Before the interview you should have considered WHAT you want to communicate and HOW you are going to communicate. What you will want to communicate are: personal qualities, functional skills, and special areas of knowledge that relate to the particular interviewer or organization. Your attitude, nonverbal behaviors and verbal responses indicate how you communicate those personal attributes and background facts.

Your first task will be to help build rapport with the interviewer(s). The characteristics of building rapport involve your (1) attitude and (2) nonverbal and (3) verbal behaviors.

(1) Your attitude should be one of openness or sensitivity to interviewer’s style and a feeling of mutual responsibility for creating a comfortable atmosphere, establishing a common ground. You should be thinking positively. (If you don’t think you are the best candidate for the job, how can you hope to convince the employer you are?)

(2) The nonverbal behaviors that contribute to rapport are: dress and posture, eye contact, handshake, voice level, and gestures.

(3) The verbal behaviors contributing to rapport building include: courteous observations, initiation of discussion, disclosure of personal qualities.

Be aware of your body language, how you communicate non-verbally. You will want to convey sincerity, a dedication to achievement, confidence and a high energy level. These attributes are communicated through your attitude and actions as well as through your verbal responses.

Congruence between the nonverbal and verbal messages is very important to an effective interview. The nonverbal behaviors that are important in an interview include:

* Eye contact that should be open and direct when listening, asking and responding to questions.
* Eye contact is usually broken when concentrating or reflecting on what you want to say or what was said.
* Posture that should be well balanced, erect, relaxed, straight on and open. Know your nervous habits and practice controlling them.
* Hands which should be used in a relaxed way for animation, communicating excitement, interest.
* Facial expression which coveys your sincerity and can add to or detract from your words.
* Voice tone that should be firm, warm, well modulated and relaxed.
* Timing which involves your use of silence, and comfort with pauses.
* Active listening which affects how you respond and communicates your interest. This is difficult when you’re nervous-so concentrate!

How you communicate verbally involves your ability:

* To use active verbs.
* To use concrete examples.
* To be concise and complete.
* To summarize and make transitions.
* To be positive and “own” what you have done and what you know.

Your knowledge of what contributes to a “strong answer” also contributes to effectiveness. A strong answer does not create more questions than it answers. The components of a strong answer include:

* Backing up a statement with a specific example.
* Sharing your role (the challenges and accomplishments).
* Sharing the outcome or solution.
* Summarizing to emphasize your strengths.

Strong answers can also be described as frank, open, thoughtful, complete, concise (complete your thoughts efficiently-know when to stop) and “uncanned”.

Be ready to ask questions from your prepared list. Techniques for asking good questions begin with the use of who, what, when, where, why, and how. Questions should be developed ahead of time and should reflect the amount of research you have done rather than your lack of research. Refer to the list of “questions to ask” to help you develop your own list.

Salary questions are usually inappropriate in the first interview. However, you should research the salary range for the job/field ahead of time, consider how much the job is worth to you, and recognize that the pay raise structure of an organization is just as important as the entry level rate in assessing an offer.

Be alert to and evaluate management style, organizational structure, turnover, job responsibilities and growth potential, work atmosphere, staff/supervisor and coworker relationships.

At the end of the interview set parameters for the next contact.

* State positive feeling-”I’m very interested. When may I expect to hear from you?”
* “What is the next step in the process?”