Communication Skills

Communication skills is a key interviewing technique.

Building rapport is very important as it is where the interviewer has to keep eye contact and look at the interviewee. It makes them feel like you are more interested in what they are saying. Listening carefully instead of thinking about the questions you are going to ask them is better because sometimes the things they say in their answers may give you the idea for a new, better question.

Active listening really helps in interviews because it makes the interviewee feel as though they are being listened to properly and they are not just wasting their time. Listening helps you understand what people are trying to say and makes it easier to learn about them. The interviewer sometimes asks a question to summarise what the interviewee has just answered.

Body language helps keep you engaged in an interview. Just by nodding your head every so often or agreeing with the interviewee it makes you appear more interested and makes the interviewee feel like they are being interesting. The interviewer should never be too close to the interiewee because they will feel as though their space is being invaded.



This video of Alan Carr on The Graham Norton Shows him building good rapport, active listening and appropiate body language. He listens to everything Alan has to say but because he knows he can joke with him he makes jokes about his book. He builds good rapport by building trust between him and Alan and by having good body language to make Alan feel as though he is listening and finding him interested. Graham has good body language because he makes the interviewees feel comfortable and relaxed. He also makes them feel like they are just talking to a friend so they can open up and talk freely. Graham Norton shows good active listening because he makes the questions and the answers flow well, he listens to the answer and creates questions form their answers.