Learn how to communicate effectively to advance your career!
Interviews can be daunting for anyone, but when you are worried about your communication skills, it can be downright nerve-wracking! Here are some tips from our Speech Therapists to help you prepare for your job interview!
1. Research
Preparation is half the battle! The more you know, the more confident you will be in your communication. Research the company, research the role, and brush up on your own resume and experiences. Read the latest news about the company’s industry.
2. Prepare
Write short, point-form notes on several cue cards to rehearse your answers to common industry questions. You can also refer to them during the live interview if it’s an online interview. Avoid writing your answers in full sentences or all on one page as you won’t be able to scan the information quickly. Chunking information into separate points also helps you memorize them more easily!
3. Take a Deep Breath
Many people have shared the tip of raising your arms up in the air to get yourself into a power pose to raise your confidence. That’s a great tip, but equally important is to relax yourself too. Taking a deep breath can reduce your fight, flight or freeze (anxiety) response which can create adrenaline that will jumble up your speech. Take 3 deep, diaphragmatic breaths with a slow inhale and an equally slow exhale. Then enter the interview!
4. Facial expressions
Consider your body language and facial expressions as equally you do as your words. You can communicate confidence with your posture or attentiveness with your eye contact and a variety of other skills without even saying a word!
5. Pause
When asked a question, it can be very beneficial to pause before you respond. Some people feel pressure to answer right away, but sometimes that results in rambling or unclear responses. Take time to reflect and organize your thoughts.
6. Conciseness
Finally, provide succinct responses to questions. An interviewer is usually interviewing a lot of candidates, and can easily tell when someone is unclear by the amount they repeat themselves when they answer a question or provide too much detail. One way to practice conciseness is recording yourself doing a mock interview. Listen to the playback to see if you repeated yourself or provided too much detail. The goal is to provide sufficient detail, get to the point, and stop. Often, less is more.
7. Practice
Lastly, practice! Take as many interviews as you can because it is only through experience and reflection that you improve. No one is great after their first or second interview. You’ll notice significant improvement after your 15th interview though! So don’t hesitate, look at every interview as a practice opportunity to improve your communication skills under pressure!
Anyone can improve their communication. If you are reading this and preparing for an interview, you are already on your way to clearer speech. Best wishes in your interviews and we are here if you need extra support!
Andalusia Speech Therapy has multiple clinics across Ontario and offers virtual therapy to anywhere in the world. Contact us more for information about public speaking sessions today!