There’s an old adage when it comes to sales in general: once you’ve closed the sale, shut up, say thank you, and leave. That’s after you have closed the deal – obviously. Can that adage be applied elsewhere? What happens when it’s in the interview process itself? Can you talk too much or say the wrong thing to an interviewer? Let’s dig into that today.
The Starting Point
It’s obvious that you can always say the wrong thing and talk yourself out of a position, but can you talk too much? The answer is yes. We’ll start with how much one should converse during the interview, then we’ll explore what to say to whom next. We recommend that a candidate does not “hold down the fort,” so to speak, for more than two minutes per question. For example, if a hiring manager poses a prompt such as, “Tell me about yourself,” you should answer the question by sharing about yourself, but only around two minutes. This is a prompt that is always given in an initial interview. After answering, turn it back to the interviewer for more specifics he or she would like you to elaborate on. This gives control back to the interviewer and shows you are a team player as well as a good conversationalist.
Elaborate With Awareness
Another piece of advice is to never answer a question with a simple yes or no. Closed-ended answers do not lead to offers, yet open-ended answers do. Let’s flesh it out with an example. The interviewer asks, “Have you done revenue bond financing?” How can you answer that well? If you say yes and move on, it’s not powerful. Try saying, “Yes I have and let me tell you about the last toll bridge deal I worked on…” These more specific answers yield much better results. Also, you must know the audience that you are addressing. Here’s where saying too much creeps up. You are talking to an interviewer, you know their expertise, and what they are looking for is a candidate like you to join their successful hospital financing group. However, you talk about your experience working with water districts and school financings you’d like to be working on as part of their team, not hospital districts. You clearly have not read the audience. Going on about other sectors and niches, even though you are a qualified candidate, is going to present problems when you are being evaluated after the interview process. There’s nothing wrong with showing initiative, but you must show your complete awareness of the group you are interviewing with.
Back To Basics: Focus
The above example may have been seemingly basic, yet sometimes the more basic the better to get across an important point. Missing the basics happens way too often when a candidate is interviewing. The tips in this blog may sound obvious, but when nerves kick in we tend to be taken off our game. Making a conversational flow with the interviewer goes a long way. So, when preparing for your interview, truly focus on what the needs of the hiring manager are, not necessarily your needs (at least in that first crucial interview).
Conclusion
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About Harlan Friedman, JD & Founding Member, H. Friedman Search LLC. Harlan is a thirty-year veteran Public Finance Banker turned recruiter who specializes in the placement of all levels Public Finance Bankers, Healthcare Bankers, Municipal Advisors, Compliance Officers, Issuers, and Bond Counsels.