One Minute Rule
TDLR: When speaking with someone who could potentially help you in your career or who you’d like to make a positive & lasting impression on (e.g., interview, cold outreach conversation, clients, etc.), keep your responses to less than one minute.
When I was 24, I was in the middle of my master’s degree at Duke and decided that business school was more of my fit, so I took the GMAT and applied to a handful of universities. Through this process, I learned something that I found immensely helpful: the one-minute rule. I was running through a mock interview with my friend who was a second-year at Harvard Business School, when he cut me off mid-response and said, ‘you’re taking way too long to respond to this question. Keep your response to under one minute.’ We spent the rest of the session honing my ability on answering mock questions in less than 60 seconds. This is the one minute rule.
It wasn’t until I was eventually on the other side of the meeting table that I realize how important this rule is. Take the example of the interviewer - after 5, 10, or even 15+ interviews, he/she has probably heard some type of similar variant of a response to ‘walk me through your resume’ or ‘how would you approach an XYZ issue’. They are interested in learning more about you, but probably not 5 minutes of why you chose your undergraduate major. They’ve heard a lot of the same responses, so it comes down to redundancy and boredom. Sometimes, even when speaking genuinely, certain examples or accomplishments when dragged out can even come off as vain or even narcissistic. Boring and Narcissism are definitely traits that you want to avoid being attached to your name.
Most importantly, responding straight to the point and under one minute allows the other person to talk. People love talking about themselves and their interests! Following this rule allows you to show that have a strong ability to listen, which in many high-paying tech and consulting jobs is 50% or more of what you’re doing every single day.
While I didn’t get into Harvard Business School, I did end getting interviews at some pretty prestigious consulting firm right after grad school. During my final round of interviews, I was going through my second case interview when the interviewer pulled out his phone and pulled up the stopwatch/time app. He timed me in each and every one of my responses, reading back to me my time of completion for every answer. I ended up getting the job; not as cool or awe-inspiring of a story as some, but I do credit that piece of advice for helping me launch my post-grad school career in management consulting.