Interview Questions #6
The “Silent Treatment”
This is a mind game…
The interviewer is either trying to intimidate you or get you confused with an answer you responded to. Ultimately, he wants to see your reaction.
Don’t get drawn into it, stay focused. This is not a strategy used by many interviewers but if u get caught up in the web, keep a straight face and look straight into the interviewer’s eye. If you are a shy person, this is one moment you need to be bold – think of the position, the qualities needed to fill in the position. Please don’t smile – because you may find it difficult to explain why you are smiling.
Technically, there are no right or wrong answers; there are only smart answers that fit your experience. Ultimately, you have first-hand information about yourself and better knowledge of what you wish to achieve. Take charge of your interview process.
Let’s hear from the experts
TRAPS:
Beware – if you are unprepared for this question, you will probably not handle it right and possibly blow the interview. Thank goodness most interviewers don’t employ it. It’s normally used by those determined to see how you respond under stress. Here’s how it works:
You answer an interviewer’s question and then, instead of asking another, he just stares at you in a deafening silence.
You wait, growing a bit uneasy, and there he sits, silent as Mt. Rushmore, as if he doesn’t believe what you’ve just said, or perhaps making you feel that you’ve unwittingly violated some cardinal rule of interview etiquette.
…Don’t let the silent treatment intimidate you…
When you get this silent treatment after answering a particularly difficult question, such as “tell me about your weaknesses”, its intimidating effect can be most disquieting, even to polished job hunters.
Most unprepared candidates rush in to fill the void of silence, viewing prolonged, uncomfortable silences as an invitation to clear up the previous answer which has obviously caused some problem. And that’s what they do – ramble on, sputtering more and more information, sometimes irrelevant and often damaging, because they are suddenly playing the role of someone who’s goofed and is now trying to recoup. But since the candidate doesn’t know where or how he goofed, he just keeps talking, showing how flustered and confused he is by the interviewer’s unmovable silence.
BEST ANSWER:
Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?” That’s all there is to it.
Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.
POINTS TO NOTE & THINGS TO DO
- Be wise, no question asked, none to respond to
- If the interviewer needs clarifications he would ask so don’t be drawn into the mind game
- Do not look away, it’s a body language that speaks volume – it may connote something negative (that you are hiding something or lying); that you are shy; you can’t face superiors, a clientele or challenges
- You can divert attention by asking if the interviewer is done with the original copies of your documents (that’s if you earlier presented them to the interviewer)
- You may politely ask if there is anything the interviewer wants to be clear on…
Click the link below for more articles on Job Interview questions…
Interview Question #7 – Why Should I Hire You
Speechless was here!
