The job market is rough. So when candidates are landing interviews, they’re often cramming every skill, accomplishment, and experience they can muster into the interview process, hoping to edge out the competition.
Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong. Hiring managers often tune out in such cases, causing the rapid-fire qualifications to backfire. It’s what Marc Cendella, CEO of career platform Ladders, calls “answer inflation.”
Answer inflation is when experienced professionals respond to interview questions with lengthy résumé recitations and meandering stories that bury their actual value, he explains.
Take the classic: “Tell me about yourself.” It’s the question that most interviews kick off with. And while it may seem straightforward enough, there’s actually an art to delivering a strong elevator pitch to hook the hiring manager’s attention from the off.
“Many candidates think that the interviewer is trying to socialize or make small talk—but that’s rarely the case,” Cendella told Fast Company.
“This question can actually tell an interviewer a lot. When asked an open-ended question, do you take the chance to answer thoughtfully? Can you prioritize and organize your thoughts under pressure? Or are you rambling, caught off guard?”
“Tell me about yourself” is also not a chance to detail your entire life story. An answer filled with irrelevant details and outdated roles is more likely to lose the hiring manager’s attention halfway through than impress them with your decades of experience.
While you may think the more information you can cram in the better, Cendella says the opposite is often true.
“Hiring managers see it time and time again: experienced professionals tend to assume their longer track record requires longer explanations,” he explains. “As a result, they’ll respond to interview questions with long-winded stories that bury their actual value. Or, they merely list all of their past roles and accomplishments—like a résumé reading.”
Instead, trim the fat and replace vague descriptions with quantifiable achievements.
“Think about those key challenges hiring managers are facing, and how your past experience could fill in the gaps,” Cendella explains. “Every response you have should ladder up to a clear, compelling narrative about why you’re the solution to their current problem.”
He recommends taking two to three concise examples that demonstrate impact and let the numbers do the talking for you.
Let’s imagine you’re in the process for a project manager role. Rather than droning on about your years in project management, use this script as an example: “In my last role, I inherited a project that was three months behind schedule and turned it around within six weeks by implementing clearer communication channels and regular team check-ins,” he says.
It’s clear, concise, and not bogged down by answer inflation.
Remember the golden rule: Show, don’t tell.
