Dealing with Silence in Interviews
Tips for Responding to Awkward Silences in Job Interviewing
Most interviewees will be well prepared to catch anything that a job interview panel throws. Sometimes it will be nothing. Silence.
Silence can appear in all types of interviews – the ones where there is instant connection between interviewer/s and the job candidate, other interviews that are performances of tired questioning and expected answers, and the straightforward “does what it says on the can” confrontational interviewing in hiring for a position.
How to Respond Well to Silence in Job Interviews
Here’s a guide to how to respond well to silence in a job interview, from 101 Toughest Interview Questions… and Answers That Win The Job! by Daniel Porot with Frances Bolles Haynes (Ten Speed Press Berkeley California, 1999).
In “Silence. (It is one way of interviewing.)”, Daniel Porot with Frances Bolles Haynes offer eight ways of dealing with the interview panel or interviewer who wishes to test how candidates can tackle quietness. These include practical questions that a candidate to ask to break the silence:
- Inquire about the company.
- Ask for more detail about what was being discussed before the silence.
- “Could we summarise what we have just covered in the last ten minutes?”
- “If we have covered everything, which of us will initiate the next contact?”
- “Do you have any other questions?”
- “Remain silent, and after 5-7 seconds say, “Did I answer your silence?”
- Change the tack of the interview by asking something that had been a point of discussion earlier in the interview.
Candidates should prepare for silence in interviewing by practising ahead of time to “sit it out” in the following way:
- Candidates could count (in their head and not out loud) up to ten. It may be the case that a member of the interview panel will start talking before ten.
Make Silence Less Deadly
Silence should be expected from every interview panel, whatever is known about the workplace culture of the company. If candidates preparing for a job interview accept that silence may be part of the carnival of getting hired, it can make silence less deadly.
Being interviewed is a stressful situation for both sides of the tables. The interview panel wants to assess candidates’ “fit” with the company, ability to do the position advertised, salary expectations, ambitions plus “personality” and reasons for applying.
Candidates who really want to be hired will desire to perform well. If silence happens, or is orchestrated to be part of the interviewing process for selection to the position, knowing how to respond well to a lack of conversation in a job interview can only increase the chance of getting hired on the day.
