What do you do if your interview is going way too long? It is reasonable for somebody to go an hour without a break. I think best practice, just like Zoom school, you go 50 minutes, you get a 10 minute break, you come back. That’s probably best practice. If you know you have a full-day interview, probably just start out that way. I would say it’s pretty normal to go 90 minutes or so without taking a break, but again, if you get to 65 minutes and you just have one more question, you know, plug along, get it done. But then probably don’t ever, ever, ever go more than about two hours without a break. Just sort of mentally and physically, we all need to step away from intensity to be able to deliver quality. The people we’re talking to also need to step away from the intensity of being asked questions to be able to deliver what you need to deliver a quality investigation. If somebody starts coughing, if somebody starts crying, or someone starts fidgeting, there’s a reason to take a break right then, even if it is sort of unexpectedly and unannounced. Just say, “Hey, I think actually, I was going to take a break in 10 minutes, so let’s do it now. “You write in your notes what time you take your break, you take your notes with you, and you write what time you came back from your break and keep on plugging.
