We have all been there. You ask a candidate an interview question and they proceed to talk for the next 30 minutes about nothing specific without focusing on the topic raised. This is the time to hone your skills at being an active interviewer. With your guidance, your candidate can be encouraged to skip unimportant details and focus instead on their own skills and experience.

It helps to start each interview by setting clear expectations of what the candidate can expect. For example, it may be helpful to set an agenda, and then to let the candidate know you have prepared a set of questions you are looking forward to asking them. Be sure to remind them there will be time for them to ask questions at the end.

You should also explain that this will be an interactive interview, and you may jump in from time to time during their answer. This alerts the candidate to expect an engaging conversation that you will guide.

Here are some additional steps that can help you get your candidates to avoid long-winded answers and get to the point.

• Is their answer focusing more on people other than the candidate? Then try interjecting a question that will guide the candidate to focus on their own contribution to the effort. For example, you might say: “It sounds like there were a lot of people involved in this project. What was the biggest contribution you made to this effort?”
• Is the candidate attempting to describe a wide variety of problems or challenges? You might try helping them focus on the one that matters most by asking a question such as, “What was the single hardest thing about accomplishing this task or project?“
• If the candidate is meandering through a long series of individual steps, you might enthusiastically chime in by asking, “What was the end result?” Once you understand the conclusion, you can then decide what details you would like them to expound upon. 
• If the candidate still struggles with focusing on results, try asking them to put on the hat of their manager: “If I asked your manager for your biggest impact on that project, what would they tell me?” This will help your candidate shift their perspective to a 50,000-foot view. 

It’s true that on some occasions you may want to spend five minutes or more on a  single story; however, the majority of the time long-winded descriptions provide diminishing returns. The information you gain by moving on to another question typically outweighs the additional depth on the current one.