“You talk too much” - reflections on Interview communications.

Humans communicate non-verbally, to an overwhelming degree. Over 90% of our means of communication is in our posture, body language, facial gestures, eye contact, hand movements, even the way we sit. Non-verbal communication accounts for microexpressions, those tell tale signs of emotive thinking your body has a hard time hiding, and are the key indicator of your state of mind at any given time.

Interviews are, by their very nature, vulnerable positions to be in. Non-verbal communication and understanding non-verbal cues is to a degree our way of understanding who, or what, is a threat to wellbeing. It’s also a visual cue in understanding group hierarchies and power dynamics.

Interviews of course are not inherently dangerous, but they are challenging by the fact that you’re stepping into a room with a stranger (or a panel of strangers) and are having to show confidence and self-assurity in a foriegn environment. Mastery of non-verbal communication is a learned skill, one that takes equal parts self-control and preparation. Control of your body language and the manner in which you speak says more about you than almost anything you do in an interview setting.

But what you do say in an interview matters - and, with many interviews being held remotely there is much more reliance on verbal communication to do the interview heavy lifting, for both candidate and employer.

Managing what you say - the frequency and speed, the manner in which you frame answers, the manner in which you elaborate on questions or draw in your interviewer, the words you choose to describe situations - is crucial to nailing the interview.

As is timing. You have to watch how long you go into anecdotes or descriptions, with one eye always on engaging your interviewer.

There is such a thing as talking too much. Again, referring to Michael R. Neece, CEO of Interview Mastery, he says:

“When you start speaking the interviewer is listening with 100% intensity. After 10 seconds they begin listening with less attention. After 60 seconds their mind begins to wander and they’re listening at a 50% level.

After you’ve been speaking for 90 seconds without interruption, the interviewer is barely listening at all.Skilled interviewers ask “behavioral event questions” where you’re asked to describe specific examples of your experience. In these situations your response can easily last much longer than 90 seconds”.

If ever you walk out of an interview and feel you babbled on too much, or you find out from feedback your came across unconfident or unsure of your answers from talking too much, or, spoke to little, a proven interview technique that works to keep your questions succinct and direct is the STAR Interview technique, which stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Result.