3 Tips To Guarantee Great Interviewing Body Language
These days more than ever we have to rely on our body language. And interviewing is no different. Did you know that over 90% of human communication is actually conveyed by one's body language. Your body language during an interview can reveal whether you are confident, and focused or if you are nervous or bored. All this can be determined before you even open your mouth.
How you walk in the room can tell the interviewer whether or not they think you will be a good fit. Are you walking in, chin up shoulders back, or are you crouching in as you knock wondering if you're in the right room.
Prior to COVID-19, one could enter an interview and give a big smile, a slight pleasant grin or a happy hello accompanied by a short, firm handshake…. Well those days are gone… for now anyway. Two thirds of our faces are covered by masks. So how can we give the interviewer a great deal of information when our faces are covered?.... Body language!
Use These 3 tips To Guarantee Great Body Language
Tip #1: I Win, You Blinked First
You know what they say… your eyes are the door to your soul. Well this can be applied in a nursing interview too. Not in like a melt your heart, know your deepest darkest… but in a way to show your openness to the interviewer.
In the current pandemic state/hell we are all living in… your eyes are literally the only part of your face that people see… so make it count. Eye contact is a sign of openness and interest. So during an interview you want to be making eye contact to show you are interested and open to what the person sitting across from you is saying. If you are constantly looking away, or averting your gaze from the person speaking, you look as if you are distracted or not interested. Two things you never want to look like in an interview… Duh!
That being said, please don't decide to have a staring contest with your interviewer.
Yes you may have been the 4th grade champion but a nursing interview is not the place to flex those muscles. So how long should you keep eye contact for? You would want to keep your gaze for a few seconds. And if there are several people in the room (nurse manager, assistant nurse manager, HR) you would want to make eye contact with everyone in the room but should focus most of your attention on the person who asked the question.
Tip #2: Don’t Be a Slouch
How you sit can give so much information to your interviewer. Usually you are sitting in an interview, so your posture is very important. You want to sit upright and open. Shoulders back. Use the whole surface area of the chair. Sitting on the edge of the chair can make you look tense, unsure of yourself or anxious about the interview.
How you are sitting can also affect your voice. Yup! You are sitting arms crossed and twisted, it can prevent your voice from being clear and strong. Instead your voice may sound weak and unsteady.
Tip #3: Use Your Big Girl Voice (or Big Boy Voice)
We are wearing masks, people!!! And no one can hear shit. As a nurse you need to project.
Try being in the operating room with surgeons wearing N95’s with masks over masks and shields, with suction machines, bovi machines and all sorts of sounds… now that’s a new game show challenge… “Welcome to...Guess what instrument the surgeon wants now?” LOL
Thank goodness you don’t have to speak over all of that for an interview.
Use your strong belly/chest voice to project during your interview. Speak clearly, pronunciate your words, keep your chin up so that your voice carries outward and not down into your lap or the floor. A strong unwavering voice shows confidence and interest.
How you are sitting can affect your voice. If you are sitting arms crossed and twisted, it can prevent your voice from being clear and strong. Instead your voice may sound weak and unsteady. Make sure you are not squishing your diaphragm (I hope you know what that is being you are a soon to be nurse if not, a nurse already LOL)
Use these tips to help send the right message to your interviewer through your body language. You may not even realize what message you are sending, so get in tune with your body.
And please remember, that just because you get up to leave, it doesn't mean the interviewer isn't still judging you. So leave the room with confidence and continue to strut as you walk down the hallway, don't go on your phone, or slouch. Stay confident until you get in your car… then you can call everyone and take a selfie #justcrushedmynursinginterview.
xx,
Jessie
P.s The JOD SQUAD resume writing live and interview was a smash! so many gems given and learned. If you need help writing your nursing resume then you need to check it out!
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