It is a very common driving and yet, very often, it makes everything of the first seconds of an interview.
Whether you have revised your pitch, cared for your CV or repeated the answers to the most classic questions, there is no guarantee the good turn of a job interview. The study by the American firm Classes and Careers in 2014, with 2000 leaders, put their finger on what the candidates still underestimated too much, and it turns out that it is not what they say that seals their fate, but very often what their bodies expresses. Indeed, a third of the recruiters questioned say they know within the first 90 seconds if they will hire the candidate or not.
According to the data collected, 55 % of the perceived impact comes from the posture, the clothes and how to enter the room. Barely 7 % are linked to the content of the responses. The rest is played out on intonation, tone and apparent confidence. It is therefore not a question of having the best formulation or of reciting without hanging your experiences. What makes Tilt – or not – is due to the pace, to behavior, to body language, to what we get out. Some reflexes go wrong. Do not smile, for example, arrives in the trio of head of errors. It makes you lose points before you even sit down. Too frozen, too serious, too closed: a neutral face does not reassure.
Another misstep? A rigid, closed, unbalanced or sprawled posture. Crossed arms, rounded back, nesting legs: everything you do without thinking it returns an image. Again, the statistics are clear. 33 % of employers claim to be dissuaded by an unsuitable posture. Nothing spectacular, but sufficient for the recruiter’s attention to slide towards the feeling more than to the speech.
And in a moment as short as that of the beginning of maintenance, the brain takes shortcuts. He decides quickly. He filters, sorts, associates. What is perceived as a bad attitude can be interpreted as a lack of motivation, an absence of dynamism, even a lack of reliability. But the criterion that weighs the most in these very first seconds is neither the smile nor the posture. According to this same study, 67 % of managers reject a candidate who does not look at his interlocutor in the eyes.
This behavior is perceived as a lack of confidence, an absence of transparency or a form of avoidance. He distorts the exchange, blurs the relationship, prevents from creating a link, even in short. So, next time, do not neglect your gaze, it could make you take the job of your dreams.
