Jobs and Recruitment

If you are preparing to attend an job interview, then one of the strongest bits of interview tips I can share with you is to prepare the visual aspects of your presentation as well as you would for a date.

Studies suggest that the impression made by interview skills panel members in the opening 4-16 seconds correlates exceedingly strongly with the overall decision made at the conclusion of the interview.

Ensure that you spend a substantial amount of your interview planning on fine-tuning how you appear.

Here are some tips to help guide you:

1. Don\’t smell too strong! Overpowering perfume or cologne will distract the interview panel from the messages that you are trying to impart. Similarly, ensure that you are clean and don\’t smell of sweat, cigarettes or garlic!
2. Look at your teeth. If they are not sparkling white, then consider using some of the whitening products on offer at the shops or online.
3. Keep jewellery, tattoos, make up and nail polish in the background. They should not be detracting the attention of the interviewer. You need to maintain the interview panel\’s attention on your sales pitch
4. For women, don\’t flaunt it - even if you\’ve got it! It\’s not a date. If you detract the male members of the interview panels\’ attention, then your messages wont be received as seriously as they deserve. Also, you risk alienating any female members of the panel. Thirdly, if you are successful in getting the post, there may well be some banter going around the department about you that you may not welcome.

You should also ensure that you get adequate rest the night before the interview. It may appear tantalizing to stay up much of the night to do some last minute revision - just in case this arises, or they ask that question.

It is imperitive that you are fresh and rested. For one, your thinking will be clearer if you are more alert. But you also wish to appear to be a vibrant employee, who will bring life and get-up-and-go to the department, rather than tiredness and sickness.

You have to make sure that you arrive on time. I would suggest that you arrive about 10-15 minutes ahead of your appointment time. This will give you the proper amount of “wiggle time” should something slow you down, without requiring you to wait around for ages, during which time you may psyche yourself out of your champion mental state.

It will also deliver the right impression of you being an effective and punctual employee, who is determined and keen to secure the post.

If you play along the advice in this short article and continue improving, you will discover your interview success. Take care of the pictures that you deliver - with your appearance, your voice and your phrases.

Best of luck in your interviews!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Recruitment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.