Your Voice
- Tone – Enthusiastic, expressive, and warm. Avoid monotone!
- Pitch – Try to end sentences on an “up” tone.
- Tempo – Watch your pacing. Try to get in a rhythm and be conversational.
- Clarity – Concentrate on proper enunciation. Avoid mumbling.
- Hesitation – Answer the questions confidently without starting and stopping.
- Pauses – It is acceptable to briefly pause for emphasis or dramatic effect.
- Language – Absolutely no slang or profanity. Avoid clichés and colloquialisms.
Your Body Language
- Maintain consistent but not constant eye contact with the recruiter(s) throughout the interview. Constant eye contact will be disconcerting for most people, and some may even find it to be aggressive. Avoiding eye contact entirely can lead people to see you as lacking in confidence or, worse, they may see you as dishonest.
- Smile frequently to demonstrate your positive attitude.
- Maintain proper posture – don’t slump; lean slightly forward; keep your feet and knees directed towards the person you are speaking with. This posture shows you are interested and engaged in the conversation.
- Maintain positive body language – avoid crossing arms or legs. This, in combination with other factors, can make you appear to be closed off, defensive, and/or bored with the interview.
- Use your hands naturally. If you naturally talk with your hands, don’t try to stop it during an interview. It can make you look awkward. Just make sure your gestures don’t get so big or so frequent that they start to distract from your words.
- Don’t fidget – If you have a tendency to tap your foot, jiggle your legs, play with your hair, crack your knuckles, or in any other way unnecessarily fidget, practice controlling it. Fidgeting will make you come across as nervous or impatient.