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The IUP Journal of Soft Skills
Understanding Nonverbal Cues:
A Key to Success in Interviews
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Communication begins with listening and the skill lies in listening with eyes. As Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma, says, in a face-to-face interaction, one can exchange up to 10,000 nonverbal cues. The interviewers have their own strategies to assess the candidates based on their requirement. But every job in every sector demands skill of communication, both verbal and nonverbal, to sustain and prosper. The success rate of the students depends on how perfectly one presents and how confidently one communicates. The interviewer and the interviewee need to take care of various aspects of nonverbal cues to help them succeed in understanding each other better through effective communication. Recruitment being the sole objective of higher education today, the students need to be more conscious about their efforts in giving 100% in an interview. This paper mainly focuses on the analysis of several nonverbal cues and their regulation, which is one of the important criteria during the recruitment process. The study also focuses on the understanding of the expectations of the recruiters along with the ability to read the nonverbal cues and the role an educational institution plays in making a student employable. This unitedly would increase the success rate of students in interviews.

 
 

Job interview opens up the opportunity to express talent and skill to grow further. The prospective employer goes much beyond the task of validating the resume of the candidates. The assessment does not remain confined to the search of good academic background; rather the corporate world demands more efficient employees having multifaceted talents and interpersonal skills. The students in today’s era seek professional options at the graduation level itself. They start preparing to see themselves as professionals in the next 2-3 years getting placed in a secure position with a handsome package.

educational institutions too promise training classes for grooming their personality and nurturing the soft skills to meet the expectations of the campus drives. Training primarily focuses on making the students competent in the respective subject, GD, PI, FAQs, etiquette, etc. Another area that demands attention is the nonverbal message that one conveys in his/her ignorance, which is observed keenly by the prospective employer. In the recent times, the selection process has undergone a complete change. Students having excellent academic record are not always considered to be eligible for the job. This is apparent in the form of failure to crack a job interview by these students occasionally. The recruiters have the foresight to see the distant future of the candidate and assess that something is amiss with the candidate. That something is the body language of the candidates. According to Yuvraj Srivastava of Pepsico India, “The job interviewee should possess the ability to spell out thoughts clearly and convincingly, stand up and argue logically for one’s own point of view. He/she should be able to provide multiple solutions to the problems posed. While intellectual ability is appreciated, the job interviewee should also display positive attitude and humanity”. The interview is the stage of assessing a candidate's right fit to the job on offer. The parties, that is, the interviewer and the interviewee, need to be aware of the several aspects before conducting and participating in an interview. Interviewing is a skill and proper preparation with presentation can only serve the purpose.

The candidates need to be aware of some important aspects of the interview process and they need to prepare themselves for the same. A perfect balance between hard skills and soft skills is the key to success. Proper understanding of nonverbal cues is important for the candidate to know in order to crack the interview. Interview is the assessment of the candidate’s knowledge, skills, intelligence and presence of mind where the nonverbal cues are mostly observed, as nonverbal communication is more reliable than the verbal one.

 
 

Soft Skills Journal, Understanding Nonverbal Cues, Expectations of the Corporate, skill of communication , Preparation of the Interviewee, The recruitment process, Role of Educational Institutions