#JobSearch : You Need To Stop Using Fluffy Language When Answering Job Interview Questions. Like, “Could you tell about me a time when you received tough feedback at work?”
A good interview question will generally ask you to recall a time when you did (or didn’t ) do something. It might sound like, “Could you tell about me a time when you received tough feedback at work?”
Now, not every interviewer asks good interview questions. For example, in the report “6 Words That Ruin Behavioral Interview Questions,” we learned that fewer than 20% of hiring managers could correctly identify major problems with their interview questions.
But assuming you’re interviewing with a well-trained hiring manager, you can expect to be asked questions beginning with the words, “Could you tell me about a time when…” or, “Tell me about a time when…”
How do you effectively answer that type of question? Simply put, use lots of specific details and avoid fluffy language.
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In the Leadership IQ study, Words That Cost You The Interview, poorly-rated candidates used 40% more adverbs in their answers (e.g., very, really, quickly) than highly-rated candidates. And poorly-rated candidates used 103% more absolute language (e.g., words like always, never, unquestionably) than their highly-rated peers.
Here are some examples of poorly-rated candidate responses to the question, “Could you tell about a time when you received tough feedback at work?”
- “I can honestly say I’ve never really gotten tough feedback. But I don’t think tough feedback is always a negative thing. In fact, responding well to tough feedback can show that you are working hard and trying to be successful. But, my personal track record on getting tough feedback is pretty clean.”
- “There are people who think they are always right and give you tough feedback even though they don’t really understand the issue. It can be frustrating when one is doing really superior work and still gets criticized. That’s why I always make sure to thoroughly understand a situation before I give feedback to anyone.”
Notice how those answers don’t offer any specifics? A well-trained interviewer can quickly see through fluffy responses like, “I can honestly say I’ve never really gotten tough feedback” and “I always make sure to thoroughly understand a situation before I give feedback to anyone.”
Second, it could be that the candidate believes that their clichéd answers sound sufficiently deep and thoughtful to impress a hiring manager. That’s a disturbing level of arrogance. Third, perhaps this is a candidate that is utterly lacking in self-awareness and truly hasn’t heard or internalized tough feedback.
The underlying causes of these fluffy answers don’t really matter; what’s important is that a competent hiring manager will not react well to these types of responses. A candidate who wants to impress a hiring manager will demonstrate a command of the details of their career history and forthrightly share specifics.
This doesn’t mean that a candidate should wallow in their failures. Share specifics about the tough feedback you received (or whatever the question asks) and then immediately share specifics about what you learned, how you grew, what steps you took next, etc. Good interviewers want details, and generic fluffy answers undermine their confidence that the candidate is honest and self-aware.
Forbes.com Author: Mark Murphy Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.
Forbes.com | May 23. 2022