When it comes to job interviews, less is more

? Got an interview lined up? Don’t play all your cards. When it comes to job interviews, your experience and technical skills aren’t the only factors being assessed. Body language, personal presentation, and tone of voice come into play, and leaning too much into your experience and overwhelming hiring managers and recruiters with extensive — and often irrelevant — verbal displays of professional competence might just have an inverse effect, according to Fast Company.

While it may seem counterintuitive, lengthy, generalized answers encompassing different facets of one’s skills and career achievements may cause hiring managers to lose interest — a phenomenon Ladders CEO Marc Cenedella calls “answer inflation.” Spelling out qualifications as shown on resumés is a common trap even the most experienced of professionals fall into, seeing as in doing so, candidates are simply “burying their actual value,” Cenedella says. In most cases, hiring managers gauge a job applicant’s ability and likability through small talk and seemingly unimportant chatter that is anything but.

Landed an interview but want to secure the job? Speak sparingly. The key is not to lay it all out on the table, but to cleverly hold back. Irrelevant details and rambling throw off hiring managers, causing them to lose their attention mid-interview. When you get the inevitable “tell me about yourself” query, hiring managers aren’t looking to hear you simply state your qualifications. The open-ended question actually provides a chance to assess how you respond — your ability to provide thoughtful, organized answers, and whether you’re easily caught off guard.

Show, don’t tell. To stand out to recruiters, quantifiable results and clear, relevant examples of successful working strategies in the past are the answer. According to Cenedella, responses should form a “clear, compelling narrative about why you’re the solution to their current problem.” Moreover, your responses should focus on impact, not just credibility. Competition is fierce and most candidates are qualified — but not everyone has the skills to charm recruiters.