Interview Matter: Communication Matters …

Your fate in an interview is decided in the first 90 seconds. The interviewer screens the candidate in the first minute of the candidate’s exposure. When it comes to interview any candidate, the HRs focus on the candidate’s body language initially which wins over more than half of the interview. The rest half is on the credentials of the candidate and how beautifully one defends him/herself. Interview is all about defending your resume, highlighting your abilities, fighting to be the fittest in the race and securing the job. In this whole process, the quality/skill which sails the candidate through is his/her communication skills. Communication skills, per say are not associated with a particular language, however, these are those skills which make a person convey his/ her inner emotions and thoughts clearly and get the desired response.

Communication skills are highly mistaken by the English speaking skills in the Asian market. The job seekers, the school goers, the college goers and the professional study students especially the management (PGDM/MBA) students are always deluded as English speaking skills to be the communication skills. Communication skills are one of the key soft skills required for any candidate to get through the interview. Now the question may arise that, “What matters the most in an interview?” or “What does an interviewer look in for an interviewee?” The answer is simple – “Capability to do the prescribed job” and how does the employer or the interviewer come to know the right choice for the job just in a 15 minutes to max 30 minutes of interaction? The answer to this is – “By communicating with the candidate”. Therefore communicating aptly in an interview becomes imperative if one has to win over the interviewer. Although developing effective communication skills does happen overnight, it’s a steady process which sometimes may last the whole life of an individual. Yet one can begin with a few tips in order to enhance his/her communication and make a mark for him/herself. These are as under:

1. Clarify the purpose/aim: Before initiating any conversation, the purpose of that communication should be clear. For example if one has to appear for an interview, then one needs to make clear “What do they want out of the interview?” If their purpose of the interview is to get selected then their approach of communicating in the interview will be different from the one which they would attend just for heck of it. Therefore, when the purpose or aim is crystal clear then only one can move to the second step.
2. Clear thought process: After clarifying the aim one has to seek answers to what and how of achieving the aim/objective. The answer to ‘What’ is the clarity of thoughts and the answer to ‘How’ is building a strategy to reach the aim. The candidate should be having clear idea in his/her mind of what could be the content of the interview. Then the next step comes into picture.
3. Strategy to reach that aim: The next step is to build the strategy for achieving that aim through proper communication. The strategy for communication involves every aspect of the communication during the given scenario. If we continue with the above example then the candidate appearing for the interview should keep into consideration all the questions that could be asked in the interview. These could be the ones generating from the candidate’s answers to previous questions also. This makes the strategy building easier.
4. Language to be chosen: The language chosen for any interview should be chosen keeping the interviewer in mind. It should be mutually comprehensible. Ideally, English is the widely spoken language on earth and is expected to be spoken in the corporate especially and that too for the management (PGDM/MBA) students during the interview. Candidates having a fair command over the language don’t have to look for any other language but the ones having poor command should focus on the language which both parties can comprehend.
5. Empathise with the listener/s: Empathising with the listener/s may help the candidate to foresee some of the content of the communication process. In the above example of an interview situation, empathising with the listener i.e., the interviewer/s may help the interviewee to envisage some probable questions that could be asked in the interview so that she/he can prepare for them.
6. Reflect : Reflecting comes post communication. When the meeting or the interview (in this context) is done, one needs to reflect on the whole communication process, the flaws and the strengths of the candidate’s communication skills and the prepare oneself for the future course of action. This would give a boost to the candidate as far as his/her next preparation is concerned.

Enhancing communication skills not a rocket science. There are several examples in the history of the best orators who have worked on their speaking skills and have made a niche of theirs in this area. So let’s ponder over the process and make a mark for ourselves too.

Dr. Shalini Sharma, Associate Professor,

GNIOT Institute of Management Studies, Greater Noida