A few summers ago I helped my mum buy a new vehicle. She picked out the one she wanted and as she was signing the papers at the dealership, I noticed that the sales guy kept talking and kept trying to sell my mum on the vehicle even though she’d already decided to buy it.
He was still selling even though my mum had already agreed to buy.
The only thing that could have happened is that he could have said something that caused her to change her mind and cause her to not buy the vehicle so what was the point in him doing this?
Sometimes we talk when a moment of silence would be the best option
In job interviews, sometimes not saying anything can actually say a lot. So can learning how to take dramatic pauses and not feeling like you have to blurt out your answer to a question as soon as the interviewer finishes asking it.
Taking a deep breath and waiting a moment before answering a question does a few things. First it lets the interviewer know you’re thinking about your answer and not just saying the first thing that pops into your head.
Secondly it gives you a few extra seconds to actually formulate an answer.
Finally, it ensures that you don’t accidentally cut off the interviewer if they were taking a pause and weren’t actually done asking the question.
In interviews I’ve done with job searchers, I’ve had numerous times where they’ve cut me off in mid sentence and started to answer a question that I hadn’t even finished answering yet. I start wondering if they’re going to do the same thing during an actual interview.
I have had cases where hiring managers have told me that the person they were interviewing kept cutting them off or where they didn’t seem to understand the question and just started responding.
Back in business school, I was part of a business policy class that had to work on a year-long project and midway through the year, our group had to present what we’d done so far to our professor. Midway through the presentation with our professor asking us pointed questions about what we’d done so far, he asked a question to the 5 of us but didn’t address any of us in particular. A moment passed with no one answering the question so I took a deep breath – an audible one… I could even hear it myself – took a second and then answered the question.
After I answered it, our professor mentioned he was happy with my answer but spent more time commenting on how I’d answered it. He liked the fact that I’d made it clear I was going to answer the question with the deep inhale – it wasn’t even intentional! – and that I’d taken a pause before answering it.
I’d let my colleagues know I was going to take the question and I’d let our professor know that I was thinking about answering the question rather than just blurting out an answer right away.
In this case, I didn’t even consciously know what I’d done until after I’d done it!
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