The Importance Of Body Language In Interviews

Body Language And Improving Your Interpersonal Skills

The importance of body language is often mentioned, but doesn't always get the attention it deserves; it is both the most basic, fundamental form of expression used by human beings to communicate with one another, and at the same time a part of a highly sophisticated and culturally specific system of coded signals, in which bodily and facial movement play at least as important a part as verbal utterance. Body Language is also referred to as 'non-verbal communications', and less commonly 'non-vocal communications' which is especially crucial when we meet someone for the first time, such as at an interview.

When you are at an interview, you may not be aware of it but your interviewer will be observing your body language very carefully. Your body language says a lot about yourself, so you need to control negative body movements and encourage positive body movements and habits. Humans naturally send and receive nonverbal communication; they have been doing so since the beginning of time. When your girlfriend folds her arms but has a smile on her face, are you not wondering what she upset is about or clammed up for. At an interview, you never want your body language to contradict your words, this makes you appear like a liar.

The First Impression

The first impression, or the first few minutes of your interview are the most important and most remembered.

The Handshake:

Your hands should be clean and well manicured, and free of perspiration. You want to allow the interviewer to initiate the handshake, which should match the interviewer in firmness, do not give a firmer handshake than them. Smile at the interviewer and look them in the eyes. It should last between two to five seconds. Since the visual sense is dominant for most people, eye contact is an especially important type of nonverbal communication. When departing the interview, the handshake may last longer, smile and lean forward as you shake.

Nonverbal communication equips you to understand what interviewers are thinking, helping you tweak your body language to create a 'rapport' and get them to see you as a person like themselves. The experts call it "non-verbal communication," but it amounts to the same thing: a second source of human communication that is often more reliable or essential to understanding what is really going on than the words themselves. By familiarizing ourselves with a few basic non-verbal signals, we can improve our ability to understand what people are really communicating and become aware of what we are broadcasting to the world with our own non-verbal cues.

Here are a few things you will want to avoid at an interview:

• Clasping your hands behind your head
• Adjusting your tie constantly
• Slouching in your chair
• Pulling your collar away
• Picking at your face or outfit
• Tight smiles or tension in face
• Little eye contact
• Wrinkling your eyebrows
• Rapidly nodding your head
• Any nervous tics
• Crossing your ankles - means withholding information
• Crossing your legs away from the interviewer- toward is ok
• Crossing one ankle over the other knee
• Invading your interviewer's personal space
• Avoid grinning idiotically
• Gnawing on one’s lips absentmindedly
• “Faking” a cough during a tough question
• Folding or crossing your arms
• Avoid compulsive jabbing the floor or desk with your foot
• Loud, obnoxious laughter

Nonverbal speech sounds such as tone, pitch, volume, inflection, rhythm, and rate are important communication elements, so it helps to vary your tone and speed of talking. When you’re stressed out, you’re more likely to be misread by other people, send off confusing or off-putting nonverbal signals, and lapse into unhealthy knee-jerk patterns of behavior. Understanding body language is the secret to inspiring confidence, conveying authority, and building relationships with business clients, according to Joe Navarro, a former FBI agent and expert in non-verbal communication. Now go on to read these very specific Interview Body Language Tips.

You can also learn about how NLP and Neuro Linguistic Programming can help you.

Body language also has an important part to play on other aspects of your career or job change:

Interview Questions

Job Interview Strategies

Interview Tips

Networking For Jobs

Self Confidence

Dress For Success

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