There are hundreds of sources out there which suggest ways to impress at interviews and assessment centres, but here is the best advise I can give you, that I have learned from experience.
If everyone who has been an interviewer for graduate employment is honest, they will admit that some candidates ‘just feel right’ and some others ‘just feel wrong’. Obviously you cannot employ someone on a whim, but if someone is already at the interview stage, there must be something that is already ‘right’ about them.
Perhaps the best tip I can offer you, stems from the proven fact that over 70 percent of language DOES NOT come from your mouth. It is this large percentage of communication that can often be the decision maker in borderline interview situations.
Have you conversed with someone speaking the same language as you, but with a very strong, different dialect? If so you may recall an uncomfortable feeling as you almost strain to understand what they’re saying. It can be most embarrassing if you can’t understand them. You can’t ask them to do anything differently without offending as, to them, they are speaking normally, but boy do you sound strange.
This varying form of communication is applicable to other aspects of communication. You may speak slowly, but others may speak quickly and are particularly animated in their speech. If two people communicate with a different speech pattern a similar situation may occur as explained above, and if it happens, there might be that awful uncomfortable feeling. They are talking the same language to you, but something simply doesn’t ‘feel right’. If this happens at interview then you may be in big trouble. You might be giving the best answers and have the best CV, but to the interviewer, you don’t ‘feel right’. The interviewer will almost certainly favour one of your competitors who although may not be giving the best answers, is communicating in a way which is more closely related to the interviewer.
There is a subject called Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) which you may like to take advantage of, to utilise in your search for graduate employment. The subject analyses the relationship between the way we think and behave and the language we use. The most common NLP technique you may use is called matching. To make the most of this technique, firstly you must assess the ways in which your interviewer communicates. Then without making it blatantly obvious try to match their style and language patterns. For example, if they are a slow thoughtful speaker, then you may be best advised to slow your speech down, taking definitive breaks between sentences.
A good example of this in practice (albeit exaggerated) would be the way in which a mother speaks to their baby. The mother adjusts her speaking style to be much higher pitched and often slowed down, so that the baby can understand what she is saying more easily.
This hidden skill will be highly effective and it can be a useful tool when trying to further yourself beyond graduate employment. All top businessmen will use the technique in some form or another. If you execute the technique correctly you can find conversations flow far more easily and you can build a positive rapport with your interviewer or colleagues further down the line. This might be the one tip that sets you up for your dream graduate job.
