Did my job interview go well?
It’s a question a lot of us will ask ourselves over and over after the process has finished.
Having covered the signs when your job interview hasn’t gone well, I thought it was only fair to cover the positive indicators.
After all, it isn’t easy to gauge the whole situated when you’re focusing on how to answer challenging interview questions.
Luckily, there are some very subtle hints and glaringly obvious signs that your job interview went well.
Here are seven examples to think about.
The conversation was flowing
Have you ever been to an interview and it felt more like an interrogation?
This is a tell-tale sign that things haven’t gone very well.
However, if you had an actual conversation with the interviewer involving personal interests, you were on the right path.
Not only does this show that you’re a good fit within their company culture, it also shows that you have a good dynamic as a pair which will enable you both to work very well together.
So, if you notice that the interviewer starts to stray away from his or her set list of questions, you’re doing well.
The interviewer had positive body language
This may sound obvious, but the interviewer’s body language is a big sign of whether your job interview went well or not.
Did they rush to ask the next question? Were they slouching or leaving awkward silences between each question? Was there a lack of eye contact?
If the answer is no to all of these, then that’s certainly a positive.
Ideally, your interviewer should have been engaged in what you were saying, smiling, making eye contact and pulling facial expressions to show that they were actually listening to your responses.
They sold the job to you
When it comes to recruitment, it takes two to tango.
If you don’t like the look of the job or the company you’ve applied for, you can easily walk away.
If your interviewer has given you a detailed explanation of what the job entails, work perks and day-to-day tasks, they’re trying to sell the job to you – which is good!
This can include involving you in current projects and telling you what your role would be in it.
There’s no reason why they should share that level of detail with you during the interview.
At the end of the day, they only need to ask a series of competency-based interview questions.
So, if they discussed any future activity and job details with you, a celebratory bottle of bubbly might be getting cracked open sooner than you think!
You were introduced to the wider team
An invitation to meet the rest of the business is a big step.
Employers will only do this if they want to get an extra opinion on the candidate.
Essentially, employees will be looking to see whether you’re a strong cultural fit.
This can include analysing how well you interact with the team and whether you make the right first impression.
Providing you didn’t make a complete fool out of yourself by telling silly knock-knock jokes, you should have at least bagged yourself a second interview.
Your interview overran
The next sign to indicate that your job interview went well is to consider how long it went on for.
Time is a valuable commodity for interviewers.
They may have dozens of other candidates to see.
So, if you’ve made them stray away from their schedule, bravo!
The chances are that they wanted to learn more about you as a person and didn’t mind making time to talk in more depth.
They asked, “when can you start?”
If your interviewer asked you this very important question, then your interview probably went well.
This means, that they’ve already started to plan the logistics of your start date and whether it can work for their business.
However, if they don’t back this question up with a few supplementary ones, it might just be a part of their list of set interview questions.
They said goodbye in a certain way
The final hint that your job interview went well is to think about how your interviewer said goodbye.
For example, “I’ll see you soon” or “I’ll be in touch” is usually a positive indication that they’ll be reaching out to you in the not so distant future.
“Thanks for coming” or submissive responses like “I’ll be contacting the successful clients soon” aren’t always the best way to finish a job interview.
But don’t get too caught up with farewells as a lot of people perceive language in different ways.
Summary
The main thing to remember is to stay positive.
Whatever happened in your job interview, it’s done and dusted.
Only time will tell whether you’ve made a lasting impression or not.
Although, if you recognise any of these signs that you’ve had a good job interview, there’s a very good chance that you’ll get the job, land a second interview or at least hear back from them with some positive feedback.
If you need some more advice on assessing your interviewing skills, take a look at our previous blog: ‘5 Reasons You’re Not Getting a Second Interview’.
Alternatively, you can always subscribe to our blog and receive more relevant content like this every week.
