You may think you’re prepared, but there are some common mistakes that people make without realizing it. It’s important to review your answers and compare them to the list of potential problems to make sure you avoid them.
It can be hard to see the flaws in our own answers, so try to look at them from a different point of view. Imagine you’re looking at someone else’s answers as you review the following potential mistakes.
Answers that are too long
A very common mistake is to give answers that are too long (i.e., more than 2 minutes). This can be due to many possible reasons:
- Rambling either because you’re nervous (everyone is in job interviews!), you don’t really understand the question, or you’re trying to make something up.
- Providing too much context or background information prior to describing your actions.
- Giving too much detail about your actions before describing your results.
- Using too many filler words such as “um” or “uh.”
To avoid this mistake, you must properly prepare (see chapter 1) and practice answers to anticipated questions. Do not simply talk faster so your answers will take less time!