The Curse of Too-Smart Interviewers

We love training highly intelligent, analytical people on how to become great interviewers.

You can see their wheels turning while candidates talk. So much curiosity! Each story provides an endless number of paths to pursue, data points to gather, and follow-up questions to ask.

The problem is that there are too many options. Left to their own devices, brainy interviewers can easily spend 10 minutes or more unpacking a single story, well past the point of diminishing returns.

The result? They end up knowing way too much about way too little. They’re forced to use three or four hyperdetailed stories to try to explain everything about the candidate.

If this sounds like you, you’re not alone. 

We’ve seen hundreds of people exhibiting this pattern. We call it “over-squeezing the lemon” — trying to get every drop of nuance out of a story rather than reaching for a fresh lemon (a new story). It usually results from chasing irrelevant side stories, while losing sight of the main idea.

Fortunately, there’s a simple, one-sentence headline that can help you break the habit:

Remember how we got here.

Beware of rabbit holes — and keep the conversation moving forward rather than sideways

If the candidate is telling you about how they took a very creative approach to solving a technical problem, the story is about creative problem-solving. That’s “how we got here.”

If the candidate happens to mention that they presented this creative solution at a big company offsite, you might be tempted to ask 10 follow-ups about how that presentation went — especially if group communication skills are a key part of the new job. But that might be a big waste of time. Why? Because we have no indication that this particular presentation was noteworthy, positively or negatively. The candidate may have hugely revealing stories to share about group communication. Why limit our inquiry to this story alone?

That said, it’s still important to dig deep. Just dig where it’s relevant! 

What made the solution particularly innovative? How did they come up with it? What impact did it have on the business? What would their boss tell us about this “big idea” in a future reference call? That’s all in keeping with how we got here. But beyond that, time is short. Move on!

This change might feel uncomfortable at first. You may feel like some massive insight was just a follow-up question or two away. Just remember: Every minute you scrape the barrel on this story is a minute you don’t get to hear about the next story.

This post was originally published on LinkedIn.

Jordan Burton has 17 years of experience as an executive assessor and interviewing trainer, working with top VC/PE investors and high-growth startups to help them hire the best of the best. He has trained thousands of founders, leaders, and investors on hiring and interviewing skills. He leads Talgo’s business development initiatives, managing relationships with Sequoia Capital, TH Lee, Palantir, Scale AI, and over 50 venture-backed startups.