My good HR  friend Dan Johnson made this comment on my previous post  in which I wrote about how having confidence in your skills and talents could have an impact on your performance at interview. He says

“I would also say once you start talking about something you love you start getting the interviewer “off script” and build that real conversation that every interviewer is really trying to get at. My main question after interviewing someone is “Where’s the vision?” I don’t care about how good you are at maintaining something I want to see how you are going to improve it. And to do that you really have to love some part of your job.”

This is such good advice.  As an interviewer I want to hear how the candidate will apply their learning to the job  – albeit often with limited information about what it really  entails ( job and person specifications can be notoriously vague) . So Dan’s idea of getting the interviewer away from their script is a good one . With confidence in your abilities you will be able to find a way to do this.

Taking a UK based view on this though a couple of things to bear in mind

1 no matter what you do make sure you answer the question! The interviewer working from a script will have to note whether you have or not.

2 throwing everything that you have into the answer is likely to confuse the interviewer – make sure you highlight what you want them to remember about you. Summarise it at the end if you think you might have rambled.  Try to have a beginning, middle and end to each answer.

3 It is possible to be overconfident! I once had a candidate tell me that I had asked the wrong question and they went on to tell me what I should have asked and then of course answering it in relation to themselves. I was dumbfounded. Maybe you could do that if you have established rapport – but it is still risky!