Are These 10 Interview Body Language Don'ts Keeping You From Landing a Job?

Nancy Anderson
Posted by in Career Advice •


Your cover letter, resume, references and qualifications are impeccable. You aced the phone interview thanks to calm nerves. Now comes your big chance to land the job of your dreams by wowing the HR manager and your future boss at the interview. You prepared for weeks for this interview, so don't blow it with bad body language.

Interviewers pick up on nonverbal cues throughout your face time. Certain behaviors exhibited as you sit in the hot seat could ruin your chances of getting a position. The reason is that some body language leaves a bad impression with people. Avoid these 10 body language mistakes that can tank your interview.

1. Sloppy Handshake

A bad handshake indicates you have a dominating personality. A handshake should feel natural, with the thumb up and palm facing to the right rather than palm down with your fingers scrunched up together. The interviewer should extend his hand first.

2. Lack of Eye Contact

Up to two-thirds of interviewers believe a lack of eye contact is one of the most prominent body language mistakes candidates make. Staring at each person is too much, but eye contact occurs as you listen to the interviewer. Eye contact shows your interest and engagement in the person speaking.

3. Fidgeting

When you fidget during an interview, it shows that you're nervous, anxious and not confident. Fidgeting takes many forms. You shuffle papers sitting on the desk, twirl a pen through your fingers, adjust your hair or touch your face. Any of these behaviors come across as weak. Instead, fold your hands in front of you to keep them still until you gesture politely as you speak.

4. Bad Posture

Showing the correct posture could be one of the trickiest aspects of body language to master. Sit up straight and square your shoulders to the interviewers to show you are paying attention. Lean forward occasionally as you listen to someone speak, but do not stay that way during the entire interview. Leaning back is too nonchalant, while slouching displays a lack of confidence. Sitting up straight conveys power and respect to those in front of you.

5. Crossing Your Arms

Sitting in the chair with your arms crossed makes you appear defensive and hostile towards others. Leave your arms at your sides to look more approachable and relaxed.

6. Playing With Jewelry

Dangling earrings, rings, bracelets, watches and necklaces offer prime targets for fidgeting. Leave these items at home, or wear unobtrusive jewelry that does not get in your way. If you wear a watch, you may try to look at it regularly as a nervous reaction or a sign of boredom.

7. Not Smiling

Make sure to smile through the entire interview. People who do not smile seem grumpy or moody. Smiling shows your interest, good attitude, friendliness and calm demeanor and helps everyone in the room relax.

8. Rubbing Your Nose and Touching Your Face

Rubbing your nose, touching your face and playing with your hair makes you look childish, sheepish and fidgety. When you touch your nose, you convey a message that you are deceiving someone. Try folding your hands in your lap to give your hands something to do during the interview.

9. Appearing Disinterested

You can appear disinterested in many ways during an interview. If you lean towards the door, you seem as if you're ready to leave already. Shifting in your chair displays boredom. Crossing and uncrossing your legs also makes it seem as if you have better things to do. Show interest by smiling, nodding and leaning slightly forward when someone speaks to you.

10. Sweaty Palms

You may have a strong handshake, but sweaty palms may ruin that moment. Sweating displays nervousness and insecurity. One trick to keep your hands dry involves going to the bathroom and running cold water over your wrist for 60 seconds just before your interview. This technique should keep your hand dry and sweat-free for 10 minutes as you show off your grip to everyone in the room.

Body language can accentuate the positive or show off the negative. Avoid as much negative body language as possible to try to win the day and land your dream job by acing the interview.

Photo Courtesy of Peter Nei at Flickr.com
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  • Jacqueline Parks
    Jacqueline Parks •

    As someone who falls on the autistic spectrum, it is extremely difficult for me to make eye contact or to sit still without fidgeting for extended periods of time. Before an interview, I practice a lot with others who give me feedback on my eye contact and posture. This helps me respond in more neurotypical ways during an interview to better show my strengths without distracting the interviewer with odd behaviors.

  • Kristen Jedrosko
    Kristen Jedrosko •

    Do you have any tips for calming the nervousness during the interview? I know many people tend to get shaky and are unable to think clearly during interviews, no matter how prepared they may be. Are there any easy unnoticeable ways to calm this? Maybe breathing exercises or some other inconspicuous things?

  • Jane H.
    Jane H. •

    I think this is good, solid advice. I would add to it that if you are prone to animated expressiveness as I am, practice dialing that back by talking to yourself in the mirror. I didn't realize some of the things my face was just naturally doing until I started practicing dialogue in the mirror and realizing how goofy I looked sometimes. Now I come across as the professional I want people to know I am.

  • Duncan Maranga
    Duncan Maranga •

    @Shannon you are right when you say that it's close to impossible for people to have sweaty hands, as it is naturally expected of them to be a bit nervous during the job interview. I believe hiring managers should be more considerate of nervous candidates because it is a clear sign that they are really interested in the job. Their sweaty hands and other symptoms of anxiety should therefore not be used against them.

  • Shannon Philpott
    Shannon Philpott •

    I think that sweaty palms are often inevitable. Hiring managers expect applicants to be nervous and many times, we cannot control sweating when entering a new environment. As a hiring manager, I never held this against an applicant because I, too, often was overcome with nervousness at the start of the interview.

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Mike great question. Being interviewed by a panel can be very nerve racking. It's tough enough to keep eye contact with just one person let alone several. But I learned how to do this during my military days because I interviewed with many panels for different programs and awards. What I learned is to acknowledge that person, by name, and with good eye contact while you start to answer. As you are speaking, make eye contact with each member of the panel and then, at the end, bring your eyes right back to the person who asked the question. This allows you to include everyone in your response instead of just concentrating on the speaker.

  • Mike Van de Water
    Mike Van de Water •

    Sometimes interviews are done in front of groups of people. In these situations, do any of these tips change because of the group setting? Obviously your attention is going to be shifting from person to person as each speaks, but what amount of eye contact with each interviewer is the correct amount?

  • Jeff F.
    Jeff F. •

    Thanks! Helpful Tips!

  • CATHERINE S.
    CATHERINE S. •

    I agree with every one of these points. When I am in a job interview, I make a conscious effort to sit with straight posture with my hands in my lap and steady eye contact with the interviewer. I also think all of these suggestions are applicable to every other formal interaction with other people, not just job interviews. It's easily to underestimate how important body language and non-verbal cues are to successful communication.

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    Thanks for the comments. @Abbey totally agree. Not only would I think that they are hiding something - but it also means that they aren't listening to me, as the hiring manager, either. @Jay eye contact is so very important. Eye contact with one person isn't too bad - even for a shy person. Now, eye contact when you are being interviewed by a panel is tougher but even more important. In that case you would need to make eye contact with all members on the panel while you are answering their questions. @Hema if you are sitting like a wooden statue, then yes the hiring manager is going to be able to tell. They might even comment by asking you something like - are you comfortable? If you don't have the best posture, practice sitting up straight prior to the interview. Practice it until you can sit as comfortably sitting up as you can relaxing! Interviewing is hard enough without giving them something else to turn into a negative.

  • Hema Zahid
    Hema Zahid •

    I don’t have a really good posture and I tend to slouch a bit. If I force myself to sit up straight, is there a chance I might come across as artificial? I wonder if the interviewers can tell that I’m not sitting comfortably and I’m forcing myself to behave in a certain manner.

  • Jay Bowyer
    Jay Bowyer •

    I think lack of eye contact is a big one. If you're trying to prove you'll work well in a team, you need to display social skills that immediately prove your ability to do that. When you make eye contact, you build trust. It's tough to do if you're shy, but so essential to do in any interview!

  • Abbey Boyd
    Abbey Boyd •

    If I interviewed a person who sat with their arms crossed during the interview, I would most certainly think twice about hiring this person. As the article states, this can signify hostility and make you appear defensive. I also think that this can signal boredom and contempt, which will leave a very negative impression on the interviewer.

  • William Browning
    William Browning •

    Sometimes a sloppy handshake occurs because the other person simply has an iron grip. While it may not be your fault, a bad handshake from the first person you greet could ruin your handshakes with everyone else. I would keep the handshake as brief as possible with one or two pumps and that's it. Otherwise, you may start to feel sweaty and that makes the rest of your handshakes more problematic.

  • Nancy Anderson
    Nancy Anderson •

    @Lydia it is true that you won't smile all the way through the interview. If someone did that to me it would certainly give me pause as I would wonder what they are hiding behind that smile. But, at appropriate times. I think that the candidate who is engaging and enthusiastic;; the one who looks the interviewer in the eyes is the one who is going to get the greatest consideration. It should go without saying but truly - smile when greeted and smile when departing - along with a nice strong handshake at both ends of the interview - this is the one that I would call back.

  • Lydia K.
    Lydia K. •

    We hear about the importance of smiling in interviews, but I wonder whether this needs to be taken in context. For example a smile is essential when you greet someone. But if the interview is focused on technical subject matter a smile could look like you're disinterested or not knowledgeable about the topics on hand. Are there any studies showing that candidates who smile are more likely to get hired?

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