Effective Communication Skills For The Job Interview

One of the areas that an employer is looking at on the job interview are your communication skills. Many people will go into a job interview and say to the employer, I have excellent communication skills. But, if your interview suggests otherwise, then youre just blowing hot air. The interview gives you an opportunity to show off your communication skills. Communicating is more than just talking someone to death or listening to yourself talk. Communicating is a two part process. In an interview situation, you have to use active listening. Active listening basically means paying attention to what the other person is saying. Many people practice lazy listening. This is where you are not paying attention to the person speaking and youre busy thinking about other things or what youre going to say. When the interviewer asks you a question, you can start off your answer by restating the question. This gives you extra time to form your answer. For example, the interviewer asks, How would your former employer describe you? Your answer would start off as, My former employer would describe me as When answering a question, keep your answers short and to the point. If youre telling a story, keep it simple. The interviewer doesnt need to know the life history of the people in the story. Dont use slang or a bunch of ums and uhs. Remember, you are trying to demonstrate to the interviewer that you have excellent communication skills. When you use ums and uhs throughout your answers, it signals to the interviewer that you arent sure of your answers or you dont have excellent communication skills. Practice your answers before the interview. You cant know every question that he or she will ask you, but with practice, youll be more prepared than most people.