Being told you need to be more concise in job interviews can be frustrating, especially when you're not sure what you're doing wrong.
If you find yourself rambling, overexplaining or losing track of your point, the solution isn't necessarily to make your interview answers shorter.
In this week's episode, Sarah and Emma unpack why interview answers can sometimes turn into long-winded stories, how to structure your examples to avoid waffling, and why being concise is about cutting the confusion, not the details that make your answers great.
🏀 Shoot Your Shot - Shoutout to Lonny who bought us 5 coffees!
"Dear Emma and Sarah, I've been waiting to send this email for years! I began listening to your podcast in 2023 while I was preparing for an interview for a manager role at my company. I was a successful individual contributor in a technical role shooting for a manager spot in my department. I did not end up getting the job. I was told that my interview was one of the best of the lot. However, lack of supervision experience is what ultimately lost me the job. I've spent the last 3 years working in supervisor roles in 2 different areas of the company that were outside of my area of expertise. I took advantage of your coffee chat strategies and have created a good mentor relationship with a senior leader at my organization. These moves have not only been great in building my leadership skills, I've also been getting perspective from different departments and learning how my company operates. I feel like I have a much better systemic understanding of the business and have learned so many interesting things. A few months ago, the same Manager role from 2023 opened again. Though I have been out of the group for 3 years, I knew I would be competitive in the pool of strong candidates. Especially with my added supervision experience. I spent the last month re-listening through your episodes and prepping my best bit notebook that I have been keeping for this moment. I was feeling confident going into interview day, and I absolutely crushed it. I took advantage of the 'tell me about yourself' question to highlight my previous attempt at the role and everything I have done to improve myself since then. I brought it around full circle. None of the behavioral questions gave me pause. And we spent more time discussing the questions I had prepared than we did on their questions! This week, I was offered and accepted the role. Along with a 25+% pay raise with a much larger bonus as well. I am so happy and excited to get started in my new role! Thank you both so much for all of the wisdom, insight, and laughs over the years. I know I will continue to listen to and share your show and the resources you provide as long as you continue to make content. Cheers, (Not Australian) - Lonny."
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