Conciseness in interviews

[SaadN]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone could offer tips on my interview technique.

I was recently interviewed by a partner and senior associate at a US firm. It was my first interview in a long time, and what I immediately felt was a tension between being concise and to the point with my answers, and trying to show them the full breadth of my skills, motivation and research.

For example, when they asked me "How are we different from similar firms", I gave them the differences, but was wondering if I should go further and explain why those differences matter to me.
Or, if they asked me about a situational judgement question, I would tell them what I would do and why, but was wondering if I was should use a past example from my career to further flesh out my decision.

I think I had a fear that the interviewers might get impatient, or that they were busy people and needed to finish the interview on time, or that they might get annoyed if they perceive I'm going off on a tangent. I also relied overly on the interviewers to ask me follow-up questions, but they never materialised.

Does anyone have any advice on navigating this please?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone could offer tips on my interview technique.

I was recently interviewed by a partner and senior associate at a US firm. It was my first interview in a long time, and what I immediately felt was a tension between being concise and to the point with my answers, and trying to show them the full breadth of my skills, motivation and research.

For example, when they asked me "How are we different from similar firms", I gave them the differences, but was wondering if I should go further and explain why those differences matter to me.
Or, if they asked me about a situational judgement question, I would tell them what I would do and why, but was wondering if I was should use a past example from my career to further flesh out my decision.

I think I had a fear that the interviewers might get impatient, or that they were busy people and needed to finish the interview on time, or that they might get annoyed if they perceive I'm going off on a tangent. I also relied overly on the interviewers to ask me follow-up questions, but they never materialised.

Does anyone have any advice on navigating this please?

The short answer is:

Does the content answer the question?

In the examples above, your initial approach is right as you are answering the questions.

But you are over anticipating other questions you might be asked or trying to show other aspects that are not being asked of in the question when you say should you go on to say what it’s important to you or detailing a past example. The questions are not asking you to do this, so you don’t need to.

But what you can do is bring elements into your initial part of the answer that briefly reference the more full details you wondering if you should include.

For instance, with the “how are we different” question, you could choose 2 key reasons why the firm is different by its strategy/work, and then could always select a third point that is more about how you have found the firm different, and why you think that is a good thing.

For the SJ questions, a brief reference like “I have taken similar approaches when I worked at Joe Bloggs Ltd, which resulted in…..” is sufficient. You don’t need to go into a full STAR format of answer.

 

[SaadN]

The short answer is:

Does the content answer the question?

In the examples above, your initial approach is right as you are answering the questions.

But you are over anticipating other questions you might be asked or trying to show other aspects that are not being asked of in the question when you say should you go on to say what it’s important to you or detailing a past example. The questions are not asking you to do this, so you don’t need to.

But what you can do is bring elements into your initial part of the answer that briefly reference the more full details you wondering if you should include.

For instance, with the “how are we different” question, you could choose 2 key reasons why the firm is different by its strategy/work, and then could always select a third point that is more about how you have found the firm different, and why you think that is a good thing.

For the SJ questions, a brief reference like “I have taken similar approaches when I worked at Joe Bloggs Ltd, which resulted in…..” is sufficient. You don’t need to go into a full STAR format of answer.

This is brilliant, thanks so much Jessica! More art than science it seems.