How to Share Your Expertise Without Losing the Interviewer in Jargon

You’re smiling in an interview, giving your best, walking through your experience.

You’re using typical and common marketing terms, the language you use every day. Demand generation. Organic content. Channel planning. Attribution. ROAS.

And you can feel it…

It’s not landing.

The nods get slower. The follow-up questions get broader. The conversation starts to drift.

This is a common scenario many strong, experienced marketing and communications professionals find themselves in. When you’re losing momentum early, not because you aren’t capable, but because your expertise isn’t translating for the non-marketing or communications person hosting the interview.

What’s actually happening

In many cases, especially early in the interview process, you’re not speaking to another marketer or communications professional.

You might be speaking with someone in HR who is assessing how you communicate, how you think, and how you engage.

Or, in a smaller organization, you may be speaking directly with a business owner. Someone who is making a meaningful investment in this hire, but doesn’t have the marketing background themselves.

They’re not evaluating you the way a subject matter expert would.

They’re asking a different question:

Do I understand what this person does, and do I trust them to do it well?

The risk of over-doing it

When you default to jargon or overly detailed explanations, a few things can happen:

• The message becomes difficult to follow
• The interviewer feels overwhelmed or unsure
• It becomes harder to assess your actual impact

And the result is often the same:

They’re not quite sure what to do with you as a candidate.

Are you truly an expert?
Or does it just sound like you are?

If that answer isn’t clear, it’s difficult to move you forward.

What you’re really being evaluated on

Even if your interviewer isn’t a marketer, they are still evaluating you.

They’re listening for:

• + Clarity in how you explain your work
• + How you structure your thinking
• + Your ability to connect your work to business outcomes
• + Your communication style and presence
• Whether they feel confident representing you internally

At this stage, your ability to communicate your expertise matters just as much as the expertise itself.

What to do instead

The shift is simple, but it makes a difference.

Focus on results. Everyone understands results.

A clear way to structure your answers:

This was the problem.
Here’s what I did.
Here’s the results of the work.

This doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, the simpler it is, the better it lands.

For example:

“Traffic to the website was strong, but it wasn’t converting. I led a series of updates focused on the user experience and clearer messaging, and we saw a noticeable improvement in converting visitors into customers”

OR

“We were spending too much on paid ads without seeing strong results. I tested different creatives and variations of the copy, and once we knew what was working, we knew where to focus. Over the next quarter we reduced cost per lead by X and increased the leads we were generating by Y.”

You don’t need to remove the complexity of your work.

You need to make the outcome clear and understandable.

Translate, don’t dilute

This isn’t about “dumbing down” what you do.

It’s about making your work accessible to someone outside your field.

You can always go deeper if needed, and you could ask the interviewer if they’d like you to, because if your foundation isn’t clear, the depth won’t land.

The bottom line

If your interviewer can’t clearly understand what you do, and the impact of your work, they can’t confidently advocate for you.

And if they can’t advocate for you, you likely won’t move forward.

At Smart, Savvy + Associates we specialize in helping companies find and hire the marketing, communications and creative professionals they need, from coordinators to C-suite. Based in Vancouver, B.C., our team of marketers-turned-recruiters deeply understand where you’re at, the roles you need to fill, and the right mix of skills and experience required to ensure the best possible fit.

Looking for your next opportunity? Check out our job board here.

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