The job market is difficult. So when candidates get interviews, they’re often incorporating all the skills, accomplishments, and experiences they can muster into the interview process, hoping to outperform the competition.
Sounds reasonable, right? Mistaken. Hiring managers often disengage in such cases, causing qualifications to quickly backfire. It’s what Marc Cendella, CEO of the professional platform Ladders, calls the “inflation response.”
Answer inflation occurs when seasoned professionals respond to interview questions with long summary recitations and meandering stories that bury their real value, he explains.
Take as an example the classic: “Tell me about yourself.” It is the question that most interviews begin with. And while it may seem pretty simple, there’s actually an art to delivering a strong introductory speech to grab the hiring manager’s attention right from the start.
“Many candidates think the interviewer is trying to socialize or make small talk, but that’s rarely the case,” Cendella said. fast company.
“This question can tell the interviewer a lot. When asked an open-ended question, do you take the opportunity to respond thoughtfully? Can you prioritize and organize your thoughts under pressure? Or are you rambling and caught off guard?”
“Tell me about yourself” is also not an opportunity to detail your entire life story. An answer full of irrelevant details and outdated roles is more likely to lose the hiring manager’s attention midway than to impress them with your decades of experience.
While you may think that the more information you can include, the better, Cendella says the opposite is often true.
“Hiring managers see it again and again: Seasoned professionals tend to assume that their longer track record requires longer explanations,” he explains. “As a result, they will answer interview questions with long stories that bury their real value. Or they simply list all their past roles and accomplishments, as if reading a resume.”
Instead, cut out the fat and replace vague descriptions with measurable achievements.
“Think about the key challenges hiring managers face and how your past experience could fill in the gaps,” explains Cendella. “Each answer you have should lead to a clear and compelling narrative about why you are the solution to their current problem.”
He recommends taking two or three concise examples that demonstrate impact and letting the numbers do the talking.
Let’s imagine you are in the process of obtaining a project manager position. Instead of talking about your years in project management, use this script as an example: “In my last role, I inherited a project that was three months behind schedule and fixed it in six weeks by implementing clearer communication channels and regular team check-ins,” he says.
It’s clear, concise, and not bogged down by answer inflation.
Remember the golden rule: show, don’t tell.