I’m gonna tell yall something that took me way too long to figure out. You can actually prepare too much for an interview. I know that sounds backwards. Every piece of advice out there says prepare prepare prepare. And I’m not saying don’t prepare. I’m saying there’s a point where it starts working against you.
Took me about five or six interviews to realize I was doing this to myself. Twenty five years in the industry. Director of Security Operations. And I was showing up to these calls sounding like a robot reading from a script. Because basically… I was.
How I Figured Out I Was Doing This
So there was this one interview – VP of Security role at a healthcare company – where I thought I absolutely nailed it. Had my answers ready. Hit every talking point. Didn’t stumble once. Walked away feeling great.
Didn’t get a callback. Got the generic rejection email three days later.
I asked the recruiter for feedback. She said something like “they felt you were very polished but had trouble getting a read on how you actually think.” And I remember sitting there staring at that email like… what does that even mean. I gave them perfect answers. How is that a problem.
Took me a while to understand what she was telling me. My answers were too ready. Too complete. There was no space in them for the interviewer to see my actual brain working. I was performing, not thinking.
The Problem With Rehearsed Answers
Here’s what I eventually understood. When your answer comes out too fast and too smooth, it creates this weird distance. The interviewer can’t see your thought process because there isn’t one happening in the moment. You’re just playing back something you practiced in the mirror.
And look. For junior roles that’s probably fine. They’re checking if you know the material. But at senior levels they already assume you know the material. What they’re actually trying to evaluate is your judgment. How you think through problems. How you’d handle situations you haven’t seen before. If everything you say sounds pre-packaged… they can’t see any of that.
This is part of how they decide if you’re actually senior. And I was accidentally hiding the exact thing they needed to see.
It Also Makes You Rigid
The other problem with over-preparing is you get locked into your script. When the conversation goes somewhere unexpected you try to steer it back. Not aggressively. Just… subtly. You answer the question you prepared for instead of the question they actually asked. You force your examples to fit even when they don’t quite.
I did this constantly and didn’t even realize it. I had my five stories ready and I was gonna use them come hell or high water. Didn’t matter what they asked. I’d find a way to pivot to one of my prepared examples. Looking back it must have been obvious. Like talking to someone who’s not really listening because they’re just waiting for their turn to talk.
What Actually Helped
Around interview seven or eight I tried something different. Instead of rehearsing full answers I just… stopped. I knew my experience. I knew my stories. I’d been doing this work for twenty five years. I didn’t need to memorize how to talk about it.
What I did instead was prepare frameworks. Like okay – what are the three or four things that matter most in this role. What tradeoffs would I expect to face. What would I focus on first and what would I leave alone. Big picture stuff. Not word-for-word answers.
And then in the actual interview I let myself think. Paused before answering. Asked clarifying questions. Let there be silence sometimes. It felt risky as hell. But somehow… it worked better. Having water nearby helped with the pausing. Gave me something to do while I collected my thoughts.
The Silence Thing
This was the hardest part for me honestly. When you’ve prepared answers for everything, silence feels like failure. Like you’re supposed to have something ready and you don’t. So you rush to fill it.
But here’s what I learned. A short pause before answering actually makes you seem more thoughtful. More senior. It shows you’re actually considering the question instead of just executing a playback. The interviewers I talked to later – the ones who actually gave me useful feedback – they said they appreciated when candidates took a moment to think. Made them trust the answer more.
Still feels unnatural to me. Probably always will. But it works. This connects to why clarity matters more than confidence.
Prepare Different, Not Less
I’m not saying don’t prepare. That would be dumb advice. You should know the company. You should understand the role. You should have examples ready.
What I’m saying is don’t rehearse delivery. Don’t practice your answers until they’re so smooth there’s no texture left. Don’t memorize transitions and phrases. That’s where it goes wrong.
Your examples are raw material. What you do with them should happen in the moment based on what they actually ask. That’s how you show judgment. That’s how they see you thinking. Understanding how to handle questions you didn’t prepare for is part of this too.
What I Started Doing Instead
Instead of memorizing answers I started preparing how I’d actually approach the role. What I’d focus on in the first 30, 60, 90 days. Gave me something real to talk about without sounding scripted. Made the whole conversation feel more like a working session than a performance.
The Irony of All This
The thing that gets me is that I was over-preparing because I was anxious. Felt like if I had everything ready I’d be safer. Less chance of messing up. Less chance of blanking on something. But the preparation was actually making me seem less competent, not more. All that work was backfiring.
There’s a version of preparation that makes you sharper. And there’s a version that makes you sound like a press release. I was doing the second one for way too long. Most people probably are and don’t realize it.
Anyway. Prepare your thinking, not your talking. That’s the whole point. Took me four months and a lot of rejection emails to figure that out.
