This fully applies when you go for an interview. Despite ticking all the boxes of being an ideal candidate, that lucrative and high-paying opportunity can easily slip out of your hands.
Want to know why? Stick with us till the end.
Body language is the most overlooked but key element for a successful interview procedure. Your gestures draw the line between “we need this candidate by all means” or “hmm… not sure”.
A study revealed that an interview’s outcome of 55% relies on our body language. So while you spend hours knowing about the company – strengthen your speaking skills, and uplift your non-verbal communication as well.
For sure, working on your non-verbal communication skills isn’t an overnight process. But when you know the loopholes, you can fix them. Therefore, we have accumulated eight body language mistakes to avoid during your job interview with the help of recruitment experts.
So, let’s learn from the experience of professionals:
Learn Body Language Mistakes From Professional Recruiters
Shake Hands With Perfect Grip
Wrong handshakes can easily book a ticket for rejection. A firm handshake is among the most powerful body gestures that impact significantly. Handshakes shouldn’t be either too weak or too strong. You need to hold the recruiter’s hand with a perfect amount of grip.
A fish or weak handshake signifies a lack of confidence or nervousness in the candidate. On the other hand, too rigid or tight handshakes can express rudeness or dominance on the other party. Therefore, it’s important to shake hands nicely in a firm manner. It’s great if you can match the strength of the interviewer and shake hands accordingly.
Also, at times candidates hold hands for way too long, which results in discomfort and creates an awkward situation. An ideal handshake shouldn’t last longer than 2 to 3 seconds.
No Slouching Or Body Sagging
Leaning, slouching, or hunching are a few sitting postures that induce one to be stressed out. During interviews, you are supposed to keep your back straight and sit attentively. Don’t forget to keep your chin up. A recruiter from a professional cover letter writers company shared that candidates who loosen up during the interview or don’t sits with a straight back are more likely to get rejected. That’s because they appear to be stressed-sensitive. Such service providers would never want a candidate who can become anxious so easily.
Don’t Let Your Eyes Wander Around
Do you have the bad habit of looking around while someone’s speaking to you? Well, this displays your trait of being easily distracted. And would someone like to hire a candidate who is this easy to distract? A BIG NO. Maintaining direct eye content with your interviewer is very important and is a sign that you are confident enough to deal with queries.
What can you do if you have this habit? Go for eye-contact maintaining practices. Tell a story to your friend or family without breaking eye contact with them. You will soon overcome this habit.
Fiddling With Random Objects
Fiddling with random objects during a conversation denotes that you are bored or uninterested. Often recruiters catch candidates playing with their hair or jewelry. This is a huge body language blunder that leaves a negative impact. The best possible remedy is to eliminate distractions. This means if you have a bad habit of playing with your hair, tie them back. If you are easily distracted by jewelry, don’t wear it. Or, even better, to keep your nervous digits under control, you can form a church steeple. This will manifest you as a confident applicant.
Over-Nodding On Questions
Nodding politely is a great non-verbal gesture. But over-nodding over every question can be a little weirder. For example, you are hiring CV writing services in UAE, and the other person keeps on nodding at everything you say. Won’t that be awkward? Nodding during an interview to a little extent is fine, but going overboard won’t do any favors for you. Even if you have understood what is being told, the best thing is to respond verbally. Remain conscious and attentive during the interview, and respond accordingly. Don’t be a bubblehead doll!
Don’t Lean Toward Your Interviewer
That’s the worst favor you can do for yourself! Getting too close physically to the other person can make them uncomfortable. It’s great to maintain a healthy distance from the employer. Even for online interviews, it’s great to keep your phone at a distance so it doesn’t feel like you’d fall out of the screen at any time (light humor).
Frowning Over Queries
Difficult questions are intentionally posed by the interviewer. They do it so to evaluate your capability to deal with challenging situations. Being experienced, they can sense your non-verbal reaction within seconds. You might naturally frown over a tricky question or use verbal crutches (the worst scenario). Instead of answering with confused body language, it’s better to ask your interviewer to repeat the question for you. Meanwhile, you’d have some time to think of an answer. But definitely, you’d still have a limited window of time to answer the question.
Don’t Be Over Enthusiastic With Hand Movements
If you were called for a job position you have been chasing forever, you’d be surely over-enthusiastic. But don’t display it with your wild hand or arm movements. That’s a big turn-off. The last thing any applicant would want would be distracting the interviews from their answers. But, your wild arm or hand movements can result in distracting the employer. Although, precise and sprung hand movements are a powerful gesture to picture your confidence. But exaggerating it to an unreasonable extent will have drawbacks.
PARTING IT SHORT
Body language or non-verbal communication mistakes can badly influence your chances of getting hired. This kind of communication has the power to either make it, or break it. If you doubt your communication skills, it is recommended consult an interview coach, who will help you in correcting your blunders.
