Vague and Inflated Responses During the Job Interview Are A No-No

While most people think stating as much as possible in a job interview makes them look better, they are usually wrong. Many job seekers ramble on about their entire work history, state each and every task they have ever completed and add in a couple buzzwords to boot. While there is some benefit in providing additional information, too much vagueness or exaggeration usually ends up harming your chances rather than helping them.

Why More Isn't Always Better. Inflated responses can give the interviewer the impression you lack direction or are unclear about what the key issues are. While you may be able to provide a lot of details, an interviewer wants to see how you think, how you solve problems and how you deliver results. If you respond to questions in such a way that sounds like you are just circling the runway and never landing on the actual thing you accomplished, they will probably spend the rest of the interview trying to guess exactly what you did.

Stating you were involved in many projects, for instance, sounds fine, but doesn’t show what you accomplished. Describing a movie without showing the plot is basically the same thing as describing your entire career in a job interview. Employers are looking for a level of clarity, with real-world examples of what you have done, not a highlights video of everything you have worked on.

Identifying When You Are Too Vague 

• You find yourself out of breath when you finish speaking.
• You mention every project, job, and/or tool you have ever used.
• You talk in general terms (e.g., "a variety of tasks") instead of using one or two very strong examples.

Don’t worry if you recognize these signs, because correcting them is relatively easy; all you need to do is concentrate on what truly matters.

Keeping It Simple and Focused. Limit yourself to telling one story. Instead of telling the interviewer ten different examples of how you applied your skills, pick one example that clearly shows how you applied your skills.

Use the STAR Method:

• Describe the Situation.
• Your Task
• The Action you took.
• The Results.

This will help you stay organized with your story.

Be specific. Quantify your accomplishments with numbers, results, and/or a brief description of a successful outcome (e.g., "We reduced our average response time by 15 percent").

Take a pause before responding. A momentary pause will help you organize your thoughts and prevent you from rambling.

Tell the truth. If you don’t have a particular type of experience, admit it and pivot yourself to something related you have done. Honesty is always a better policy than inflating the truth.

The Bottom Line

There is no substitute for clarity when it comes to communicating during a job interview. Employers will always remember the person who communicated simply and confidently, rather than the person who attempted to communicate as much as possible.

Think of it this way: Your ultimate goal is to convey value, not to impress by volume. A concise, honest story will always speak more for you than any exaggerated answer will.