Rambling in interviews

haha I have definitely been there before. I have traumatic memories of flop interviews in which I said some very questionable things that I'm sure I didn't even believe at the time but for some reason felt the need to say anyway..

These days I am way better, but as you can imagine it comes with practice. You are going to need to fail a bit before you get better, I would just suggest failing at things that aren't super important to you. One of my fails was unluckily for a position at an MBB.

The university I attended had an electronic mock-interview room where you would be prompted by an on-screen avatar and then had your answers recorded and played back to you. I found this extremely helpful. If you do not have access to something like this just ask to practice with your friends or record yourself answering random questions on your computer.

If it is the pressure that gets to you of being interviewed by someone "important" I'm not sure what to suggest. I think the confidence that you need to not be intimidated is something that takes time and social experience to gain..

This ended up a long reply haha hope it was helpful!

Listen to their question, take a second or 2 to think about what you'll say, and then answer their question as succinctly as possible. If they want more info, they'll ask for it.

Great tips here!

@"peachfuz" I'm not sure if we have a virtual thing set up, but I'll check with the career services dept at my university. I'm pretty sure that they also offer in-person and phone mock interviews, so I'll definitely check those out.

Also, will try recording myself. Luckily, the people in my lab (I'm a PhD candidate) already think I'm crazy because I sometimes do case interviews over the phone, so it won't be any weirder hah.

@"HFer_wannabe" You're right. In retrospect, I don't think I'm fully taking the time to pause. Do they expect you to think for a few seconds before you start talking? I kind of got used to making it seem conversational, but I guess in an interview setting, they're actually expecting you to set up your answer before you start talking.

@"OpsDude" Yes on the word thing! Haha. It's the WORST when you're still talking and instead of thinking about what you're saying, your head is filled with "agh. stop talking. stop talking. too many words." etc etc

Did you pick the word "smooth" because it sounds relaxing and makes sense in context?

You need to practice. Outline all of your stories, and do 30-40 practice behavioral interviews. If you need to find partners go to consultingcase101.com or caseinterviewpartners.com and swap a case for a practice behavioral interview.

Biggest thing that helped me was, once the interviewer asks me the question I figure out what they really want to hear and emphasize that.

For example, in those questions about conflict they want to hear that you:

1. Considered the other person's point of view.
2. Talked to them and tried to resolve it yourself.
3. Found some sort of compromise or showed the other person that your solution / idea / whatever has their best interests at heart.
4. Only kicked it up to the boss if absolutely necessary.
5. Built a stronger relationship with that person.
6. Had some sort of takeaway about how to resolve that situation in the future.

When you practice your stories enough you'll start to see what's missing and what details you need to emphasize to get the point across. You just want to seem reasonable, intelligent, confident, and assertive. And your story should be tight enough that no follow up questions are necessary,

And remember, always give a takeaway at the end. It's the most important part.

I do this sometimes too. I've been trying to improve on this as well so I've been practicing with friends/colleagues/ etc. Just remember to tie everything back to the question they asked you. As soon as you catch yourself veering off-topic just remind yourself to go back to your main point.

Biggest helpers for me were very, very simple. I sometimes rushed when answering a question and wanted to say everything I possibly could. Now after every question, I take at least a few seconds to think before I speak. It seems like an eternity when your in the interview but not to the interviewer. Also, if I find myself rambling a bit, I just take a deep breath, and wrap up my answer. Very simple, yet very effective.

Check this out for a more thorough guide that I put together a few weeks ago:

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/fitbehavioral-interviews-a-crash-…

let me guess, you respond to each question within a second or two of hearing it? stop doing that. pause, think about the question, say something like "hmm" so the interviewer doesn't think you've frozen, and answer. you'll find that what often happens is when you immediately respond to something you haven't had time to think thoroughly on, your thoughts are jumbled, therefore your speech is jumbled.

if you think about what you're going to say so your thoughts are clear & concise, you will speak clearly and concisely. watch how politicians conduct Q&A, many times they will pause deliberately before the answer. what happens during an interview is your nerves make you eager to respond to a question immediately, but this is often to our detriment. slow yourself down, pause, think & respond instead of responding immediately.

I also agree that more practice will build your skills. Being prepared and writing down answers to questions on index cards before your interview can build your confidence. Having good posture and positive language is huge, as non-verbal communication will be a key component of your interviews. Even if it's a phone interview, dress the part and display the body language you would want to show for an interview in person.

I believe that less is more. Let them ask more questions on your response. Screenwriters or authors often say, "Show, don't tell." So don't say "I handled this by XYZ", show them by elaborating upon your past work experience and leadership that you are qualified for this internship or position.

Another thing I would add is that sometimes nervousness or fear comes from putting the interviewer on a pedestal. Relax. Breathe. They are just another person like you. Sometimes I imagine the face they make when they take a dump and it brings me back to Earth.

Practice + record

Ask a friend -> always get a second opinion no matter how good u think u sound

I used to do this a lot as well. It just comes with practice.

Relax and think before you speak. Sometimes it's easy to just immediately answer questions because you've prepared an answer and you think the interviewer doesn't want to waste their time. Usually in the 5-10 seconds after I know what the question is I mentally lay out a road map of what I want to say and how I'm going to end my answer.

Just know where you're going before you start talking.

Sometime it is the uncomfortable silence that makes people ramble in formal occasion. Silence is not the enemy, especially if you were able to answer the question concisely. If the interviewer wants elaboration, they will certainly ask.

practice saying answers out loud. most people do interview prep mentally and don't even use their vocal cords...

this is key, say it out loud to a pet or something, or your sibling

Practice with someone. I had the exact same problem, I ramble and worse, go off tangent. After doing countless hours of mock interviews, I can confidently say that I am better.

I personally like the idea of taking a deep breathe before answering. It gives you time to formulate your thoughts and also present to your interviewer that your answer was well thought out, and more importantly, not overly scripted.

Not rambling is a learned skill.

Interviewers, especially in S&T, like to leave awkward pauses in sentences to invite you to give more information.

As a quant, I often find myself in technical interviews. I often find ways to make the questions a little bit more interesting and sometimes bend them in ways the interviewer hadn't anticipated. And when I face a tough technical question, my first response is to gather a few pieces of information.

Security pricing EG: "This is a European call option, right? No early exercise features?"

Sorting questions EG: "This data isn't partially sorted, right? (Eliminate quadratic bubble sort) Is it discrete? Continuous? (Can we radix it or must we comparison sort?)"

(1) this shows the interviewer you know what you're doing (2) if this is turning into a stress-type interview, I can sometimes get the interviewer off his game a little bit.

At the end of the day, an interview is a conversation with a lot of back-and-forth. The interviewer asks you technical a question- you ask a question or two back.

Interviewing, including the non-rambling aspect of it, is a learned skill. The more you interview, the better you get at it.

Interesting thanks.

When I started with phone interviews I remember it being a hell for me, non native speaker... I found out that if you have a shot or two of vodka/drink of your choice, it will calm you down a lot and make you stop rambling as you are more focused (aware of having a drink or two). Gave that advice to couple of people and they agreed with me.. of course don't over do it... and also works for phone interviews only (when they cant smell it from your breath)