Answering Interview Questionsfists)? Once you get the posture right and eliminate any
unnecessary habitual movements, you should feel free to
gesture and move about as much or as little as is natural
for you.- Are you fidgeting or feeling unsure of where to place
your hands while talking to an interviewer? Simply
rest one hand on each of your legs, or fold them in
your lap.
You will feel most relaxed and comfortable if you just allow your-
self to enjoy expressing yourself as you would in any situation.
Just one more hint: Mirror your interviewer’s rate and style
of speech. If you match your rate of speech to the speed of the
interviewer’s speech, your interviewer will unconsciously feel
more of a rapport with you. Most of the time you will not need to
do this, but if you get a real fast talker or a real slow drawler, that
person will tend to feel more comfortable with you if you are clos-
er to his or her rate of speech. Practice this with a friend or with
someone you meet, and see how this matching technique will
help you to feel more at ease.
Before we move on to salary negotiation, let’s make sure
you’ve mastered the interviewing ingredients to get a top offer!
Take a moment to test your readiness with this checklist. If you
can check every box, you’re an interviewing pro!
I know that the best strategy for answering straightfor-
ward questions is to tell stories with specificsand to use Q
statements to highlight my skills, personal traits, compe-
tencies, and accomplishments.
I’ve done some research on the company so I know
which of my attributes to emphasize during the
interview.
I can answer the question, “What do you know about
our company?”
I know that the strategy for answering a question behind
a question is to figure out the real fear or concernbehind
the question and then to answer it in a way that puts the
fear or concern to rest.