Go BIG Or Go Home
The non-verbal communication
You must be familiar by now with non-verbal communication and body language. This is a BIG part of impressing your interview panel and also being confident in life in general. Don’t ignore these suggestions. These will take you far in life!
To come off as a confident and charismatic person. Follow these body language and non-verbal cues.
- Body Posture: Straighten yourself a bit. Pull your shoulders back and raise your head a bit.
- Firm Handshake: If the interviewer/panel extends their hand. Grip the offered hand and shake it firmly. Don’t grip too hard as if your love of your life is trying to run away from you! And don’t shake it too hard or too many times, just lightly.
- Smile: Sport a simple smile whenever needed. Don’t grin though! You can smile during answering or questioning the panel if the situation asks for it. Find opportunities to smile. Lighten the environment a bit.
- Eye Contact: Maintain eye contact often. Please don’t stare non-stop throughout the interview, take breaks, blink. Don’t look away all the time either or avoid eye contact. You might find it awkward to look them in the eye. Practice it in your daily life. Focus on one of their eye or their eye brows. Break contact often and don’t forget to blink! Practice this in your daily life to make it a habit and remove awkwardness you may feel.
- Multiple Eye Contact: If there is more than one interviewer at the table interviewing you. Make sure you take turns to make eye contact while answering the questions, regardless of who asked you the question. This is VERY important. Don’t just maintain eye contact with the interviewer who asked you the question. Make it with everyone at the table. They will appreciate it!
- Talking Pace: Talk a little slowly if you tend to talk fast. Pause once in a while when answering questions. Talking slowly is a sign of confidence. Pausing shows you are taking the time to think to answer and it is not memorized. Don’t talk too slowly though.
- Storytelling: Try to answers in a story telling fashion especially for questions like ‘Tell me about yourself?’, ‘What are you strengths?’, ‘Why did you pick Mechanical Engineering?’ etc. The key is to make it less boring, make it different for the panel from hundreds of other interviews they have been conducting. It shouldn’t be like viva voce. Add some personal touch to the interview. I guarantee you most of the freshers will start with the dreaded “Myself ….”. You are not one of them! You are different and creative!
- Hand gestures: When storytelling or answering a complex question use your hands/gesture sparingly if you would like.
- Sit Back: Don’t lean too forward while seated. Maintain a relaxed posture, lean back on the chair a bit rather than leaning forward. When I say lean back don’t lean back as if you are sitting in your bedroom with legs on the table and watching Youtube!
- Nod: Don’t be afraid to nod your head whenever necessary while listening to them and agreeing with them. You can smile too if it makes sense. But don’t smile every time you nod, only if the situation asks for it
- Water: Carry a bottle of water or ask for water, if your mouth/throat tends to dry up due to nervousness or because you are a smoker. Don’t be shy to ask for water and ask confidently. Don’t be timid while asking.
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