The interview process is really crucial stage of your whole career. Whether defining your roles and responsibility or defining your boundaries. Improvising your skills always help you with this stage. A person who aces at the interview wins the role. Hence, the interview process is one of the most important parts of your career.
Now talking about the interview process, it’s a very long time process o of exchanging verbal comments. During the interview, they ask you about your personal details, qualifications, and some technical questions. Moreover, during an interview process, a whole of your personality is considered. Hence, the interviewer takes a good amount of time to analyze and make their final decision.
Especially, for a college student, or someone who wants to switch companies or careers, the interview skills are tools to convince the interviewer to hire you for that job. Therefore, improving communication skills become necessary. And the question arises, how can I improve my communication skills?
Considering how important your interview really is, here are some of the few points that may help you to improve your interview skills.
But before that let’s see what areas of improvement you must learn to improve your interview skills.
The major soft skills or interview skills are listed below:
- Verbal and non-verbal communication
- Dress code
- Be good listener
- Talk less
- Be fluent
- Vocabulary expansion
- Leadership Skills and decision making
- Negotiation skill
- Problem Solving
- Team Management
- Decision Making
- Business Etiquette
- Self-management
Above are the skills, now we will be discussing how practically you can make your interview skills perfect, we will also provide a practical step that can help you to make you ready for the interview. So, here we go with that.
- Communication
Communication is an exchange of ideas and thoughts, it can be a one-way or two-way process that is mostly based on the theoretical part of it, here we are going to discuss the practical part that you can reflect on with practice.
- Verbal communication
Being able to articulate your expression in simple words is very crucial. This refers to the construction of specific notes on how to produce speech. There is mutual coordination of the tongue, throat, and lips whenever we speak. Therefore, here we need to focus on coordination in producing sounds.
To make your verbal communication on point, find a group of friends who has the aim of improving their communication skills. Then get a topic for discussion and keep giving your points on that which will make you confident in our verbal communication aspect.
Therefore, when you are able to express yourself in English, other aspects like grammar and sentence structuring automatically happen.
- Non-verbal communication
Communication is a way of establishing an exchange of information with each other. Most of the conversation is verbal. But Non-verbal communication is equally important. As it tells about how much warmth the person holds.
Non-verbal communication is about demonstrating your confidence. A confident person always stands out from the crowd. This also includes maintaining your posture. Be firm, stand straight and bend forward while making a handshake. Making eye contact with the interviewer helps you get your confidence. And establish connections for a smooth conversation.
Your nonverbal communication is tested during the time you are sitting in the interview, or when you are asked questions, this also is tested when some difficult questions are asked to you and how you answer them with your responses. One tip of advice is to say ‘I don’t know if you do not know the answer.
- Dress code
Dressing up means abiding by not wearing what looks on best but choosing what is best for you. Casual dressing up should never be encouraged. You must always choose a formal dress with decent colors.
Now, if you are men, you can follow the usual dress code which is formal shirts and pants along with a formal suit if necessary. Wear clean and polished shoes, you can embellish yourself with a matching tie. Follow the color code of using light and pastel color shirts, avoid using casual patterned shirts, also you can include dark color pants to give contrast to your outfit. Therefore, this will put the first impression on the interviewer.
If you are a woman, then you can follow two types of dress codes. The first dress code is a formal shirt, pants, and shoes. The second dress code is suit or saree which is traditional formals. For the color selection, you must use pastel and light colors in combination to make a contrast and you will look elegant and confident on your interview day.
This will also include you being well-groomed. Make your hair properly. Stick with the company’s culture. If not sure ask in advance to be aware of the dress code. You can improve this aspect by looking to professional fashion blogs and magazines.
Therefore, your dress code will be in accordance with the position you are seeking. So not always the dress code is formal but considering the fact, that a formal dress code is most suited during an interview process.
- Listen
Whenever going for an interview try to be a good listener. A good listener will know all the instructions from the beginning. This would help you be aware. While you enter the company premises, have a word with the respective authority and have your resume handy with you.
During the interview, an interviewer may ask you a number of questions and you would have to answer all of them. If you are a good listener you will grasp and answer all of them. This will make an impression on you as a listener who obeys and listens to things.
Therefore, In any workforce, people want to hire not only those who work in accordance with the company’s requirements. Whenever in a meeting you listen to ideas it helps you get through future projects smoothly. You can improve your listening skills by listening to famous speeches on Youtube, and try to gather valuable information along with that.
- Talk to the Point
Being talkative with the interviewer and sharing irrelevant information may comprise you with the job opportunity. Sometimes, during an interview sharing personal information too much causes a bad impression. This happens when you are not well prepared and ramble information that comes to your mind then and there.
Therefore, you can do is prepare yourself with a set of questions. So, that you are already aware of how you want to answer. Share your relevant experience and set of skills. Sharing skills accord with the job description helps you gain confidence in front of the interviewer.
- Be fluent
Fluency is simpler meaning how you speak in a flow without any breakage. You must not confuse breakage with pauses. Pauses are altogether a different concept that directly influences your fluency. Being fluent comes with a lot of practice. For improving your English fluently you need to work on the following factors:
- Sentence formation before speaking.
- Pronounce work properly.
- Never use a fake accent
- Think in English before you say.
- Practicing for fluency.
Make peer groups that you are comfortable with and start communication in English. Hence, by doing this you eventually improve your speech and pronunciation in a conversation.
- Vocabulary Expansion
Vocabulary is like adding a pinch of salt to your dish, this minimum touch-up lightens the way you speak and better your communication skills. If you include a set of good vocab in your conversation, you end up looking like a better professional. You can learn some words on a daily basis and use them regularly for daily communication. And that’s how you add up your vocab in an efficient way.
- Leadership and Decision Making
Leadership abilities are to be able to make decisions for the group. Having this you will be able to explore your leadership skills and exercise them in practical life. You can improve your leadership qualities by participating and helping people on a daily basis. You can simply give people leadership-related tasks and evaluate the way in which they perform the tasks.
Decision-making skill helps you build a clear mind. This way you not only build an easy way to make decisions but you take the right decisions in a very crucial moment. The interviewer evaluates you and gives points on this one. As in any job opportunity, you will have to make crucial decisions at times. Hence interviewer would want to be sure about you. Being indecisive is not the option for you there.
- Negotiation Skills
Having proper negotiation skills is very important during an interview. The interviewer will ask you about your expectation from the company and from yourself. You will have to ensure that you make points clear. This particular skill ensures your growth in life. Not only during the interview of your package but when you try to settle down the negotiation or set any deal you need to amalgamate all forces to impart productivity.
Negotiating your work will help you attain much growth, being the candidate you have the freedom to choose which so company you want to go to. Therefore, negotiate your work timings, salary, or designation whichever you feel that you are not satisfied with what the company is providing you.
- Give Mock Interviews
Mock interviews will give you practice for the final day, you can ask your friend or a family member who has some experience in the same field. While you give this interview, be formal and talk in a professional manner. Take valuable feedback and try to reflect on them in other interviews as well.
Another way to practice is to sit in front of the mirror like a candidate, you can be an interviewer and the candidate at the same time. This can help you perform self-introspection.
Therefore, with the practice of mock interviews, you will not hesitate to speak and the flow of your language will continuously present you as a confident and calm candidate.
So, here we provided you with the practical ways through which you can improve your Interview Skills and we believe following this will give you positive results. Wish you all the best in your upcoming Job Interviews.