Kept bombing interviews until a recruiter told me my answers were too rehearsed

Spent 2 months prepping answers word for word and still got rejected 6 times. A recruiter at Robert Half finally told me I sounded like a robot reading from a script. Has anyone else found that just talking normally works way better?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancyw9723d ago

Did you try recording yourself and listening for where you sound stiff?

gavinlopez23d ago

Yeah recording yourself is a big one. I did that after my 4th rejection and I cringed hearing how forced I sounded. The difference was night and day when I just talked through my experience like I was telling a story to a friend. For example, instead of memorizing a perfect answer for "tell me about a time you handled conflict," I just thought of two real examples and practiced saying them out loud different ways until it felt natural. The key was ditching the bullet points and letting my actual personality come through, which got me way better reactions in interviews. Did you find that loosening up changed how you came across?

angela_grant23d ago

My first job out of college was a sales position where I had to cold-call people all day. I learned real quick that a scripted pitch made me sound like a robot. So I started jotting down just the key points I wanted to hit and then winging the rest. That's exactly what you're describing - letting the natural conversation flow. Did you find that once you stopped memorizing, the interviewers started asking more follow-up questions and actually engaging with you instead of just ticking boxes?