How to use body language in your job interview

When you’re trying to get that job of your dreams, you need all the help you can get. As chief executive of a global professional services business helping organisations recruit thousands of people every week, I was interested therefore in some research I came across recently that showed how your proactively altering your body language can actually change your frame of mind, as opposed to the conventional wisdom that your frame of mind dictates your body language. That’s interesting because it means you can affect the outcome of an important meeting (your next job interview) by using body language (or non-verbals in the language of the scientists) to not just make a more positive non-verbal impression, but to help you prepare your brain for the onslaught of stress headed your way. Imagine this in your next job interview or performance appraisal. By adopting a powerful body language in advance, not just your demeanour but your attitude and verbal communication will make a stronger impression. Conversely, if you wrap yourself up in a defensive pose of worry beforehand, you will end up sending all sorts of negative signals, spoken as well as unspoken.

I used to think that body language was the effect and mindset was the cause. This research from Princeton suggests you can turn that around if you try hard enough. In the research, one group of people ‘forced’ themselves to adopt a powerful non-verbal position in private before a stressful meeting. Another group forced themselves into a weaker pose. Both groups then participated in a job interview. The results were stark. Those who had spent 5 minutes beforehand looking like winners won the interview every time. It wasn’t that their frame of mind caused them to look strong. It was that they had forced their body language beforehand and this appeared to make them more confident and able to handle the stress. It’s not so much mind over matter as matter over mind and it works.

Does this mean however we can all be accused of ‘faking it’? Maybe initially, but the research also suggests that after repeated use of this technique, it actually becomes the way you naturally are. Consistent winners. Give it a try next time because it seems you really can influence the outcome of that crucial meeting and this is one way to achieve it.

Published in collaboration with LinkedIn

Author: Alistair R. Cox has been the Chief Executive Officer at Hays Plc since November 2007.

Image: A Japanese new graduate, who wishes to be called Shinji (R), speaks with a counsellor inside a compartment at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Labor Consultation Center in Tokyo in this April 8, 2010 file photo.