Interview Tips Part 4

7.  Make a great first impression – Most interviewers form their lasting impression of a candidate in the first 10 seconds, so make that count.  Make solid eye contact, smile, and greet the interviewer by name.  Make sure your greeting is warm and friendly:

·         “Great to finally put a face with a name!”

·         “Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me.”

·         “Wonderful to finally meet you.”

Most of the time interviewees awkwardness can be attributed to nerves, but so often people came into my office looking like they are walking into a FBI interrogation room.  Even if they eventually loosen up as the interview goes on we can’t get back the time wasted early on.  There may be some exceptions, but most interviewers do not get their kicks making people nervous.  I used to hate that as a recruiter because I tried my very best to make the candidate comfortable by being friendly, offering them a drink, and providing them with clear expectations of the interview, but some would still be shaking in their boots. 

Immediately be the one to extend your hand to the interviewer for a professional shake.  The only way to perfect the handshake is to practice.  Practice with friends and family and ask for feedback.  The best handshakes should be:

·         Firm, but not too firm!

·         Dry.  Miss Clammy Hands wipe your right hand off subtly before reaching for the interviewer’s hand.

·         Last one full shake (move up and down once) and then release.  Too much longer gets into the weird zone, but if it does make sure it is the interviewer holding on not you.

·         Comes with eye contact and a smile (most important part)

After the introductions let the interviewer lead the seating.  If they sit down then just take the chair across from them or wait for the invitation to take a seat.  This can be awkward, but can easily be a way to laugh together before jumping in.  Early in my career I had a business meeting with one of the senior managers in my department.  I went into his office and went to sit down in one of the 2 chairs across from his desk and instead of him sitting down in his desk chair he sat right next to me in the other guest chair.  I was so completely derailed by this unexpected placement that I froze in my position with one of my feet hooked behind the front chair leg.  I didn’t move for the entire hour long meeting.  After the meeting I attempted to stand up, but my entire leg was asleep and I subsequently tumbled towards him like Bambi taking his first steps.    After that meeting I learned about this being a tactic some interviewers take to throw off the interviewee or just in an attempt to make the conversation more casual/relaxed.  I gave him the benefit of doubt that he intended the latter, but if he was striving for the former he succeeded!  Do not be me, relax and roll with the punches! 

8.  Listen carefully to the interviewer – You will have a million things running through your head or it may feel impossible to hear the interviewer over the sound of your beating heart, but do your best to truly listen to what the interviewer is asking you.  Show them you are listening by making eye contact and nodding when applicable.  Repeating their words in your head is great way to comprehend what they are saying.  When they finish stating the question you should feel one of three ways:

·         You understand what they are asking and know the perfect answer already. However still take a thoughtful pause and deep breath before launching into your response.  If you don’t pause it looks far too rehearsed and appears you are not giving thought to your answer. 

·         You understand the question perfectly fine, but you don’t know your best answer.  Don’t just leave them hanging, but instead say something like “Great question, please give me just a minute to think through my response” or “Wow that has come up a lot, let me think of the best example to provide you.”

·         For whatever reason maybe you didn’t understand the question.  Maybe it was very complicated or you were too preoccupied with how much you are sweating to hear the whole question.  One of my biggest pet peeves was when a candidate would just ask me to repeat the question immediately after I finished talking.  I saw it as lack of respect for my time that they couldn’t glean anything from my question at all.  In this case the better responses are below:

o   “I want to make sure I am answering your question the best I can and it would be helpful to hear the second part of the question again, please.”

o   “Okay you are looking for a time when I led a team, let me think about that to recall a specific example.”  - This will give them a chance to interject and correct your understanding if necessary.

o   “I’m so sorry, but could you please repeat the question, I want to make sure that I understand it correctly.” – Worst case scenario, just genuinely apologize.  It can happen and maybe the interviewer will realize they were speeding along and slow down for the rest of the interview.

Also listen closely to the description of the company they will hopefully provide and their answers to your follow-up questions.  Engage the same active listening tips and include asking clarifying questions based on that information to understand it clearly.  Listening well is probably one of the most important things to do in an interview because I can’t think of one job that you could be applying for where being a good listener is not a qualification.  If you cannot manage to listen and understand in the interview how are you going to receive training, direction, and feedback once in the job?

Thanks for hanging with me so far and tomorrow we’ll wrap up with the final 2 tips!