38% of hiring managers say they’d be less likely to hire someone who doesn’t smile in an interview. After poor eye-contact, failing to smile is the biggest body language faux-pas when it comes to job interviews.
It might sound like stating the obvious, but around a third of applicants will fail to smile in an interview. Whether in a face-to-face meeting, over the telephone, or at any other point in the recruitment process, smiling can go a long way to helping your chances.
While you might be a nervous wreck on the inside, projecting out a smile will help people to warm to you as you’ll seem more sure of yourself. And a positive first impression counts for a lot. After all, hiring decisions can often be made in the first 90 seconds of an interview. A smile will also help to reinforce the positive attitude you want to get across, make you feel more confident, and keep your answers positive.
Smiling will help you to build rapport and appear more confident and relaxed to both your interviewer and any colleagues, who may well be asked what their first impressions were. For the interviewer, it will also help to relax your interviewees and give them a better opinion of your workplace.
Even when you’re not interviewing in person, don’t forget to smile. It might sound silly, but you can even tell when someone’s smiling on the telephone. It affects the sound of your voice, by changing the shape of your mouth while you’re talking.
The main reason people don’t smile is because they’re nervous. But grin and bear it; things will go smoother than you expect!
