3 Tips On Body Language During Job Interviews

There are a number of different factors that can influence an interviewer's opinion of you that will in turn contribute to the likelihood of being offered a job. One that is often overlooked by job seekers is the impact of your body language, such as the way you speak, sit and move during an interview. Below are three quick fire wins to assist you in an interview.

Eye Contact

Eye contact is regarded as an easy and common way of building rapport with the interviewer. However there is an optimum window length that you should hold someone's gaze, which is between 5 and 10 seconds. The risk of holding eye contact longer than 10 seconds it can cause the interviewer to think that you are either an intense or aggressive individual or make your responses to question be perceived as a lecture. Whereas only giving the interviewer a few glimpses of eye contact demonstrates unease and a lack of confidence and will undoubtedly make the interviewer feel uncomfortable and detached from you as an individual. The rule to remember is 5-10 seconds.

Sitting Position

Although you may not realise it, how you position yourself in a chair is vitally important in an interview. This is because depending on how you are positioned in your sitting position will influence the interviewer's opinion of your attitude towards the job. Feeling relaxed and comfortable is important as you are more likely to answer positively, however being over relaxed, verging on being laid back can be perceived that you are uninterested in the role or that it is beneath your capabilities. Therefore do not slouch or lean back in your chair and instead try and keep upright. A natural way of telling whether somebody is interested in the job or has passionate around a certain topic is when they start to lean forward and demonstrates that they are fully engaged. Those who watch a 'Star in a reasonably priced car' on Top Gear will see the celebrity lean forward as their track time is announced. Therefore these rules are keeping relatively upright and lean slightly forward when you are answering questions.

Hands

Many people can control their tone of voice during an interview, but our hands will often show what are real thoughts and feelings in a conversation are. It is important to use your hands in an interview as they can assist you in expressing yourself. Try to prevent clasping them together as this demonstrates a defensive barrier which can be perceived that you are trying to hide something. Instead let them be open and natural and help you articulate your answers.