The Subtleties of Controlling a Controlled Situation

Interviews are supposed to be controlled by the interviewer, right? Not necessarily. Remember, they meet and interview many people, and there's nothing like a refreshing interviewee who makes the conversation interesting and memorable (in a good way). As long as the interviewer gets the information they need to make a decision, they enjoy a good conversation and being entertained as much as anyone else. That being said, a good way to stand out is to make the interview more of a conversation.

Now, you can't exactly start asking the interviewer questions--that's probably gauche in most situations. You don't get to ask them about their biggest weakness. But you can subtly control the interview--and make it more of a conversation--by the way you answer questions. If you play it right and anticipate further questions that have yet to be asked (but that the interviewer wants to know) then you can segway your answer of a previous question into an end that leaves the interviewer begging to ask the natural follow-up question. As long as it's something they need to know (or maybe that you want them to know, and is applicable to the situation), then they will often do just that. The whole interview becomes more relaxed as both parties know what's coming, and let the conversation flow almost naturally.

It also never hurts, if you can help it, to throw in some audience-appropriate humor. You have to keep it light, and in most professional situations you want it to be intelligent humor--not something that would make them laugh out loud, but a subtlety of phrase that you would miss if you're not paying attention. This is a skill that requires practice on your friends in the business college.

Overall, I'm not great at this technique yet. The fact is that I've had a lot of interviews, and I've only ever been turned down from one position after interviewing in my entire life (and that was because they already had the positions filled, but decided to give me an interview anyway even though I turned in a late application). So maybe I'm naturally a decent interviewer. But I know I have things to work on.

For example, I still stumble over words on occasion, or get stuck trying to think of how to phrase what I want to say. I'm getting better at making the pauses natural, but it still takes effort. I am usually pretty good at answering a question concisely, however, and I think that that is a huge benefit. To anyone about to have a real interview, I would say practice answering questions (role playing) so you know what you want to say, and how to say it, and practice controlling your body language.