Preparation, preparation, and preparation. Of course, you can’t know what questions interviewers will ask in the job interview. But over 80% of the questions are predictable and you can prepare for them. This gives you enough free capacity for unexpected questions. Because the challenge in a stressful job interview is to use our limited working memory in the brain wisely.
After I was shocked by my own statements in a radio interview a few years ago, I no longer give interviews. What had happened? I was invited to talk about a career topic on a private radio station at very short notice – as usual, the interview took place on the day of the request. The host only gave me a very rough outline of the topic. And of course he didn’t give me any specific questions to prepare.
The development of thoughts is chaotic
When the moderator interviewed me in the studio, I was a bit taken by surprise as I hadn’t expected his questions. In this situation, I could have easily come up with platitudes that I felt everyone in the audience had heard 100 times before. But I want-ed to contribute something of substance to the topic and therefore couldn’t just talk away. Despite the initial surprise, I was tidy and satisfied after the recording; I had the feeling that it had gone well.
When I received the recording later, I was horrified: I kept repeating myself. How was that possible? As I had to develop my thoughts on the topic during the interview, I tended to speak to myself and reassured myself of my ideas by repeating them. I approached the topic from different perspectives. The listeners thus became witnesses to my preparation of the answers. This could not be the purpose of the interview and left an uncertain impression.
Separate preparation and execution
I often observe the same phenomenon in job interview training sessions with my clients. When I ask them to tell me a story from their everyday working life, I can observe what happens in their brain:
Remembering is a process of retrieving information. As this is stored decentrally, the different areas of the brain send the information to the working memory. When the unprepared customer tells their story, it initially seems chaotic, as they always tell the fragments of memory that arrive in the working memory. After a certain amount of time, there seems to be enough information to tell the story in a structured way – but usually they have already lost the listener’s attention. So, we cannot remember and tell the story in a structured way at the same time.
Many people argue against preparation, saying that spontaneous communication is no longer possible. The opposite is true: preparation is essential to be able to communicate well spontaneously. That’s why nobody prepares communication more than communication specialists, who then come across as spontaneous.