they had added a detail or a fact to support their answer. They are aware of the answer they gave and the answer they may have given if they had time to prepare for that specific question, or had been less nervous when answering it.

Those without self-awareness think they crushed the interview. They spent the entire time telling the interviewer how great they are and what a good fit they would be without coming up for air. They finish the interview and think that having dominated the interview means that they did well. Intelligent, accomplished professionals make this mistake every day. They are the ones who seek to "win" an interview and their mindset often keeps them from getting the jobs they want.

The balance of a good interview should involve the candidate doing about 60% of the speaking and the interviewer doing about 40% of it. That's what any candidate should be targeting. Sometimes it can't be helped. Not every hiring manager is good at interviewing and it's possible that you will need to carry more of the conversation. Some interviewers don't ask the right questions and spend so much time telling you about the company and the job that you worry you won't get a chance to mention your best qualities and attributes.

So, what's the key to not talking too much? It's pretty simple.

1. Listen. Make sure you are actively listening to what your interviewer is saying and asking. Ask clarifying questions and then only answer the question that is asked.
2. Don't interrupt. If you find yourself trying to answer a question before they are finished asking it, slow down. Let them finish speaking, take a full breath, then answer. Get into the habit of taking a quick pause between questions and answers.
3. Stay on target. Answer the question they ask, not the question you want to answer. Don't talk in circles. Focus on the question and answer it succinctly but fully. If you don't know something, say so. Don't try to talk around it. A rambling answer that doesn't answer the question isn't fooling anyone. An honest assessment of your skill set might still score you points. Bonus points for talking about how learning that skill is something that excites you about the role.
4. Ask questions. If you're doing most of the talking the interview isn't going very well. Ask questions to involve the interviewer. Do: Ask questions like- If you hired me, what's something that I could immediately take off your plate to help you out? Don't: Ask how many PTO and sick days you get in your first year. Ask questions that help them see you as a solution to their problems instead of another problem they have to deal with every day.
5. Take notes. When an interviewer asks a long-winded question with multiple parts and you feel the urge to jump in and start answering it before they are done, simply jot down a note with a keyword that will remind you to make that point when it is your turn to answer. You may even start your interview off by asking if they mind if you take notes so they know what you're doing. It shows engagement and is a trait of someone who cares about what the interviewer is saying.

In closing, you have to be self-aware to interview well. If you know that you're a talker or have a tendency to ramble, you need to use these tricks and others to slow down and answer the questions that are asked. Practice answering common, open-ended questions that can easily find you talking too much. When they say, "Tell me about yourself," they don't want a re-cap of your entire career or to know that you won your 3rd-grade Spelling Bee. You can anticipate a question like this or one like it and have a succinct, practiced answer ready to go that doesn't take more than a minute or two to answer. Remember, you never make a friend by only talking about yourself. You rarely succeed in an interview with that strategy either.

Do you have any tips you can share about tactics you've used to make sure you don't over-talk in an interview?