Your Appearance and Posture - First Impression during Interview

         Your physical appearance and personality make an important impact.

         Be formally dressed, practice it before the interview if you are not used to wearing formal clothing. Make sure you are well-groomed head to toe. The interviewer notices your body language before you begin to speak.

         Practice standing comfortably, being still and quiet. Stand firmly and take a deep breath.

         Relax your face, this may need practice.

         Eye contact is very important. Cast your eyes over the entire interviewers. Remember to take in everyone in your glance. If you feel relaxed, smile naturally, and say “Good Morning.”

         Keep movements and gestures to the minimum. Move only as much as you need for establishing lively rapport with the interviewer. Too many movements will create a bad impression on the interviewer.

         Speak in enough voice. Not too loud and not too slow. A very loud or very soft voice again creates a bad impression. The voice should have variations and modulations to suit the matter and content of the interview.

         Use pauses, when too many sentences or ideas are given, it gets overloaded. They need time to absorb ideas. A short silence making an important point emphasizes it. A pause after making an important point gives the listeners time to absorb it.

         A pause is also useful to regain the attention of distracted persons. Unexpected silence causes more interviewer to focus attention on you.

        Take good care of your health. If you are in good health you will be energetic, enthusiastic and confident. Besides, the state of health affects the throat, the tongue, and the entire speaking apparatus.