Job Interview: A Few Pointers (Part B)

This is the second article in the ‘Job Interview: A Few Pointers’ series. In Part A I gave you 4 pointers on how to prepare for and approach your Job Interview. Part B will focus on a few more of such pointers.

Pointer 5: Switch that Cell Phone Off!

You might be the ultimate Technocrat, your Cell Phone might be more than your lifeline (Read: You got secretly married to your iPhone in a $20 Las Vegas ceremony at the White Chapel, and no, you weren’t drunk), and usually you can’t imagine spending even a minute apart from your phone. Great, but this is not ‘usually’, unless you ‘usually’ manage to get a lot of Job Interviews lined up for yourself (in which case there’s something wrong, because you still don’t have a job!).

So before you step into the room, make sure you Cell Phone is switched off or is on the silent mode. A perfect interview can sometimes go down the drain if your cell phone goes off during it and especially if it has one of those laconic polymorphic tunes as the ring tone!

On a lucky day, even that might not go against you, but what surely will is you actually answering the phone (Yes, even a polite ‘excuse me’ will probably not cut it.) smack in the middle of the interview! When your phone goes off in all its glory or worse still, you actually have the gal to answer it while your interview is on, it sends one of the two messages (and probably both):

a. You are too casual and not serious enough.
b. You are disrespectful, and care a hoot for basic etiquette and manners.

Well what can I say? HR Managers just don’t like to listen to ‘I Like to Move It, Move It’ blaring out from the swanky cellphone when they want to know about what you can bring to the table! Unfair, but true………

Pointer 6: Have a Great Body Language

Ok, this is easier said than done. Your body language is something that you have inculcated over a number of years and is certainly affected by factors like your personal and professional backgrounds. But a good body language can immediately give off a positive vibe to the Interviewer (and no, I am not asking you to go over the top with moves from the ‘Paris Fashion Show’ or ‘America’s Next Top Model’). A good body language is all about displaying a quite and subtle sense of confidence first up and gradually displaying a sense of dynamism and purpose as you go along.
Your Body Language (atleast from the Job Interview point-of-view) is essentially made up of the following components:

a.Your Posture (Before and After Sitting)
b.Your Eye Contact
c.Your Hand Movements

d.The Movement of Your Head
e.Your Facial Expressions

I will put out an article explaining each one of these components in detail soon.

Pointer 7: Learn How to React When You Don’t Know the Answer.

Ok, now that was one sizzler of a question. You have no idea how to answer it. The Interviewer is glaring at you, almost trying to read into your thoughts (or so you think!)……Blank….No wait!...Yeah, still Blank.

Not knowing an answer is not a crime and it’s not the end of the world either.

When you feel unsure about how to answer a question, or simply don’t have an answer to one, here’s what you can do:

a.Politely ask the Interviewer to repeat or rephrase the question is possible. This is ok maybe once, at the very most twice during an interview, but anymore such requests and the interviewer is bound to get the impression that either you are not a good listener or have low levels of concentration or are simply not competent enough for the job.

b.Communicate to the Interviewer confidently that you cannot answer the question at this moment or don’t have an answer to that particular question. Simply ‘dilly-dallying’ or wearing a stupefied grin on your face when you can’t answer the question will only help in irritating the Interviewer, especially if he/she has already interviewed a sizeable number of candidates before you, and is probably tired.

Ex: “I am sorry, but I do not have an answer to that question right now”

Or

“I am sorry, but I unfortunately don’t have an answer to that question”

Quite often, the fact that you can confidently communicate even your inability to answer a question gives off a positive impression to the Interviewer with respective to your confidence level and maturity. This might work in your favour and get you the job even if your interview, with respect to answering the questions, didn’t go that great.

That’s because confident people are also invariably seen as fast learners and potentially great employees.

That’s all for now folks. Watch out for ‘Part C’ soon……….