Anyone can talk about a topic, but not everyone has experienced it.

Last time we were in a hiring phase, a manager who reported to me asked for advice on what to look for in an interview. The biggest thing that stood out to me was when you ask an interviewee to tell you about a situation and they only describe the framework.

As an example, you could ask someone about a time they handled a disagreement in the workplace. A really common answer only described the framework

I once had a disagreement with a coworker about something. We sat down and found out what lead to the disagreement, where we could find common ground, and came to a solution that we were both happy with.

It’s a fine answer. That’s how everyone should deal with conflict. But it doesn’t really tell me how the person thinks. What went right? What went wrong? Did anything need to be escalated to the leadership team? What did you learn about communicating with that person in the future? There’s a lot of context missing.

Interviewing new grads vs experienced candidates

I find that these sort of framework answers are especially common when my team is interviewing. We hire a lot of new graduates who don’t have a lot of experience interviewing for these kinds of jobs. I don’t hold it against them though. If I find an interviewee is providing more frameworks than stories, I try to probe a little further with some clarifying questions to coax out some more detail. I’m not assessing them on their interview skills, I’m trying to get a better perspective on how they think. It’s not exactly their fault for not doing enough interviews before they end up in a meeting with me.

With more experienced candidates, I’ll usually get a more detailed narrative to go along with the framework. Again, If the answer places more weight on the framework, I’ll still focus on the story that goes along with it. Clarifying questions are always a good idea provided you have the time.

Conclusion

Interview skills have very little to do with how well someone actually performs the job, so if you’re not getting the insights you want from a question, don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper before going on to the next question. You’re not looking for the best interviewer, you’re looking for the best mind and best experience.