How Much is Too Much – What Not to Overdo in an Interview
Three things could happen during the course of your job search.
1) You get into almost all first-round interviews (you must have a very strong resume) but you don’t land anything for real. 2) You don’t break through to many first-round interviews but you got almost all the offers from those firms you interviewed with(You must be great at interviews). 3) You hardly get interviews and you don’t get offers (er…I’ll leave you alone for now).
Let’s focus on the first scenario. So you have a strong resume, and they would like to know you more. You feel you did a pretty good job at your interview, but what could possible go wrong?
Don’t Overshare
You can’t imagine how many people don’t know how to answer “tell me about yourself”. This is NOT a question to invite you to elaborate on your life-time stories, how many guys you dated, how your parents divorced when you were nine, or even how you did part-time jobs for all college years to finance your own education (save that for later). It is simply a question of “what are your major skills/qualities that will contribute to this job?”
So now what? Highlight your education which gave you a good foundation of a certain market/sector, point out one major experience that is very related to the position you’re applying for, and mention you’re very excited/passionate/motivated/curious about this industry and the firm. That’s it. That’s concise and pretty.
Don’t Oversell
So I was interviewing with a major consulting firm my senior year at college and this was the second round interview (out of the three rounds). Different from many others I’ve had, there were no brain-twisters or case studies, and all we did for the first half hour was talking about his travel experiences in Europe. In the final 10 minutes, he finally moved on to my resume, didn’t ask any of my internship/working experiences, but just casually asked about a few organizations I was involved in.
I was very surprised. Toward the end I decided to take some initiatives myself so I said something in line with: you know I am very excited about this opportunity and I really like your firm, and I think my blablabla experiences will help me to contribute more to your organization. I looked at the interviewer anxiously and was expecting him to ask me to tell him more.
But he rolled up his eyes and then smiled and said, yes I know. These are all great, and you certainly proved you’re a very solid candidate during your first-round of interview (a quite creative case question). The further you go, the more you should be laid back. Of course you’re excited about this, we all do, and your skills and qualities are all out there as we all can see and feel. But you need to relax, you need to let these things naturally flow. No need to push for anything.
Later on I realized you don’t always have to say it out that you’re good. People can tell anyway.
Don’t Overwhelm
A friend was interviewing with one of the most prestigious investment banks. He met with multiple members on the team and the conversation went very well, until the last one with the staffer. Half way through the interviewer said let me tell you more about our group. For some reason he got this weird impression that the staffer thought he’s not qualified to be on the team and said, No. I know what your group does. And if I want to be a part of your group, I should know this, right?
What jump to your mind? Surprised? Too defensive? Too aggressive? No matter how you were mistaken about the interviewer’s attitude, that one “NO” is strong enough to overwhelm him, and makes him wonder: why are you getting so defensive and almost aggressive simply because I want to tell you more about what I do?
Even though you already know all the answers, it doesn’t hurt to sit straight and listen up. After all, typically the person on the other side of the table has longer experiences both in the industry and with the group. No matter how good you feel about yourself, you need to and should listen to what he has to say, especially during an interview!
The last thing you want to do in an interview, among others, is to overwhelm, scare or intimidate your interviewer. Believe me it happens. Let’s hope it will not happen to you.
This is VERY helpful! I’m often intimidated by interviews and your article gives a lot of useful advice(especially the one about how to respond to the “tell me about yourself” question)! What do you think is the appropriate way to react when the interviewer just keeps talking about himself? Should we just relax and listen? Oh and just out of curiosity:did you get the third round interview at that consulting firm? Again,great blog!
Thanks for stopping by and I am glad you found this helpful. I think the best thing to do when the interviewer keeps talking about himself is 1) Listen, smile, nod, and make him feel good. 2) try to relate to your own experience. If he talks about traveling or learning a foreign language, after he’s almost done, you could say something like: I had very similar experiences when I was studying abroad at XXX, and then start tell him more about yourself as well.
I did get into 3rd round. Sometimes it’s hard to tell I agree, coz ultimately it’s someone else making the decision. But the more practice you do the better you will get, no matter it’s behavorial or case interview.