Silence is Golden When Interviewing: Listen More to Speak Strategically
To listen is to ingest, engage, and understand. Top interviewers, speakers, and anyone who wants to maintain good relationships are active, avid listeners. Here are some tips to having better, conversational interviews. Listen up! 🎧
HIT THE BULLSEYE
During mock interview practice sessions, I’ve noticed that sometimes job seekers answer right away and end up blabbing about something a little tangential. They may have hit the target, but they missed the mark; their response didn’t deliver what I was asking for on the bullseye.
What does that tell me? They didn’t really listen to the question. They heard me and gave me a response, but they didn’t respond to my question.
This can put a candidate at a disadvantage if the interviewer didn’t hear what they were looking for especially if another candidate hit the bullseye.
NOCK, DRAW, AIM, FIRE
🧘 Be present
Breathe and focus on what they’re saying. My favorite traditional Chinese character is a lesson in it of itself on how to really listen. 聽 (tīng) meaning "listen" includes the characters for not only ear / 耳, but also eyes / 眼 and heart / 心.
Prevent distractions by putting your phone on Do Not Disturb. If you’re interviewing remotely, ask those (ie. family, roommates) nearby to refrain from entering the room or walking by.
🙊 Silence is golden
You do not have to respond immediately once a question has been asked—though you can if you’re really enthusiastic. Otherwise, digest what you heard and collect your thoughts. If the silence makes you uncomfortable, you can justify it and buy yourself a little more time with:
“Thank you for your question. Hmm 🤔 Give me a moment.”
While jumping to answer excitedly can demonstrate your enthusiasm for the topic, sometimes taking a moment can demonstrate your confidence, control, and levelheadedness.
✨ Clarify or restate
Restate the question as you begin your response. This demonstrates that you were actively listening and engaged. If need be, don’t be afraid to ask a clarifying question.
“When you say, ‘describe the engagement metrics’, do you mean…?”
You can also take this time to adjust the scope of your answer. Maybe they asked for a recent project that was really challenging. If you have a really compelling anecdote about how you overcame a challenge, but it’s not recent, acknowledge that you listened to the question.
“While it may not be the most recent project, there was a really challenging project during my time at ABC company where I learned a lot…”
🎯 Respond
Answer the question on the bullseye. Then, you can expand by providing proof points and examples, where applicable. Package your response and finish with a concluding statement to articulate how the skills in your response are relevant to their opening or how you’re excited to dive deeper into their industry, etc.
For more on concluding statements and crafting good great interview responses, read here.
INTERVIEWS ARE CONVERSATIONS
You’re meeting with a fellow human being who you might be working with or under (aka many hours a week, 5 days a week), so a factor to your interview success will be how enjoyable the conversation was and how you built rapport.
Poor listening skills lead to poor interviewing skills. The inverse is also true. The art of conversation relies heavily not just on the content of the dialogue but also on how engaged you are.
I’ve created a worksheet in Notion precisely to help you jot down your story beats as you prep for your next interview. It includes guidelines and example responses to the most common interview questions.
Happy Interviewing!
Interview Practice is my most highly requested service. I offer sessions with tailored interview questions for the role(s) you’re vying for to help you prep and expertly deliver interview responses.