Is Body Language That Important During Face-to-Face Job Interviews and Business Meetings?
If you would have asked me that question before I became a professional recruiter and hiring manager, I would have suggested that body language plays a minimal role in the success or failure of a face-to-face job interview or business meeting. However, over the years, I have come to realize that body language is extremely important; and it may be the deciding factor in whether or not a job offer is proffered or a business deal is consummated.
To that end, Celina Jacobsen from the Career Overview Blog sent me a link to one of their posts. While much of the post wasn’t germane to life sciences career development, parts of it were spot on with regard to the importance of body language during job interviews and business meetings. With this in mind, I reproduced parts of the post that I think would be useful to BioJobBlog readers for career development insights.
Body Language and the Job Interview
Pay attention to your body language using these tips to ensure you are giving the best impression during a job interview.
- Handshake. Everyone knows that a handshake is an important element of first impressions. Offer a firm handshake that shows confidence in yourself.
- Don’t cross arms and legs. Crossing your arms or legs is seen as a defensive position and is not what you want to present to your prospective employer.
- Sit or stand with legs slightly apart. When you sit or stand with your legs slightly apart, this gives the impression that you are self-confident.
- Keep your hands and legs still. Fidgeting exudes nervousness. Instead, keep your hands relaxed in your lap and be aware of what your legs are doing.
- Chair movement. If you are sitting in a chair that swivels, be sure you aren’t accidentally turning back and forth as it can be distracting and also makes you appear nervous.
- Voice tone. Be aware of your voice tone qualities. Don’t be monotonous, yet don’t let your voice tone vary to such extremes that you sound excited or nervous. One helpful tip is to take a deep breath before speaking.
- Be aware of the interviewer’s body language. Pay attention to what the person interviewing you is saying through her body language. Not only can you determine if she is interested in what you have to offer, you can also match your body language to the level of formality.
- Palms up. Use hand gestures that keep your palms up, which indicate you are open and friendly. Gestures with palms down tell the interviewer that you may be dominant or aggressive.
- Keep eyes focused. Shifty eyes moving all around the room will give your prospective employer the feeling that you are being dishonest, or at best, uncomfortable.
- Active listening. Be an active listener during the interview. Make eye contact, nod your head while others are speaking, and interject a few verbal acknowledgements such as "yes" or "I see."
Body Language in Business and Career Development
What you say with your body language can convey as much to your business colleagues as your words. Learn how to manage your body language in a business setting to help promote your career.
- Relax your shoulders. When many people feel tension, they pull up their shoulders. Be conscious of this and relax your shoulders. Not only will this help prevent neck and back pain, it makes you appear less stressed, too.
- Be mindful of your head position. Holding your head level both vertically and horizontally indicates confidence and asks others to take you seriously. If you want to show that you are listening and open to the other person, tilt your head slightly to one side.
- Use your hands. Hanging your hands down by your side during a presentation indicates depression. Instead, keep your hands active and use gestures to show involvement and energy.
- Remove the opportunity for eye contact in conflict. If negotiations have turned sour or co-workers are disagreeing, moving them to a different form of communication that does not involve eye contact, such as email or IM, may diffuse the situation and allow for a better flow of communication.
- Keep your hands out of your pockets. Standing with your hands in your pockets may send several signals to those around you, probably none of them what you intend. Unless you are trying to look less confident, as if you are holding yourself back, you are bored, or you are hiding something, then take your hands out of your pockets.
- Women, learn the "business gaze". For women, a key element to being taken seriously is the "business gaze" or holding your line of sight on the area from the eyes to the mid-forehead. A gaze held lower indicates a more "social gaze."
- Make eye contact with everyone. If you are in a meeting or giving a presentation, make it a point to make eye contact with each one of the people involved (unless it’s a packed house and physically impossible to do).
- Watch your stance. Standing in a commando stance, with legs spread and hands on hips, tells others you are feeling disapproving, superior or are arrogant.
- Keep your hands from behind your head. Sitting back with your hands clasped behind your head is another position that communicates arrogance or superiority.
- Interruptions. If you are in the middle of a conversation with a superior or in a meeting that has been interrupted, it is best to look away from the person dealing with the interruption in an effort to give them privacy and to indicate you have disengaged yourself from something that is not your business.
I hope that you found these tips useful and apply them to your next job interview or business meetings.
Hat tip to CareerOverview.com
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!
A common lament from that I frequently hear from graduate students and postdoctoral scientists at career development meetings is the need for "prior industry experience" to qualify and be considered for an industrial science job. Invariably, someone asks: “How in the world am I supposed to get industrial experience if nobody is willing to hire me as an industrial scientist?” Prior to the financial meltdown, I frequently advised PhD-trained scientists seeking industrial jobs to consider positions in smaller, local biotechnology companies.
After almost a week advising students about the difference between resumes and curriculum vita (for scientists there is no difference), academic vs. an industrial curricula vitae and cover letters at .jpg)
Tim Lee a PhD-trained scientist who left the lab behind to try his hand as a stand-up comedian returns to the comedy club The Monkey (.jpg)
Despite a down economy, it appears that business for the dog grifting team of Donna Roberts aka Marcie Duben (and many other false identities) and Dawn Abrams is booming. The reason that I know this is that over the past week or so I have received several message regarding from BioJobBlog readers about bogus dog transactions.
While attendance may be down at this year's Experimental Biology meeting in Anaheim CA aka the city that Disney built, attendance at FASEB Career Development seminars has been greater than normal. This is not surprising given the state of the economy and the increased competition for traditional career opportunities for persons with a life sciences PhD degree which include academic and pharmaceutical R&D jobs. With this in mind, I thought it might be useful to list some of the fastest growing and hottest new alternate career job opportunities for PhD life scientists. 
As a career development professional, I frequently offer job seekers tips on how to conduct a successful job search. However, my views on the topic are mainly derived from a five year stint as a professional recruiter and over 20 years as a job seeker. With this in mind, it may helpful for job candidates to hear the other side of the story; that is, what hiring managers expect from job seekers.
I will be at the .jpg)
National DNA Day is a unique day when students, teachers and the public can learn more about genetics and genomics! The day commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in April 2003, and the discovery of DNA's double helix.
Genzyme .jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Yesterday, a bill to designate .jpg)
The recent 
I started writing BioJobBlog about three years ago mainly to express my personal views on a variety of topics ranging from science education and career development to happenings in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. At the time, blogging was a relatively new phenomenon (especially in the life sciences space) and I had no idea whether or not anybody would really care about what I thought or had to say. .jpg)
Earlier this year, Dan Vasella, the longtime CEO of the Swiss drug maker Novartis, .jpg)
Another BioJobBlog reader, who was previously burned on a puppy purchase, informed me of another one of Donna Roberts’ puppy-selling scams. The information below was allegedly found on the American Kennel Club Online Breeder Classifieds under "Havanese".jpg)
I have always wondered why dogs eat grass and other plants. After all there isn’t much nutritional value in them. An old wives tale or urban legend (more politically correct) suggests that dogs may eat grass because they are either sick or not feeling well. And, because of the grass eating they vomit afterwards to feel better..jpg)
I came of age in the freewheeling 1960s and early 70s when the counterculture revolution was in full swing and people were regularly experimenting with marijuana and psychedelic drugs aka hallucinogens.
There is a growing controversy over the rules governing whether 
In March 2009, the Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) created a (2).jpg)
Despite court rulings, statewide investigations and public humiliation, Dawn Abrams and Donna Roberts continue to scam would be dog owners who want to buy puppies and give them good homes. .jpg)
One economic downturn and it seems as though the pharmaceutical world has been turned upside down! Who would have thought a few years ago that emerging pharmaceutical markets in India and Asia will outpace the US and Western European markets in the very near future (I did but nobody listens to me). To that end, Ranbaxy Laboratories .jpg)
According to a .jpg)
The recent economic downturn, coupled with the growing competition for jobs at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, has markedly increased the importance of internships as pre-requisites to gainful permanent employment. In the past, life sciences companies were willing to take a risk on promising new employees who did not possess any previous work experience. However, the glut of life scientists on today’s job market has empowered prospective life science employers to adopt a “let’s-try-them-out-before-we-hire-them” approach to employment. Like it or not, this is the way business is done these days.
.jpg)
Pfizer today 