Your Job Interview – How to Make the Right Impression From the Start

The big buzzword in interview techniques is “rapport”. Which basically means developing a connection between yourself and the interviewer. Essentially, rapport is what good sales people get with their customers. And of course your interview is really you selling yourself.

Given that most people are in fact terrible at sales, I’m going to qualify this statement immediately, by saying – yes, your interview is you selling yourself but that doesn’t mean you have to be some kind of pinstriped idiot spouting business platitudes like an extra from The Apprentice. Far from it. Really good sales people are friendly, engaging and authentic, because they believe in the product they are selling.

If you are selling yourself, surely you can believe in that product more than anything else. You wouldn’t, or you shouldn’t anyway, be applying for a job you have no interest in nor yet cannot do. So the interview situation, which comes after applying for the right jobs, is simply your way of proving what you already know: that you’re a great candidate for the position.

A good interviewer knows that an interview is an unnatural and often nerve racking situation. So you will be given the benefit of the doubt for being a little nervous. You can even say, forgive me I’m a little nervous. There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s honest and it shows that you really would like to do the job.

Always present yourself smartly, no matter what. The effort you have gone to shows you value the position. If you turn up to an interview dressed in a suit, and everyone there is in jeans, doesn’t matter. You have shown the interview, and therefore the interviewing company, the respect it deserves.

If you are asked to come back for a second interview, it is permissible at that stage (providing the interviewers themselves were in casual clothes) to come in with less of a formal aspect to your clothing.

You can learn a lot about good interview technique from actors. The parallels between good interview technique and good stagecraft are many. For example, one of the biggest problems faced by actors on stage is that of what to do with their hands. A key skill for an actor is being still – learning to simply not move when it is not you doing the talking.

In an interview situation, sitting still and not doing anything with your hands can feel very unnatural. So develop a posture you can sustain without all those nervous movements. I always sit down with my elbows on the table and my hands clasped in front of me. This posture naturally leans you forward slightly, so you look attentive and eager even when you’re not. And by clasping your hands you are physically preventing yourself from fidgeting.

It is important to give eye contact to everyone in the room. You don’t have to stare, but you should always look someone in the eye when you first meet them. And if you are interviewed by a panel, you can switch your gaze from face to face as you answer.

About Author

Olivia is freelance copywriter and charity enthusiast. She is currently working with http://jobs.thirdsector.co.uk a leading voluntary sector job board