Did you know the human body can produce over 700,000 unique movements? These movements have been partitioned into approximately 60 discrete and symbolic signals and around 60 gestures, postures, and expressions.
A great amount of the job interview is conveyed by non-verbal means. You did all the homework for your interview, you know everything about the company, their vision, management style, what skills you have that would benefit the company, where you expect your career to be in 10 years and you know all the correct answers to 249 interview questions, but at the end of the day what really counts is the main question: did you have good chemistry? Can they trust your message, and what can you do in order to make sure that they will?
We polish our verbal skills for an interview, but only few of us give much attention to our non-verbal communication and body language skills to support the verbal messages we deliver and could make the difference.
Tips for the interviewees
When entering the interview people tend to create an imaginary barrier to protect themselves, like holding a bag or a piece of paper. To the interviewer this means insecurity.
Avoid making the upper hand handshake. This may indicate a need to dominate. Make sure to maintain eye contact.
If interviewed by several people, identify the decision maker. The others will glance at the decision maker after they are done talking. It is almost an uncontrolled gesture looking for approval. It might be a very small glance.
Under stress people instinctively tend to protect their main artery. In modern society it is manifested by touching their tie or playing with a necklace. To the interviewer this mean stress.
The interviewer may reveal a need for more information by putting an object in the mouth such as a pen or the tip of the eye glasses.
If the interviewer puts his fingers together (pyramid-like), this may indicate an attempt to “connect the dots”. This is a good sign.
Another good sign is when the interviewer is rubbing his hands together. This gesture indicates satisfaction.
Listen with your eyes
The eyes are often called: “The windows of the soul”, as they can send many different non-verbal signals.
Eye contact often increases significantly when listening, and especially when paying close attention to what the other person is saying.
Less eye contact is used when talking, particularly by people who are visual thinkers, they stare into the distance or upwards as they ‘see’ what they are talking about.
When a person makes very little eye contact, they may be feeling insecure. They may also be lying and not want to be detected; it also could be as a result of Coulter behavior.
With the Body Language Cards you will master body language, you will be able to know what others feel and think on the spot.
Mastering the secrets of the body language might be complicated. Body language is a visual mode of communication – you cannot learn it just from reading – you need to see it. The Body Language Cards do just that; they flood your consciousness with the visual gestures and connect it to its meaning so you can retain the information and use it in real-time situations.
Most important: It works!!!
The Body Language Cards are used as an integral part of professional body language courses; a method used in the training of executives, sales forces and professional security personnel and in colleges to enhance students presentation, leadership and interview skills.
Meet Gill Shermeister – One of the Co-Authors of the Body Language Cards
Trained as a zoologist, Gill became fascinated by the similarities of basic mammalian behaviors to those of humans and spent the last 18 years investigating this field. He is a key-note speaker in well-known corporates and organizations on non-verbal communication, leadership, presentation and public speaking as well as training executives, negotiators and politicians.
Gill shares his professional secrets in this unique tool to master the secrets of Body Language.