Interview lenght of answer

[Phipps]

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Hi everyone:

I am post-interview and still one on my way and of course, second guessing about how my interviews went. Here is my concern and question I would like some feed-back on:

so far, I got a lot of questions as opposed to me asking faculty and students...so, I did answer and did that with rather long answers, possibly two to four minutes? Definitely longer than for instance two to three sentences each. I only realized that after the day was over ...duhhh;

what do you all think is a good and appropriate length for answers like 'tell me about yourself' or 'why psychology'??

Thx!!

 

[BiopsychStudent]

I think its very difficult to objectively assess how you did during an interview short of outright stumbling over every question. Interview lengths in my experience and from what I've heard really tend to vary based on the interviewer: Sometimes you can go on for an hour, in other instances they like to keep it short at 20 minutes so its really a poor gauge of how well you did.

 

[HarlequinOpal]

It also depends on the content of your answer. If you have long answers but what you're saying is meaningful and relates to the question, versus just giving blanket statements to fill time, then I think you're fine!

We all tend to ruminate about how we did after an interview; I know I do it 100% of the time. Then we realize things we could've said, or not say for that matter, and that just frustrates us. Try focusing on answering the question to the point at your next interview if you're afraid that your answers are too long.

Sometimes mine will vary from a three-sentence answer, to a whole five-minute answer. It just depends on how much background information I have to give out.

Best of luck to you!