If you are a military veteran, spouse or active-duty service member in transition, you will inevitably get stumped in an interview.
At some point in the job hunt, an interviewer will ask you a question so weird it makes you choke on your own tongue. You simply will not have an answer. Even if you are smart enough to practice with our "99 Ultimate Interview Questions for Veterans and Spouses," some interviewer will come up with a doozy of a question that will put you off your game.
Instead of crashing to the floor of the conference room with a boom like a 1,000-pound log, you could decide to become an unstumpable job seeker. After all, you are a veteran -- a practical, adaptable, unstumpable force. If impossible questions are an inevitable part of the process, why not plan to handle them?
To that end, consider adopting our sweet little interview trick of preparing and practicing a stall, a short pause designed to buy you enough time to think up a good answer to an impossible interview question. Here are five terrific stalls we introduced last month in our master class Introvert Advantage: How to Beat the Extrovert to the Job Offer.
(If you are not getting interview requests, you need our newest Transition Master Class: Resume Learning Lab: Fix Your Resume Fast on Thursday, Aug. 17, at 4 p.m. Eastern.)
1. The Classic Stall: 'That's a Great Question'
The classic reply to an impossible interview question is to say, "That's a great question." In fact, this stall is so well known an entire segment of "This American Life" was devoted to how often podcast interviewees started their answers with those words. It is so common that some interview experts advise candidates not to use it at all.
I think using this stall once during the interview is OK, but because it's so recognizable, you shouldn't rely on it for your greatest stalls.
2. The Curiouser Stall: 'Can You Say More About That?'
Sometimes, an interviewer asks you a weird question for which there are a dozen possible answers like, "How much would you charge to wash every car in the city?" Or "Can you list some things that make you nervous?" By asking them to say more about the question, you have a moment to figure out what they really want from you and then formulate an appropriate response.
It is also fair to take this moment to clarify the question. You can ask, "Am I right in understanding you want me to describe how I would solve this problem? Or, "Am I right in understanding that you want to know how I manage around my own preferences?"
3. The Introvert's Stall: 'I Want to Give You a Thoughtful Reply'
Sometimes, an interviewer will ask you a question that really matters for the job, but there are a lot of possible political potholes along the way. This is especially true when it comes to questions about leadership, diversity and inclusion. It is enough to make an introvert freeze.
So go ahead and take the introvert's stall. Say something like, "No one has asked me that yet. Let me think. I want to give you a thoughtful reply." Then give one of the thoughtful replies you developed in your research.
4. The Extrovert's Stall: 'Let's Think This Through'
One reason the job hunt can favor the extrovert is because interviews require so much thinking on your feet. Extroverts love this. Hearing their own ideas often sparks the answer they really wanted to say all along. By using the extrovert's stall, you bring the interviewer to your side of the table so they see how you can solve problems together.
5. The Redirect: 'I'm Glad You Asked That Question'
Some job interviews are a reach. You know you don't have quite the experience the prospective employer is looking for in a candidate. Or you have most of the experience they want, but you are missing a big piece of it, like direct experience with profit and loss or closing a sale.
Use the redirect stall to move the interview to something you do know or something you want to learn. Say something like, "I'm glad you asked that question. Clearly, I have not had experience with closing a sale, but I have often had to sell an idea to my bosses. Let me tell you about one experience I had …"
6. The Bartleby the Scrivener: 'I Would Prefer Not To'
In the classic Herman Melville short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener," a law clerk answers every request with the same reply: "I would prefer not to." While you would not want to follow Bartleby's example all the way, you should know you can refuse to answer if you get asked an uncomfortable question in an interview like "How many other offers do you have?"
It's worth noting that the research does show that declining to answer a question often makes a worse impression than whatever personal information you would have to disclose. If the question is not immoral or illegal, it might be worth answering.
7. The Deflection: 'Were You Going to … ?'
Another way you can gain a little more time while thinking of your final answer is to make a deflection. Researchers at the Harvard Business Review found that in interviews or negotiation, people who deflected the difficult question by asking a question of their own usually had a better result.
For example, if you are asked, "How many other offers do you have?" you can ask a question of your own like, "Were you going to make an offer?" If they ask an illegal question in an interview like "How many more children are you going to have?" or "Will you have to deploy with the National Guard?" you can ask a question of your own like "Is absenteeism a big problem at your company?" While they answer, you have a moment to think of where you want this conversation to go next.
Interviews are usually not set up to trick you. Interviewers mostly want to know whether you are qualified for the job and how you would fit in with the other people on their team. Preparing interview questions in advance and preparing a couple of our stalls will help you see your way clear every time.
-- Jacey Eckhart is Military.com's transition master coach. She is a certified professional career coach and military sociologist who helps military members get their first civilian job by offering career-level Master Classes through our Veteran Employment Project and on her website, SeniorMilitaryTransition.com. Reach her at Jacey.Eckhart@Monster.com.
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Transitioning military, veterans and spouses may be qualified for the job, but they are missing the secrets of civilian hiring. Find out everything you need to know with our FREE master class series, including our next class. You can view previous classes in our video library. Questions for Jacey? Visit our Facebook page.
