I'm Ready for My Close Up

What are the things you do to prepare for an interview? No not the showbiz thing! A job interview! I went to an interview for that promotion. And believe it or not, it was the first time I ever prepared for an interview. They say that you had you had to research on the company and know some things about them, but I never did that. I remember when I got interviewed for my present job, the interviewer asked me if I knew something about the bank. I can still remember my answer and looking back, that was a stupid answer. It only goes to show I didn't even research on how the bank operates. Ugh! So anyway as I've said I prepared for this interview. I listed down my "strengths", my "achievements". I have a list of questions that the interview might ask and what you should avoid and highlight in answering those questions. I didn't want to memorize my answers because I'm sure my answers to the real interview would come as "memorized" if I did that. I wanted to be prepared for the things they might ask but my answers to come out as natural as they can. My "reviewer" was lent by a friend and it was a very interesting read. One of the questions listed there is the "silent treatment". I'll just copy the text from the copy lent to me and share it here.

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.

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.

*Okay, about halfway through typing the text I got tired and googled the 64 toughest interview questions so I just copied and paste the entire thing here. You can read the entire text here. Good luck on your interview!