Make sure that your handshake is proper.

Sat upright, good posture, eye contact, but you are not staring them down.

[WIRED asked three body language experts what they look for in a perfect interview]

The human body is always transmitting.

The question is who is receiving that information?

[When the interview starts]

The interview really starts before the interview.

Outside the door already.

When someone hands in a CV or their social media.

When you're parking your car, are you taking a space that is not allowed?

Are you greeting the security person that is standing there?

I remember going to an interview once and the person that was going to interview me was in the elevator with me.

Sometimes I give CEOs the advice (to) sit down on that reception stool and observe the person who is coming in because then you can also already see how they are treating reception staff.

We assess each other in milliseconds, not even seconds.

It's not just your body language or facial expressions.

It's everything that communicates.

Some people are making already judgments.

You have to make a good impression first by understanding that you have to make a good impression.

Selling yourself. You're promoting yourself.

So that's why you need to be confident and be perceived as trustworthy as well as competent.

Know what you're gonna say, what they're gonna ask you. Prepare, prepare, prepare.

You don't have a copy of your CV, and they refer to it. You now look less prepared.

And if you hand it to somebody, hand it with value. If you do it like this, you know, a bit of the turtle neck like that, (it's) completely different than "this is who I am," and "this is what I've done in life."

[Entering the room}

As I walk into the room, I have to remember that I have to be respectful of that room.

Always make yourself known.

So you walk up to them, you shake hands.

"Can I sit here?"

"Yes, you can sit here."

I have to make eye contact with everybody in that room and that I have to treat everybody equally.

And not focus on the chair that you want to sit in, but focus on the people that are present in that room.

As you make your introduction, I want to hear a strong voice.

I want to see an upright posture. I want to see the chin up.

Confidence.

No hands in pockets. I want to see your hands.

I want to see you ready to engage in an interaction.

I will shake everybody's hands equally.

Not just going to focus on the highest-status person or the leader.

[The handshake]

If you ask most people have you ever had a bad handshake? Yeah.

We all have had those awful handshakes.

You know, it was wet, weak, this, that, whatever.

If we are meeting up for the first time, we align ourselves and that we have a short handshake. Usually, it's like this.

If you're giving me a very light handshake, I don't want to be grabbing at the knuckles.

If you're giving me a really strong handshake, I don't want to give you a loose handshake back.

I'm going to try and match your level of grip.

Especially when you're a woman. I've had so many bad handshakes because of the strength that men probably want to portray.

I still don't understand.

People try and dominate a handshake. Never try and dominate a handshake.

But what we do see a lot too long and they keep shaking like this all the time, or they hold the hand which makes it very uncomfortable, or they probe the hand, which is like the finger like that.

Keep all of my fingers below your wrist.

So up to the point where they touch you here or here or even here, and that, we would not advise unless I know you very well.

It's like, "How are you?"you know, then it's like,"Oh, so good to see you. Great."

Humans impress first visually, then vocally (tone of voice) then verbally and the last is haptics through touch.

The brain catalogs all this negative stuff.

[Conducting yourself during the interview]

You have to let them set the stage and the rules.

Don't talk over them.

Turn yielding. "Does this person ever shut up?"

Some people start talking immediately.

"Hi, I'm here for the job," and they start selling themselves.

Take a breath. You know what you're doing and speak comfortably.

Depending on how many people you're talking to, I would always wait just to let them take up the moment of interaction and to tell them what they want from you.

Show you are engaged, you are actively listening and you are in the interaction present.

Use your hands and use your face to emphasize.

As they're talking, I want you to be nodding along with what they're saying.

Not too much that you look like a bubble head.

You wanna have a slight head tilt when you're talking to them, especially when you're trying to show empathy.

When people ask a question, make sure you answer it.

Don't be so busy talking that you are not aware that you've been asked a question.

I want to see you orientated towards them, because orientation behavior shows interest.

Don't pick at your clothing, don't pick out lint and so forth. Don't preen yourself

Even because they are uncomfortable, you might see a self-hug, you know those kind of things, and we so do not advise that.

The best conversations take place with comfort for both parties.

I'm overly sat with my shoulders back and my chest out, trying to be really, really upright.

I look like a robot.

If you are very comfortable like that, that is not, that's not a good portraying.

You will feel in your body when it feels unnatural.

Listen to yourself. Feel comfortable and it should feel natural.

Everybody knows this, but a lot of people don't do it.

Don't be caught off guard with any question.

Have a trial interview.

Have somebody just ask you a few questions and see how you come across, and if you're clearing your throat and you have to hesitate for too long, people don't like that.

Hesitation is a killer.

[Ending the interview]

Always say thank you.

Show them respect by showing them you are grateful for that time.

Expect to, you know, say goodbye and shake hands, maybe hand out a card.

If not, you can just nod. Validate everybody that you had the opportunity.

This is the last time you have a chance to influence.

Remember, the interview is only over when you are completely out of sight.

You leave the room with proactiveness and a posture that shows you're active or that you are energetic to go for what you want to go.

Often if you feel that it went really well, people can completely relax and they don't walk out the room with as much confidence or as much poise as they came in the room.

You're only done after you're back in your car, home.

So maintain that confidence level, maintain that posture, maintain that poise until you are fully out of the room

[Remote vs in-person]

When it comes to virtual interaction, you're actually at an advantage. There's actually a lot more control.

Is the lighting good? Is the sound okay?

Many people have learned the hard way. Not to use the camera that came with their computer, go out and buy that or borrow a decent 4K camera.

You are in complete control of your virtual space so you can make sure that it's tidy that you don't have things that are drawing attention away.

There was somebody who apply for a high-end job and in the background, there was only liquor.

It might be in his kitchen.

So you can say, "Oh yeah, well, he's got liquor in his kitchen," but we pick up on the liquor first, and in our brain, we make an association.

Eye contact is really important virtually.

You just have to remember that everything is now exaggerated.

Your gestures are now reduced to 27 inches.

That's what most cameras capture.

They can't look at the rest of your body, so there's going to be more emphasis on the face.

The other difficult thing with Zoom is the technique.

So we have sometimes a delay of a question and that feels awkward sometimes. Like, can I talk already or not?

And you see the hesitation, the turn yielding is a bit delayed.

That can throw the interview, interviewee, or the interviewer off, so I have to be extra alert on that.

When they are talking, look at the screen.

And when you are talking, look at the camera.

What people often do is they look at themselves.

When we are constantly assessing our own nonverbals, it's really tiring and it's really cognitively demanding and draining.

So it creates what's called Zoom fatigue, and that will affect our nonverbals because we're going to show fatigue, we're going to show disinterest.

In essence, the rules are the same.

The important thing is that you understand that you have to be extra alert of your body language because there's no room for interpretations.

[Final thoughts]

The goal of any interview, as the interviewer is information elicitation.

As the interviewee is to show confidence, competence and trust.

You're gonna create a conversation with that person or you're gonna ask questions as well or you will have examples that really apply to it.

You want to make the other person feel comfortable, you want to make them feel that you are someone to be trusted.

How did this person dress up?

Are your clothes clean or do you have food on your clothes?

I mean, I'm relaying here what I've heard from HR, they're assessing you because you're gonna be representing me.

We may have a great brand name, but it's your face, your presence, that's gonna make that difference.

There might be 100 people applying for that job.

If you come prepared and you have a genuine interaction with showing that you really want it, tere's so much more chance in that setting than, "Oh, I'm just here. This is my resume. Yeah. Please hire me."