Let’s say a reporter asks you the following question: Do you like chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream? How many possible answers are there? Did you say two?
I’ll tell you how many there are: five.
- Chocolate
- Vanilla
- I like both equally
- Neither — I prefer a different flavor
- I don’t like ice cream
The point of this illustration (courtesy of Tripp Frohlichstein) is this: you’ve got to listen carefully to questions being asked and prepare in advance to address the range of possible questions with a range of possible answers.
You don’t have to be cutesy — you just have to open your mind to the fact that just because you were asked a certain question in a certain way (as in this case, a) assuming you like ice cream and b) assuming that you have a preference between chocolate and vanilla) doesn’t mean that’s the only way to look at the situation. Yet in many interview settings, the interview subject will act as though they are being interrogated and that everything they say can and will be used “against” them.
This is the wrong attitude.
Instead, if you’ve prepared in advance, you’ll recognize the subject matter of questions being asked of you and will have a ready answer, regardless of whether the interviewer asked it in a form (in this case, as an either/or) that doesn’t fit the information you have to share.
