Know that it is Not Your Fault To Interview Your Best

Companies treat people badly during the selection process. This is an unfortunate fact of life.

Recently, I have seen a large number of online posts from job seekers writing about how badly they are treated by hiring companies. The primary complaints are no acknowledgment of receiving resumes and the lack of feedback or information following an interview. Job search is such a difficult and emotionally trying experience that these slights cause significant emotional stress and consternation.

Why the inhumanity? Bottom line there is no good reason now lets deal with the excuses and rationalizations.

Inundated with resumes
In today’s job market any job listing will get a formidable stack of resumes. Online job boards have made submitting resumes far easier so a significant number of submitted resumes are in essence “spam” from unqualified applicants. This causes a lot of additional administrative overhead as well as an angry attitude of “why the heck are you applying and wasting our time”.  For small companies this can overwhelm their ability to respond. Most large companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) that have autoresponders acknowledging the receipt of a resume. For some reason, many companies do not turn this feature on. Thus, small companies, although still not kind, have some basis for not responding. Large companies do not. Also, job seekers should not apply to jobs for which they are not qualified this will unclog the system a bit.

Post interview response
To me this is the most egregious of job search inhumanity. A job candidate has taken the time to interview with a company and then gets no response for weeks if at all. I have heard numerous stories where an applicant had 4 or 5 interviews over several weeks  only to get no response once the company decided not to hire them. Unfortunately, there is a prevailing attitude that the job seeker needs the job so the company can treat them badly without consequences. Equally unfortunate, companies get away with this behavior. Job seekers eager, and sometimes desperate, for a job cannot stridently complain to the company. Even if they do complain, typically by email, they hear nothing in response. The company has no consequences and does not change their behavior.

Interestingly, I have spoken with recruiters from large consumer companies who do a lot of hiring and they are sensitive to this issue. These companies understand that every applicant is a customer (think shoe company) that could spend hundreds of dollars on their products. Treat people badly as an applicant and lose a customer. Disappointingly, these companies are motivated to do the right thing by the bottom line rather than empathy for the job seeker.

What to Do
First expect this behavior and do not personalize it. Human beings when faced with the unknown tend to view things negatively. If a company does not acknowledge your resume do not assume it was something wrong with your resume, your cover letter, your experience, or your chances of getting a job. They did not respond, that is all you can know. Most companies are disorganized, confused and not set up to manage the hiring process with any skill. They will mismanage lots of resumes including yours.

Interviews are somewhat different. In every interview be sure to ask, “How and when should I follow up with you?” If you are using an interview presentation, be sure that  this question is on your “important questions” page. Do not let the interviewer duck this question. If they say “we will get back to you” respond by saying “If I have not heard from you by DATE is it OK for me to call you? Then follow up as directed. Do not be afraid to be persistent, they have a responsibility to you since you have spent time and energy interviewing with them. In some situations, persistence will communicate as interest and motivation which will help your candidacy. Companies with caring cultures will respond. Companies who do not care will not respond and you need to question how they treat employees.

Job search is a sales process. Good sales people have a thick skin to handle rejections, slights, run-arounds and no response. Sales people will tell you a customer does not want to talk with them until they need their product and then they want it yesterday unless they find a better product or price. If they don’t want to buy they typically just go silent and don’t return phone calls. Sales people get use to being treated this way, most job seekers do not.

Most important- do not take this personally. Being treated badly is not a reflection on you it is a reflection on the company. If you begin to think you have done something to earn this treatment you will lose confidence, begin to wonder about yourself, and hurt your interview performance. Do not let this happen.

Also, resolve that when you get your next job you will never treat job seekers in the way you have been treated!

Do You Know Your Key Message? You Should to Interview Your Best

Passive Participant

Are you aware that you run your job interview? I bet your not! I bet you think you are the passive participant in a job interview controlled by the interviewer. If you think you are Passive Participant then you will be!

Consider this, who runs a news conference the President or the reporters? The reporters ask the tough questions and all the President does is answer the questions. But pay attention next time, the President has his Key Messages and he answers the questions in a way that communicates his Key Messages. He stays “on message” despite the questions just as you should in your interviews.

What is the most important point that you want to get across to your interviewer. This point is the your Key Message. Your Key Message addresses why you are an excellent candidate for the job and why hiring you is the smart choice.

Here are some important points for your Key Message-
What do you want your interviewers to remember from your interview?
When you walk out of the interview room and one interviewer turns to the other and asks, “So what do you think of ________?’ What do you want the response to be? That is your Key Message! Example ” I think _____ is a really experienced customer service rep and they are really dedicated to making customers happy. They would fit our customer service team really well.”

Keep it Simple

Make that Key Message simple and concrete:
Decide you main “selling point” the thing that best qualifies you for the job and may differentiate you from others. Write it down as a simple clear statement. ‘I am qualified for the position because I have have a dedication to customer service and I will work with a customer until they are satisfied”.

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Repeat your message:
Repetition reinforces your message and will help the interviewer fix your message in their mind. Inject your message into the interview whenever you can.

Have the interviewer focus on your Key Message:
You want the interviewer to be paying attention when you state your Key Message. You can do this by saying something like:

Here’s is an important thing about me. Then pause….then say your Key Message.

This called a flag because it’s like waving a flag to say pay attention to the next thing that your going to say.

Just the right length

Keep your message short but not too short:
The shorter your key message the easier it will be for you to say, and for your interviewer to grasp and remember. However, it should not be so short that it does not communicate your benefit to their company.

Fit the message to the job

Match you Key Message to the job:
Be sure your you Key Message addresses the most important requirement of the job. To accomplish this make sure you know the job requirements and the value you bring to the job.

Be a story teller

Tell a story and end it with your Key Message:
People love stories, it engages them on an intellectual and emotional level. So tell stories in your interview, and finish them with your Key Message. Example, “Story/Story/Story/Story and that is an example of how I work with customers until they are satisfied.”

Focusing on communicating your Key Message will help you steer the interview and leave the interviewer with the message you want them to have registered in their thinking. The more memorable your Key Message the more convincing you will be. So, use your Key Message to be an Active Participant (AP) in the interview not a Passive Participant.

Use an interview presentation to be active in an interview

Know The Secret to Beating Your Competition and Winning your Next Job to Interview Your Best

It's a long line

With our economy it is difficult to just get a job interview.  And, with so many applicants interviewing for the same spots, it is important to find a way to edge out the competition and win the job.

Luckily, there is a new and inexpensive resource for job seekers to use when preparing and presenting themselves at their next interview; the iBest Presentation.

The iBest Presentation, featured on InterviewBest.com, is an interview tool that assists job candidates to communicate their job specific qualifications and personal attributes during the job interview. Not only does it quickly and clearly show the interviewer how they fit each requirement, but also leaves a powerful impression of professionalism and enthusiasm for the job.

“It’s really designed to create a conversation,” said Eric Kramer career expert and creator of InterviewBest and the iBest Presentation. “The best interview you can have is a conversation rather than the typical interrogation.”

Kramer said that the design of the presentation is based on his belief that every interview is, essentially, a sales call. Therefore, Kramer said candidates should enter each interview with a sales style presentation that clearly answers the three main questions of all job interviews—can the candidate do the job well, are they motivated, and will they fit the company’s work environment.

The iBest Presentation

The iBest Presentation is a brief eight to ten pages in length, beginning with the requirements of the position and the candidate’s qualifications that directly match those requirements. The interviewer can read through the booklet to find the candidate’s personal strengths, career accomplishments, and a 30 and 60 day strategic action plan detailing the candidate’s initial goals. It finishes with a list of reasons the candidate should be hired and questions the candidate has for the interviewer.

How do I prepare?

When candidates walk into an interview, Kramer said only about 25 percent are fully prepared. He said that many do not do the necessary company research or prepare for difficult questioning. By creating the presentation, Kramer said applicants walk in with a clearer assessment of the job, the company, and how they specifically fulfill the requirements of the position.

Janice Bilotti, who successfully used the iBest Presentation while interviewing for a Customer Service Supervisor position at Jones Apparel Group, said that the presentation enabled her to be prepared for the interview in addition to keeping her thoughts organized during the interview.

“iBest helps to make sure you cover the most important things that you want to discuss,”
she said, “because now it’s right there in writing and it organizes you during the interview as well as beforehand.”

Bilotti introduced her presentation in the interview when the interviewer asked her to describe herself. Pulling out iBest, Bilotti said that she and the interviewer read through it, touching on the important points she felt the company needed to know about her qualifications.

“It keeps you focused,” she said. “It makes you talk about what you want to focus on when you’re having your interview with the company.”

Bilotti said that her presentation impressed both of the individuals who interviewed her, adding that she didn’t think they had seen anything like it before.

It's a win and a job

Bilotti got a call later that same day with a job offer.

In addition to the iBest Presentation, InterviewBest.com has information for anyone involved in the interview process including candidates and hiring managers. Information includes links and tips for things to do before, during, and after the interview. The site also includes information about how to conduct an interview and ways to improve the selection process.

To create an iBest Presentation, job-seekers can go to www.InterviewBest.com and find an easy-to-use program that automatically generates a presentation as they add text. Included are expert libraries with phrases or words suggested for use in presentations. These libraries make developing an iBest quick and efficient. Once the presentation is made, users can either print it at home or take it to a local office supply store for professional binding.

Bilotti said that she would use the iBest Presentation in any future interview due to the positive impact it had on her last one.

“…It sets you apart,” she said. “Very few people would even go to that point of having a presentation much less having one of this quality.”

Go to InterviewBest for a Free Trial of iBest

Why You Should Put Your Past Behind You to Interview Your Best

Resumes are all about past behavior; employers are interested in the future. There is a tendency for job candidates to lean too heavily on their resume and talk about what they did in the past. Your resume got you to the interview – congratulations, now focus on what you can do for the company moving forward.

You task is to help the interviewer see you in the job producing good work and dropping profit to the bottom line. You cannot do this by focusing on what you have accomplished. Your accomplishments are important only in so far as they support your statements about what you can do in the future. Here are some strategies:

First know the job
The more you know about the specific requirements of the job the better you will be able to address how you will function in the job. Begin the interview by asking  questions about the job, its day-to-day responsibilities, critical job requirements, and success metrics. Make sure you and the interviewer are in complete agreement about the job you are being interviewed to fill.

Connect your background to the critical job requirements
Help the interviewer become comfortable that you have the experience, background skill to do the job by relating the job requirements to things you have done. But don’t get stuck here!

Talk about benefits you bring to the job
Features (your knowledge, skills, experience) address your basic qualities, however they do not address your future performance. Benefits, how the company will profit from employing you, addresses the future and constitutes the primary focus of the employer. Mention your features but focus on your benefits. A benefits statement sounds like this “I have 3 years of experience using social media [feature]. This means I will be able to quickly establish a social media strategy that will have a presence on all the major social media sites increasing traffic and your ad revenue [benefit].”

Talk “as if”
Approach the interview as if you were talking about a day-to-day issues with a boss and talk as if you are in the position. Example, ask about immediate priorities or projects. Once you have a task to focus on say something similar to “This is how I think we should approach solving this or completing this project.”

Present yourself as flexible and adaptable
Employers are looking for people that are open to learning and are adaptable to new environments and jobs. These are all qualities that relate to the future and speak to your performance in a new job. Talk about prior situations where you exhibited these qualities and then relate those situations to how you will become successful in the future in your new job.

The focus of the interview should not be on how good you were in your prior jobs but how great you will be in your future job.

InterviewBest keep you focused on the future

Do You Know Your Competencies? You Should to Interview Your Best

High Performance

Employers hire people based on their ability to perform a job. The ability to perform a job is based on the “competencies” a person brings to the position. What the heck are competencies and what do they have to do with interviewing?

Lets start defining competencies by  doing some differentiation. Job descriptions typically list the tasks or functions and responsibilities for a role, whereas competencies list the abilities needed to conduct those tasks or functions. Thus, competencies are the basic skills you offer an employer and are independent of the specific job for which you are interviewing. Employers are primarily interested in your competencies and during the interview you should make sure the interviewer hears all about your outstanding competencies.

Here are the competencies you should be communicating:

Managing Resources: Identifies, organizes, plans, and allocates resources

• Time – selects goal-relevant activities, ranks them, allocates time, and prepares and follows schedules
• Money – Prepare budgets, makes forecasts, keeps records
• Material and facilities – acquires, stores, allocates, and uses materials or space
• Human resources – assesses skills and distributes work accordingly, evaluates performance and provides feedback

Managing Information: Acquires and evaluates information

• Acquires and evaluates information
• Organizes and maintains information
• Interprets and communicates information
• Uses computers to process information

Using Systems: Manages complex relationships

• Understands systems – knows how social, organizational, and technological systems work
• Monitors and corrects performance – distinguishes trends, predicts impacts on system operations, diagnoses deviations in systems performance and corrects malfunctions
• Improves or designs systems – suggests modifications to existing systems and develops new or alternative systems to improve performance

Understanding Technology: Works with a variety of technologies

• Selects technology – chooses procedures, tools, or equipment including computers and related technologies
• Applies technology to task – understands intent and proper procedures for setup and operation of equipment
• Maintains and troubleshoots equipment – prevents, identifies, or solves problems with equipment, including computers and other technologies

Basic Skills: Reads, writes, performs arithmetic and mathematical operations, listens, and speaks

• Reading – locates, understands, and interprets written information in prose and in documents such as manuals, graphs, and schedules
• Writing – communicates thoughts, ideas, information, and messages in writing; and creates documents such as letters, directions, manuals, reports, graphs, and flow charts
• Arithmetic/mathematics – performs basic computations and approaches practical problems by choosing appropriately from a variety of mathematical techniques
• Listening – receives, attends to, interprets, and responds to verbal messages and other cues
• Speaking – organizes ideas and communicates orally

Thinking Skills: Thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and reasons

• Creative thinking – generates new ideas
• Decision making – specifies goals and constraints, generates alternatives, considers risks, and  evaluates and chooses best alternatives
• Problem solving – recognizes problems and devises and implements plan of action
• Visualizing – organizes and processes symbols
• Knowing how to learn – uses efficient learning techniques to acquire and apply new knowledge and skills
• Reasoning – discovers a rule or principle underlying the relationship between two or more objects and applies it when solving a problem

Personal Qualities: Responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, and honesty

• Responsibility – exerting a high level of effort and perseveres towards goal attainment
• Self-esteem – believes in own self-worth and maintains a positive self view
• Sociability – demonstrates understanding, friendliness, adaptability, empathy, and politeness in group settings
• Self-management – assesses self accurately, setting personal goals, monitoring progress, and exhibiting self-control
• Integrity/honesty – chooses ethical courses of action

Here is the way to use this list-

1. Think of those competencies which are most critical to the position for which you are applying. Be prepared to answer questions related to those competencies.
2. Ask the  question, “What are the basic competencies a person has to have to be successful in this job?”
3. Think of situations, on and off the job, where you used one of these competencies.  Write a brief description of the situation. During the interview, if you are asked a question where you can use an example of one  your competency do so.

Good interviews are based on a common understanding of the job and the skills a successful employee has to have. Thus, knowing about the competencies required to perform the job is critical for both the candidate and the hiring manager. Focusing on competencies assures a best “fit hiring” decision for both candidate and company.

InterviewBest helps organize and communicate competencies

Recruiters You Can Help Candidates Interview Their Best

Most recruiters provide 30 minutes or less of interview preparation to their candidates. A recruiter’s interview preparation typically consists of informing the candidate about position details, company culture, and interviewer(s) background/personality.  Recruiters do not have the time, nor do they see a benefit, in providing more general interviewing skills and strategies. Imagine if 45 to 60 minutes of interview preparation increased the send-out-to-hire ratio by 3 to 5 percent. The ROI on that time would be very high.

The following are suggestions recruiters can use to maximize interview performance with a minimum increase of time.

Talk sales
An interview is a sales call so talk sales skills. Helping candidates think of the interview as a sales call  gives them an orientation and a structure to prepare for the interview and then guide the interview. Just as a sales person would do, candidates need to define the problem to be solved, understand the company’s needs, and then prepare to communicate how their skills and experience can be applied to solve the problem.

What's the problem?

Take a problem solving approach
Recruiters can help candidates define the problem they are being hired to solve and then suggest ways to link their background and skills to solving the problem.  An accountant is not hired to do accounting. An accountant is hired to solve the problem/challenge of making sure the books balance. A project manager is not being hired to do project management. They are being hired to make sure projects get done correctly, on time, and within budget. What is the bottom line problem the candidate is being hired to solve? Have them speak to the problem.

Interview Presentation

Make a sales pitch
Candidates should not depend on the interviewer’s skills and questions for a successful interview. Like a sales person, candidates should be active in the interview communicating why they are a good fit for the position. Recruiters should encourage candidates to be assertive, not aggressive, in making their sales pitch.

Its benefits not features
Most candidates do an adequate job of talking about their background, experience and skills; their features. Few candidates talk about the benefits their features will provide to the hiring company. Simply by asking, “How will your experience provide benefit?” the recruiter encourages the candidate to think about benefits VS features and the advantage of selling themselves on what they can do rather than what they have done. Any discussion between the recruiter and candidate should be focused on the valuable benefits the candidate provides.

The one most important question to ask
Every candidate should have in writing the one most important interview question to ask which is, “Based on my background and experience, what do you think would be the greatest challenges for me in this position?’ This question is essentially the sales objection question “Is there any reason why you would not buy this car today?” The objection question provides feedback about the candidate’s fit for the position from the interviewer’s perspective as well as gives the candidate an opportunity to address any potential objection both in the interview and in the follow-through letter.

By introducing the above five interview strategies and asking questions that help candidates establish a sales orientation, recruiters will go a long way towards better interview preparation.  Better interview preparation will result in higher placement ratios and greater customer satisfaction for both candidates and clients companies.

Know What Your Scared of to Interview Your Best

When I do interview coaching with job candidates they often tell me they are nervous about the interview. As soon as I hear that statement I respond by asking them “what are you scared of”. This is an important question and I work with the candidate to get a specific and detailed answer.

First it is important to change the word “nervous” or “anxious” to “scared”. Nervousness or anxiety is generalized fear which is not anchored to a specific concern. By using the word “scared” the fear can be anchored to a specific concern and then the concern can be addressed.

Typical interview fears
Not being able to answer a question: Candidates often state they are scared they will be asked questions they cannot answer. Many candidates try to prepare for this by studying the most frequently asked interview questions. A good tactic, but it is impossible to prepare to answer all of the possible 2000+ interview questions. More importantly, understand your fear of not answering a question. What is your fear of what happens if you are asked a question and you do not know the answer? Does that mean you blow the interview and lose the job? Does it mean that you are not qualified for the job? Does it mean you have to feel stupid and inadequate? Does it mean you will never get a job? Identify these, often irrational, fears and decide if they are true. When you discover they are not, the fear will diminish.

Getting nervous and rambling:
Many candidates are aware of a tendency to ramble and go on tangents when nervous. To avoid this, never speak for more than two minutes at any one time and use a specific format like STAR (situation, task, action, result) to stay focused.

Not being qualified for the job:
On occasion a candidate does not understand why they were invited for an interview and they doubt their match with the position. The fear here is of not being qualified and performing poorly in the interview. To combat this fear realize that a company rarely wastes interview time on unqualified candidates. They must see something in your background and experience that interests them. A perfectly reasonable question for you to ask in the interview is ‘What is it about my background and experience  interests you in relation to this position?”

Ultimately, not getting the job:
The ultimate fear is doing poorly in the interview, not being offered a desirable position and feeling terrible about it. This is exacerbated when a person is unemployed and desperate to get back to work. Every interview has tremendous importance and a high price for failure. The best way to combat this fear is to have a active job search with multiple opportunities. If all your eggs are in one interview basket the interview becomes far more scary. If you have multiple interviews and the possibility of more, each interview is less important and less scary. Maintain an active job search!

Fear of being judged and rejected
Adults do not like to be in the position of being evaluated or judged by another person who has the ability to dramatically influence our lives. This feels powerless and scary. The reality is you are judging them as well. Do you want to work at that company and for that person?I understand you may be desperate for a job, however a bad job is worse than no job at all. You will be unhappy and then out of the job looking for another job with a short term job to explain on your resume.

The general strategy to dealing with interview fear is to state specifically what you are scared of and then understand the rationality of your fear.  Interviews are very subjective and are not definitive statements of your experience, qualification, or worth as an employee or person. Prepare for your interview, perform your best, keep active in your search and don’t be scared.

Use an InterviewBest Presentation to reduce your interview fears

Stay in the Interview to Interview Your Best

Job interviews take on many different forms and formats. Most people think of the traditional interview where the candidate and interviewer(s) sit in an office and talk to one another. However, interviews also include lunch or dinner or a tour of the office or factory. No matter where you are during an interview, stay focused and stay in the interview.

Don’t let your positivity slip
One of the basic tenants of any interview is to be positive about everything. Most candidates are aware that they should not say anything negative about prior employers during an interview. However, when talking informally at lunch or when taking a tour of a facility candidates make slips. For example, when walking through a production facility a candidate mentioned how outdated and antiquated his previous employer’s machines and production processes were. Too much negativity!

Stay focused
During a lunch or dinner it is natural to become less formal and more relaxed, however you are still being evaluated for the job. Certainly, table manners are critical so brush up on your Emily Post. In addition, keep the discussion focused on professional issues as much as possible. You want your personality to come through and you want the hiring manager to like you. However, it is not a time to talk about your quirky side or any unusual habits. Also, stay away from controversial issues like politics or religion.

Meeting potential co-workers
During a tour of the office or factory you will be introduced to company employees. They are part of your interview and you need to connect with them as well. A firm handshake, good eye contact, and a smile will support your candidacy. Any brief conversation you can engage in will also communicate a friendliness and leave a positive impression. Potential co-workers includes receptionists and security staff. Be friendly, be positive, interact, connect.

If you are taken to lunch or for a tour of the office/facility that is a positive sign. Poor candidates are shown the door not the office. You have probably made a good connection with the interviewer and they want to “sell” you on the job as well as evaluate how you impress potential co-workers. By staying focused and “in the interview” you will ace the interview and land the job.

An InterviewBest presentation will help you stay focused

Differentiate Yourself From the Other Stars to Interview Your Best

You are a star in a very dense universe. What does this have to do with interviewing? Everything! Most candidates don’t think about how they are perceived in the bigger world or how they compare to hundreds of competitors. They focus only on their own basic skills which does not differentiate them from all the other stars.

Most candidates claim: “I have the skills; I’m a good, smart person; and I’ll work really hard for you.” That line describes you and about 20,000 other “stars”.  Skills aren’t enough these days because they’re just a baseline of what you offer. What you need to promote is your unique skills that will provide different and remarkable benefit to the hiring company.

Here is an example, I am working with a client that was a mid-level manager working in a large telecommunications company doing accounts receivables. Accounts receivable sounded pretty ho-hum until she began to talk about managing monthly receivables for Federal and Government business units for contracts valued between $2M and $20M. Expertise at collecting money from the government as Obama’s stimulus package gets delivered; that is a great selling proposition. Collecting government funds is the most unique benefit or value she can offer to an employer.

Take your value a step further
When preparing for an interview, first understand the company’s and the hiring manager’s basic needs and understand how your skills, experience, education match those needs. Then take it a step further and identify your outstanding area(s) of value; and yes we all have one or more. Once you have identified your outstanding value, prepare examples of times when you applied that value successfully in a work situation. During your interview be sure to talk about these examples. Do not leave the interview without having clearly communicated the outstanding, and differentiating, value you will bring to the company. If the interviewer does not ask questions that elicit the value just say, “I have outstanding value I will bring to your company, I would like to give you examples”.

Your Hired

In our current economy companies are interviewing more candidates for each position. Their belief is there are a lot of stars looking for jobs and they can be choosier than in the past. Every person interviewed meets the basic requirements of the position. You need to meet those requirements and then shine brighter to ace the interview and land the job.

Use an Interview Presentation to communicate your unique value

Know What Your Body is Saying While Your Mouth is Moving to Interview Your Best

What does your gut say?

Many interviewers claim they make hiring decisions based on their “gut reaction”. Have you considered what makes up a gut reaction; most interviewers have not. Gut reactions are complex, however a substantial portion is based on unconsciously reading body language. Body language is a combination of eye movement, body orientation, hand movement, head position, and leg activity. When messages from all these parts are combined there is a lot your body is saying. The important question; is your body communicating a “hire me” message?

Lets examine some body language-

Eyes
Eye contact 60% of the time indicates interest and agreement however, eye contact 100% of the time indicates aggression. Frequent avoidance of eye contact may indicate a person is hiding something or lacks confidence. Rapid blinking indicates resistance to what is being said.

In your interview think about your eye contact. When you are asked a difficult question and you are not sure of the answers to you will tend to look away. This communicates lack of confidence in your answer and lets the interviewer know you are unsure maybe even fabricating an answer.

Think about maintaining good eye contact even when uncertain or nervous about what you are saying.

Your head
When a person’s head is tilted towards you it indicates interest. When tilted away at an angle with glances from the corner of the eye, it indicates suspicion, mistrust and disbelief. The head supported on a hand indicates boredom. Nodding indicates interest and agreement.

During the interview keep your head tilted toward the interviewer particularly when they are speaking. They will get the message you are interested in what they are saying. Avoid cradling your head in your hands. Nod in response to what the interviewer is saying, although not like a bobble head doll.

Your hands
Here is some hand communication:

• When hands are open and palms up, it conveys truthfulness and openness
• Hidden palms indicate something held back
• Clenched hands indicate tension, discomfort, or anger
• Hands covering the mouth or the nose or tugging at the ear indicates that a lie may be concealed
• A limp handshake with palm up betrays submission
• A firm handshake with palm down conveys strength and confidence
• A hand gripping the other hand, wrist or elbow communicates a desire to quell rising anxiety
• A hand behind the head betrays a need to fend anxiety, danger or discomfort.
• Steepled hands bear power and proclaims confidence and business
• The hand stroking the chin indicates ongoing evaluation of something just said
• Hands flat on the table indicate readiness to agree

Pay attention to your hands. What are they communicating to the interviewer? What are the interviewer’s hands communicating to you?

Body position
A closed position, slouching with arms crossed, communicates evasiveness and resistance. When you lean towards the interviewer you sends signals of interest. By leaning away you communicate disinterest or resistance.

In your interview keep an open body posture. If you cross your legs do not turn sideways. If your interviewer displays a closed body posture things are not going well.

Your doing well in the interview when
The interviewer maintains eye contact  70% of the time and is smiling. She faces you directly, nods frequently, leans toward you, and her arms and legs are uncrossed.

If you are not getting these body signs you will naturally,based on your gut reaction, tend to tighten up. Stay open, take a deep breath, and think about what is going on in the interview. You can even ask for some feedback about what the interviewer is thinking.

Use an interview presentation to improve your communication