People hire people they like. So while your skills and experience are important elements to securing a job offer, just as important is your ability to build rapport that is natural and engaging with your interviewer. The rapport you establish during an interview can greatly impact the impression you leave behind.
Building rapport occurs in many ways. In addition to having subject matter that you both can relate to, it is also very much about body language. The handshake you offer when you first meet your contact, how you stand and sit, your facial expression and eye contact, to where you place your arms, hands, legs and feet is all part of body language to help establish the confident and engaged impression you want to leave with the interviewer. The more engaged you are and the more similarities the interviewer sees in terms of your body language, the easier it is to establish rapport.
Find out more on how to project effective body language during an interview from my blog post, “What Your Interview Body Language Reveals about You.”
Effectively building rapport is what gives many candidates the leg-up in the company’s interview process. Even if the candidate does not have as much experience as another candidate, he is seen as more favorable because he’s been able to connect with the interviewer in a way that is more relatable and can be seen as fitting along with the rest of the people at the company. Those who do the hiring want to know that the candidate is someone they themselves would enjoy working with.
Ace your interviews by applying confident and positive body language with relevant topics that help build effective rapport. You will come out of the interview leaving your contact with the best possible impression for consideration to a job offer. Meaningful topics of relevance to help build rapport during an interview include:
- Current events on the company and/or industry: Before you go in for an interview, look over the company’s website for news events. Most company websites have a section with press releases. Did the company just sign a significant partnership, bring in a key individual from the industry or launch a new product? These are topics that can help build rapport and show you are on top of what’s going on at the company or industry. It shows you have a sincere interest in the company.
- Challenges of the position and challenges the company faces: Asking questions about challenges and then turning around the discussion to clearly point out how you may have experience handling the issues is an easy way to show your contact that you have a desire to learn, face problems and bring solutions.
- Information about your contact: Establishing small talk with your interviewer may be done by asking questions such how she came to work for the company or her experience with particular projects. If you are conducting an interview in your interviewer’s office, take note of any family photos showing children or locations you may relate you. You may draw up small talk simply by commenting on the beautiful smiles of the children in the photo, asking how old they are, and sharing information on the age of children you may have of your own. You can also ask if a photo was taken at a certain destination and add comment on how it relates to you – whether it’s your hometown or if you went on vacation there recently. Small talk is a time where an interviewer can get a better feel for your personality and a chance to establish a stronger bond by showing how you two may have similarities. Many questions during the interview may be standard and seem a bit rehearsed, so slightly stray from the norm with small talk during the earlier part or latter part of the interview.
There’s generally a clear sense of what is expected out of an interview. The employer wants to know how serious you are about this opportunity by your preparedness for the interview and what you can offer to the company through your skills and experience. Now, just let them know you are someone who can work well with the team and you will be on the right path to acing the interview.
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Don Goodman, president of Resume Writing Service – About Jobs is a nationally recognized career expert. Click here » to get a FREE Career Assessment or click here » to read his career advice blog. You can contact Don at 800-909-0109 or by e-mail at DGoodman@GotTheJob.com.
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I also research the company first and I have done everything right during interviews-from handshakes to eye contact to posture to dressing appropriately, etc. I still don’t get the job and I have the skills and the education. I even take a copy of my resume with me and ask about 6-10 appropriate questions at the end of the interview. (These questions I got from career builder and other sites on the internet.) I have even sent thank you notes after the interview. Why don’t I get the job? Can you please provide me some insight?
Number 1 is perfect for public companies, but not private ones or non-for profit. Non for profits ususally don’t have in depth information on their website and their financial are not on their website. Why? No laws require it (not yet anyway). I know, in all of my classes in my undergrad and grad classes, I wanted to do reports on non-profits and that was hard. But number 1 is a perfect solution before the interview. Make sure to dig deep too, I was asked many questions from Clark Construction. You may also need to have insight into the industry, not just the position you are applying for. I know very little about construction and I was interviewing for an HR position. Body language is important and what I heard is to mimic the body language of the interviewer. If he/she leans in, you do it too. If he/she smiles, you smile too. You want to be a mirror to the person you are with on the interview so you can appear like you “fit it” with the culture. If possible find out the dress code before you go to the interview. Number 2 is hard for anyone that may not have exact experience in that position, like myself. People that want to change their career or job face this all the time. I want to get into HR and I’m finding that it is very hard to get into HR. Even entry level is 2- 5 YEARS of experience. I thought entry level was NO experience in that position? It’s a catch 22 and I think employers know this. But if you can find transferable job skills, use them and talk about them. One is cirriculum writing and lesson plans for me. That can be transfered over into writing training manuals for HR. Number 3 may be very hard for the person that is searching for something in common. I don’t have children, but this does not mean I don’t like children. I don’t have brothers/sisters either so no newphews or neices either. But I still love children and if that can come out in small talk, use it. I don’t travel due to not having money to travel, but if you can find something that you like in their office, why not mention it? Just be sure to not go overboard with this. It is not a meeting with your friend, it is an interview. I’d try to keep number 3 for special times. Hopefully the person with Asperger Syndrome will know how to “read ” between the lines and go for it. Hint: These articles are not designed for the adult with AS or high functioning Autism, and body language is one of the hardest things to understand for the adult looking for a job if he/she has AS. Selling oneself does not come naturally to those with AS. It would be nice to see an article on Autism and AS as it related to employment. Not everyone is an NT.