How To Create A Good Rapport With Your Interviewer

Interviews can be pretty stressful at times – many people find answering the questions alone hard enough, never mind thinking about creating a good relationship with the interviewer. But this is an important aspect to the interview – if you can get on with your interviewer then you’ve fought half your battle.

A potential employer wants to know that you’re an approachable person that will get on with their colleagues – so creating a good relationship with your interviewer from the start can really help you out. To make sure that you leave on a high we’ve come up with some top tips on how to create a good rapport with your interviewer.

First Impressions Are Everything

Believe it or not, if you make a bad impression as soon as you walk through the door the chance of you creating a good relationship with your interviewer will probably be pretty low! So when you walk in make sure you’ve got a smile on your face, you make eye contact and you’ve got open body language (crossing your arms can just make you look downright grumpy).

Introduce yourself and shake the interviewer’s hand – this will automatically make the interviewer more relaxed which will make it easier for you to create a good rapport with them – just try to remember that those first few second can really help you out in the long run.

Show That You’re Genuine

If you’ve applied for the job then I’m going to hope that you’re genuinely interested in the company and the role overall – so you need to make sure you show it. Nod when the interviewer’s talking and interact by asking questions about the job.

Asking questions can be a good conversation starter which will help you form a relationship between you and the interviewer. Don’t be shy to seem keen and interested – this is what a potential employer is looking for at the end of the day.

Mirror Them

This doesn’t mean copy every thing they do, but by subtly mirroring some of their actions you can engage your interviewer more. You should also try to reiterate some of the points they’ve made so if they’ve discussed the importance of a digital presence then reiterate this in your next comments and back up their point. This can really help an interviewer identify whether you’re on the same wave length.

Follow up

Once the interview is done and dusted make sure you send a follow up email thanking them for their time. It just shows that you appreciate them taking time out of their day and is a courteous thing to do which will be noted by prospective employers. This said, don’t act too keen – one email is definitely sufficient, you don’t want your potential employer thinking that you’re a little desperate!