It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it - is this the hidden cardinal rule of interviews?

Mastery of “body language” and understanding what you should and shouldn’t say through utilising body language techniques, has forever been touted as the job interview secret weapon.

Everyone has heard the facts - that something like 90% of all communication is non-verbal. While this fact is not completely on the money, the principle stands - that in moments of high emotion, body language can be, and often is, your most communicative asset.

What is “body language”?

➔ “Body language is the use of physical behaviour, expressions, and mannerisms to communicate nonverbally, often done instinctively rather than consciously”.

So, think about everything you do when you’re not talking. How you sit, how you stand, your general posture, eye contact, when and why you smile, how you use your hands, how you touch or “haptics”, how you sit, how quickly your talk, how loudly or softly your talk, your facial expression, your tone of voice, your personal “space”, fidgeting, doodling, fiddling with the collar of a shirt, rubbing your neck…on and on the list goes.

The HelpGuide piece quoted above says there are 7 types of nonverbal communication. This Verywellmind piece says there are 9.

What cannot be ignored is that you are telling your interviewee or interviewer a lot more than just the content of your words.

Your body tells a message.

Body language is like a compass pointing towards what you really want to say. Your body will convey attitudes, behaviours, and messages based on the way you gesticulate, use eye contact, and tangibly contact or interact with another person from the second you step into a room or onto a Zoom call.

So an awareness of certain cues or nuances in how someone is communicating, such as via certain postures, hand gestures or eye contact gives context - to the words being spoken, and the feelings and emotions of the other person in the room.

An interviewee helping hand.

By deploying certain body language techniques in an interview - some overt, some subtle - a candidate can elevate their interview through displays of confidence, engagement, surety and calm.

Consider your posture - quite literally how you sit in an interview. Research tells us that sitting with arms folded (candidate looks defensive), or sitting facing a door or window (candidate is indicating they want to escape) are critically negative body language traits.

Awareness is power, and by removing those postures from your interview you immediately improve your chances of positive interactions.

An interviewer helping hand.

But body language is also a vital tool to be used by interviewers - they too have to make sure they’re setting the right context as leaders of an interview.

Consider your tone of voice. A commanding and domineering tone of voice may seem authoritative to a business leader who wants to convey leadership, but to many candidates it's overly dominating, controlling, and not welcoming.

Neither interview party wants to be seen as aloof, disinterested, nervous, stressed or rude. So awareness of positive, open and context-led body language techniques is the key to making sure job interviewers are rewarding for both sides of the hiring coin!

The dos and don’ts of interview body language.

DO - practice! Without practice, you’re a leaking ship of emotions and worry, and all the hard work of planning every answer (or question) can be undone by the fact you’re a taut spring ready to explode sitting on a chair. So do mock interviews. Record yourself. Practice, and think - would I hire me?

DON’T - go overboard. There is such a thing as too much gesticulation, and holding eye contact beyond 4 seconds gets a little creepy.

DO - develop emotional awareness. Non-verbal cues are emotionally driven and hard to control without a bit of self-awareness. This means connecting with your emotional triggers and pulls, and being able to read others’ emotional states.

DON’T - zone out on Zoom. Screen-based interviews still offer plenty of opportunity to display job surety via body language, so watch out for looking off-screen too much, or simply not looking at the screen at all.

The bottom line.

Body language mastery requires a lot of self-awareness and some good old-fashioned practice. It’s central to telling the right story about who you are, why you’re good at what you do, and the confidence behind your craft.

Rather than stress over the fact you’re more of an open book than you realise, it’s better to think about our interview body language guidance as a loose set of rules - ones that can be freely interpreted and communicated at will and adapted to meet the needs of each interview.

Like almost everything within the HR world, the humble job interview has gone through somewhat of a revolution since the advent of COVID-19.

We now live in the era of remote interviews as standard. It’s been a long time coming, and not just for the inherent efficiency of pre-vetting talent from the comfort of their (and your) own home.

• Remote interviews open up the doors to a massive, diverse candidate base who were previously uncontactable, or marginalised based on location.
• It gives employers so much more scope to connect with talent quickly and efficiently, reducing the time to hire.
• And remote interviews provide digital hiring scalability. Never has the potential to reach so many people been so achievable, so easily.

However, while the tech changes, attitudes and behaviours are sometimes slow to adapt. This is where companies like Evolve have found they can add immense value - getting candidates (and some employers!) up to speed on best practice in this recruitment new normal.

The remote interview raises some cunning challenges for candidates - not least are questions around what the best sort of tactics are when body language is restrained, nuance and subtlety can be lost, and the free-flowing communicative balance of an in-person interview is reduced to a two-dimensional chat.

Word to the wise, there are some pretty easy-to-remember, hard and fast rules of remote interviewing that, if deployed correctly, will stand you in good stead for a call back:

Still dress to impress.

• First impressions, even if they are on Zoom, do still count.
• Yes, the running joke of people doing interviews in shorts and a suit shirt is undoubtedly more true than we’d like to think, but dressing appropriately is still a sign of respect and professionalism.
• Whilst, as we highlight below, other aspects of remote interviewing are probably more pressing (such as lighting, or checking your internet connection), dressing in interview-appropriate attire is still the clearest, cleanest and best first impression you can give.

Check your lighting!

• This one is an easy remote interview hack - don’t attend an interview sitting in front of a light source!
• For example, a window. Having a large, bright light source behind you dominates the camera white balance and you end up on screen as a talking, dark shadow. Naturally, this cannot do. So light, evenly, from the front, preferably with a light source that faces you straight on, rather than top-down or bottom-up.

Make sure you’re in a neutral space.

• By this we mean think about how the space you’re attending an interview speaks for you. So consider the following:
  • Your interview background - is there anything within eyeshot that could be considered risque, personal, unprofessional or distracting? If so, remove it. You want your entire frame to be as neutral as possible, or if you’re fond of a virtual background, again we urge you to go neutral. We’ve found the best sorts of backgrounds give a little personality - like a real bookshelf - but are still neutral enough to not warrant further scrutiny.
  • Pets - as much as we love our furry friends, if you have pets it's best to keep them out of earshot where they can’t distract you (or your interviewer!)
  • Housemates, family or children - as much as possible, pre-warn anyone in your house about the time of your interview to minimise sound follow-through or accidental walk-ins. While there have been plenty of incidences of comical, inoffensive intrusions mid-TV interview, in a job interview it’s a no-no.
  • Phones, notifications, alerts and other screens - think of it this way: you wouldn’t have your phone on loud in a face-to-face interview, so the same rules apply here. I appreciate that, in some rare cases, you may need to refer to another screen for reference points (which echoes looking at a document in an interview), but in the main other digital devices should be switched off and your attention should be 100% on the job in hand.

Time-keeping.

• This one is short and sweet - you have no excuse to be late to a remote interview. So rock up early, sit in the digital waiting room, and bask in the glow of your time-keeping efficiency. Plus, it puts in a great first impression.

Check your tech!

• Finally, check your tech - your internet connection, the video call link, your webcam quality, the lighting set up, double and triple check it all.
• The last thing you want a few minutes before a video interview is a basic administrative error to pop up that could’ve been rectified days before. If in doubt, over-communicate - you’d rather ask too many questions about broken Zoom links or dodgy internet connections than not raise it at all and be left treading digital water.
• Remember, as the interviewee you’re not responsible for hosting the interview, but that doesn’t mean you renege on your responsibility for making sure the interview runs smoothly. Work with your interviewer, not against them!

Contact Evolve for more advice on remote interviews!

This is the first of two blogs on some of the basics of interviewing, so we thought we’d start this mini-series highlighting some of the most important candidate interview do’s and don’ts.

In our experience, no matter the industry or level of seniority, navigating an interview is not a simple tried and tested formula.

Every aspect of recruitment, from pre-interviewing and vetting through to onboarding and retention, has changed. Industry shifts caused by market conditions and the increase in remote interviewing all mean interviews must adapt to meet the needs of the modern workplace.

Interviews, interview strategy and interview planning are as subject to changing trends and industry movements as anything else in recruitment and HR. Consider this a bit of new recruitment market myth-busting, courtesy of Evolve!

So, without further ado, here is the Evolve Interview Do's and Don’ts guide for Candidates…

Do.

Ask Questions.

● We cannot implore this enough of candidates. Be curious. Ask questions. Ask about the role, the last person in the role, why the role is vacant, and what you should expect from the role. Ask your interviewer what they should expect from you. There are never enough questions you can ask.

● An interview represents one of the only open forum opportunities to mine your interviewer for information on the role, the company, their plans, and your place within it all. So don’t leave any stone unturned.

Dress to impress, even online.

● Although we don’t completely believe in dressing for the job you want, not the job you have, there is nothing wrong with making sure you turn up in appropriate attire.

● Never forget the basics of interviewing - showing up in your Sunday best might be a touch overkill, but smart clothing shows respect for the occasion and that you’re approaching the interview process from a place of professionalism.

● We may all be doing everything on Zoom and spending less time in office, but compromising on this, at the interview stage, is fatal for a job application.

● The basics still count, respect is still important, and displaying professionalism is vital.

Remember the basics of positive body language.

● From looking at windows or facing doors during an interview, to crossed arms and eyes dropped to the floor, body language matters - remember, it’s what you're saying when you’re not saying anything.

● This is where a bit of practice makes all the difference. Positive body language comes from control, awareness and continuous adjustment to posture, facial expression and tone of voice. So practise answering questions. Film yourself practising questions and review how you engage.

● Confidence is bred from knowing how you approach every question and every answer, and this will feed down into everything from your posture to the way you gesticulate during answers.

Remember to relate anecdotes and experience to achievements.

● Relate as much working evidence and experience back to tangible moments on your CV, and always elevate achievements over skills when talking about yourself.

● This will mean your interviewer can see where, when and how you achieved something in past roles, better visualising how you will fit into their company.

Don't.

Be late!

● If you’re holding an interview online, there is no excuse. But similarly, turning up late to an in-person interview shows a critical lack of forethought and planning.

● If you are going to be late due to traffic, or you’re experiencing digital issues and cannot access a remote interview, do not hesitate to let your employer know as soon as possible. Be open, honest and receptive to feedback on future interview planning: hiccups happen and it’s not fatal to a job interview unless you refuse to communicate.

Forget the follow-up email.

● A follow-up email is one of the easiest things to forget. If an interview goes badly, it may be something you don’t want to do. But I find even sending a simple thank you shows courtesy and respect.

● A follow-up is also an opportunity to double up on points raised in the interview. Perhaps you mentioned a project you worked on you think your interviewer may want to read more about - that’s your chance to show them!

Be aloof!

● Lastly, attitude to interviews is everything, because it reflects your attitude in how you work.

● Every point raised above speaks volumes about how you’d approach teamwork, meeting deadlines, how you work with management and more. So if you approach an interview from a place of aloofness you’re not displaying confidence - you’re displaying arrogance.

The bottom line.

The ball is very much in your court when it comes to recruitment - the low supply/high demand of specialist talent in the pharmaceutical and healthcare market has created a perfect storm of candidate supremacy.

But an interview is neutral ground. It should be treated with professionalism, grace and thanks.

For more helpful advice and tips, contact Evolve!