Jenny Wood spent nearly 18 years at Google building out various teams and founding an internal career development program. As such, she's talked to many jobseekers and "participated in hundreds of interviews and hiring decisions."

Wood is releasing her book, "Wild Courage," on March 25, covering her tips for career success. She covers similar topics in her weekly newsletter, Big Small Things, as well.

When it comes to job interviews, one thing Wood discourages is giving long answers. A meandering, seven-minute answer "never helps you get the job" because it's hard for your interviewer to glean any specific insights from it, she says.

Instead, take some time to think about your answer, outline what you'd like to say and then respond. For Wood, this behavior is "the holy grail of interview excellence," she says. Here's why and how to go about doing it.

'I think it's one of the most strategic things you could do'

Taking the time to outline your answer in an interview shows stellar leadership abilities, says Wood.

"I think it's one of the most strategic things you could do," she says, because "being strategic is separating the important from the unimportant." Leaders have to do this kind of thinking all of the time.

You don't want to ask for a few seconds in your interview repeatedly, she says. Try to act on this impulse at most two times. And only do so when you get asked "big questions that could go a lot of directions," she says, and that feel like they really warrant some thought.

She gives the example of questions like "what do you think the biggest business challenges are?" or "How do you see AI impacting this company?"

Say, 'I'm just going to take 30 seconds to think about this'

When you do get one of these questions and you feel like you could benefit from time to think, say, "I'm just going to take 30 seconds to think about this."

Then, outline what comes to mind. You can use a notepad if you brought one or even an app on your phone. If the question is about the biggest business challenges, write down as many answers as you think of like, "market, competition, AI processes, team, global alignment, tools, priorities" — whatever seems relevant, then circle two or three items on that list and say something like, "I think the biggest challenges are, No. 1, priorities, No. 2, tools, No. 3, global alignment."

Take up to three minutes to both write down your outline and answer the question.

Answering big questions this way makes it easier for the interviewer to take notes on what you're saying because you're breaking it up clearly. Most importantly, it makes it sound like the interviewee is "really honoring your question."

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