Don’t Dance in the Interview – Answering Tough Questions Directly

The interviewer asks the interviewee a direct question about why they left their previous employer. The interviewee drops eye contact, looks towards the floor, says “Um… I… uh… well…” and the dance begins! Sure, questions on an interview can sometimes be uncomfortable to answer. Maybe you’ve never worked with the technology or skill they are asking about, maybe it hits on a “rough patch” of your career, maybe you don’t even understand the question, or know where to begin. But, tap dancing is for those aspiring to be on Broadway. The rest of us need to leave the tap shoes at home and go to the interview prepared to be direct in our answers, even the uncomfortable ones.

If you respond to the tough questions with evasion, vagueness, and explanations that don’t address what’s asked, then you’re going to leave the interviewer uneasy with your candidacy for the position and they will assume you are hiding something or don’t really have the experience required for the position. If instead, you are direct and forthright in your answers and in the very FIRST sentence following the question give them the information asked for, even if you feel the answer is possibly a negative response, you’ll score points for being honest with them. You then have an opportunity to further explain the situation, turn it into more of a positive light, or make a detraction become an opportunity for growth.

Interviewer: “Why did you leave Alpha Company?”
You: “I was terminated” (DIRECT ANSWER!) “I did not have as fully developed skills in web development as the position seemed to be requiring when I went to work there. I attempted to get my skills to the level needed by putting in extra training time, but their project backlog was so heavy and the manager was impatient with the progress. I believe a better suited position would rely more on my core skills with more training opportunities and mentoring.”

It’s not great being terminated, but if you’re honest about the reasoning and seem to be applying the lessons learned to your current career search, you are more likely to find the right job and impress the company with your ability to be honest.

Interviewer: “Do you have experience creating Web Services?”
You: “No, I have not. I have studied Web Services in the classroom and wrote some sample programs for the class using them, but have not had an opportunity to do so on the job. I do believe that I pick up new technologies quickly, in fact, at my last position I had gone in with no experience in using XML style sheets and I put in extra effort at home to read up and practice them and within a few days was successfully employing them on my project. I believe I can do the same learning Web Services techniques.”

Here we have taken a negative answer – been direct with it, and then turned it towards a positive light and an opportunity by demonstrating how we have overcame similar obstacles before and will do it again.

Interviewer: “State the significance of public, private, protected, default modifiers both singly and in combination and state the effect of package relationships on declared items qualified by these modifiers?”
(You’ve been asked a very difficult question that you don’t fully understand – rather than start dancing, be direct)
You: “I’m not sure that I understand the question, is there any other way to ask it?”
or You: “I have had limited exposure to these different types of modifiers, but I can attempt to answer as much of the question as I can. I believe that public modifiers are used for…” (Let them know you’re going to take your best shot at it, but know you might not be right-on… credit for trying)
or You: “Would you mind asking the first part of the question again and let me answer it and then cover the last part of the question”? (Break it down to make it easier to understand)
or You: “I don’t know the answer to that question. Frequently as a developer I can run up against things I haven’t learned yet and I always make sure to write down the problem and then, when I have a chance, I will go to reference texts, developer forums and other resources to learn the answer. I’ll make sure I know it for the next time – this is one of those situations.”
or You: “I can’t answer that question as I haven’t had experience with it. At the environments I’ve been working on, we have been employing a different technique instead by…. ” (and explain how you did things as an alternative)

There’s a lot of other ways to handle the situation of not having an answer, the point is, we’re direct in our answer and we try to turn it as positive as we can. If you don’t understand the question at all or have the experience to answer it, the interviewer will know it, so trying to bluff your way through is of no use. Sometimes you think you know the answer, but it’s a big mistake to go into a full explanation and find out you were heading the wrong direction and didn’t answer the correct questions.

Interviewer: Asks you a question you think you understand, but are not sure.
You: “By ________, do you mean _________” or “I believe you are looking for _______, is that correct?”

Interviewers will sometimes ask questions that are very broad and don’t provide much insight as to where you should start or what level of detail they are looking for.

Interviewer: “Tell me about yourself” or “Tell me about projects you’ve worked on”
You: “Sure, where would you like me to start?”
You could provide a brief overview and then ask what they’d like to know more about.
You: “I went to College at _____ and majored in ______. My first position was ____ at _____ and I worked with _____ and then I moved to _____” (… and so on through your career highlights) “Is there any of this that you’d like me to provide more detail on?” or “Are you interested in more specifics about anything in particular?”

We aren’t sure of where they want us to go, but rather than dancing all around, we give an overview and ask them to help us narrow it down. Again we are employing the technique of asking if we’re headed in the right direction before we go too deeply.

Good luck on your interviews and BE DIRECT! Feel free to add the toughest questions you’ve faced on interviews as comments to this blog and I’d be glad to respond as to how they might best be handled.

Thanks for David .. For original Posting.