Image Credits: insightglobal.com
When it comes to prepping for interviews, it’s easy to go overboard.
You might spend hours researching the company, preparing questions, and rehearsing your responses. But is all that effort necessary?
In this article, we will take a closer look at over-prepping. Plus, we will give you some tips on how to strike the perfect balance between preparation and overkill.
What does it mean to over-prepare for an interview?
We want you to picture a candidate who has memorized every fact and detail about the company. This can include everything from the company’s history to its latest products and services. What do you think?
Potential drawbacks of over-preparing
Many interviewers see over-preparing as a turn-off. If you come across as robotic, it can make you seem inauthentic and unlikeable.
Another potential downside of over-preparing is overconfidence. It’s good to be confident, but you don’t want to come across as someone who’s rigid and inflexible. Ultimately, the key is to find the right balance between preparation and authenticity. Strike a chord between the two and you will likely be golden.
Tips to avoid over-preparing
Image Credits: jobstreet.com.sg
You might be tempted to try and prepare for every possible question an interviewer could ask you.
But the truth is, you can’t predict everything. And if you focus too much on preparing for specific questions, you will end up sounding too rehearsed.
Instead, try to focus on having thoughtful conversations with your interviewer. Be prepared to respond to common questions they ask, but also take the opportunity to ask them questions about the company and the role. This will help you appear interested and engaged, rather than reveal your overzealousness to ace the interview.
How to get the most out of an interview
Your goal should be to have a meaningful exchange with the interviewer that gives them a sense of who you are and how you would be a fit for the role.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare:
- Avoid memorizing and over-practicing responses. This can make you sound scripted and unnatural. Instead, focus on understanding the question and giving thoughtful, sincere answers.
- Plan to avoid over-preparation. Strike a balance between being prepared and over-prepared. If you spend too much time memorizing, you may come across as stiff in the interview.
- Focus on being a thoughtful participant in the conversation. Be present in the moment and be ready to talk about your experiences engagingly.
It’s possible to over-prepare for an interview: by doing more than just enough research on the company and the position you’re interviewing for. You know everything—and we mean everything—about the company, from its history and culture to its current goals and challenges. You’re able to recite the company’s mission statement backward and forward, and you’re eager to show off. Over-preparation is not just knowing your stuff inside and out, it’s the highway to being robotic. And with the rise of AI and tech, interviewers would certainly appreciate humans being more human.
