Interview Season Tip 1: It’s More Important to Hear Than to be Heard

by Susanne Aronowitz 
Associate Dean for Law Career Services

As we approach GGU’s On-Campus Interview season, over the next few weeks we will be sharing a variety of interview tips and resources on the LCS blog to help you ace your next job interview.

Most students will prepare for their upcoming interviews by exhaustively researching their prospective employers and learning as much about their organizations as possible. When combined with a healthy dose of nervous energy, many students feel compelled to show off this new-found knowledge with rehearsed pitches and rambling answers to questions. Please resist this urge! Indeed, as a recent SFGate blog article observed, most job candidates spend more time talking at rather than with their interviewer. As a result, they lose the opportunity to make a meaningful connection that highlights why they are a good fit for the position they are seeking.

If this sounds like you, I encourage you to try a new approach at your next job interview. It may feel counter-intuitive, but consider spending less time talking and more time listening. Your interview should feel more like a conversation than a one-sided deposition. Use your thorough pre-interview preparation to identify connections with your prospective employer; allow your natural curiosity and enthusiasm for the employer to introduce these connections more organically in your conversation.

As the SFGate article advises, pay attention to cues: are you doing most of the talking? Does the interviewer seem distracted? Are you so busy silently rehearsing your answer to the next question that you haven’t heard what the interviewer has said? If so, you are probably talking at (and not with) your interviewer.

Take a few deep breaths, slow down the pace, and focus on listening. By listening to your interviewer better, you will become a more compelling candidate!