Avoid the following common and distracting interview blunders:

1.  Avoid rambling responses. Keep your answers efficient and to the point. Once you have made your point shut up. If there is a short period of silence following your response it does not necessarily mean that the interviewer is waiting for you to continue. More than likely she is simply collecting her own thoughts or processing your response. Wait patiently. Allow her to continue with the interview. Unfortunately, most people are uncomfortable with silence. They tend to want to fill the silence with irrelevant babblings. This will only detract from the image you are trying to project. Once you are done speaking, remain calm, quiet and alert.

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2.  Don't go off on tangents. Avoid expounding on a train of thought that is irrelevant or unrelated to the question asked. Take a moment to absorb the question before you begin to formulate your answer.

3.  Don't answer the question before the interviewer has finished asking it. Don't anticipate questions. Don't finish sentences or fill in gaps. Wait for the interviewer to complete his question before you respond. Never cut off the interviewer in mid-sentence.

4.  Listen carefully to the questions. Frequently your mind will be racing so rapidly that you will begin to formulate your responses before you hear the entire question. Then, once you assume you know where the question is headed you shut off your mind and start preparing your response. When this occurs, there is a real risk that you will either miss the entire point of the question or that you will miss an important element of a multi-faceted question. Listen carefully and then probe for understanding if you are not sure about what is being asked.

5.  Don't answer questions that were not asked. After spending many hours preparing for an interview, there is a tendency to feel ripped off if the interviewer does not ask the questions that you expected. Avoid the temptation to inject superfluous information into your responses. There is generally a reason the interviewer is asking the questions she is. Use your preparation to help you formulate generous responses to the questions asked - but do stick to the questions.

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6.  Avoid becoming so frustrated that you lose your composure. When you are caught off guard by a question take a moment to collect your thoughts. You can do this by politely requesting the interviewer to repeat the question. If a question is unclear to you, simply say so. Politely ask the interviewer to rephrase the question or state something like "Let me make sure I am understanding the question properly. Are you asking me ...?"

It is important that you do not allow yourself to become so flustered that you are unable to continue effectively with the interview. If you blow a question, it is not the end of the world. Smile, regain your composure and move on. Most interviewers understand the pressures of the interviewing process. Do not mentally write off the balance of the interview because of one poor response. You need to stay focused. Remember also that what you consider to be an inadequate response may be viewed more benignly by the interviewer.

Fielding Tough Interview Questions

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