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The handshake. Such a small part of the job interview, yet so important in setting the tone. Most people focus all of their attention on preparing for the tough interview questions tand overlook the handshake. This is a mistake that can actually cost you a job. This article from The Muse quotes a Fortune 500 CEO as saying all other things equal, he’d give a position to a candidate with the better handshake. The questions we’re going to address are why your handshake matters and how you can make a statement with your handshake.

Why Your Handshake Matters

According to this article on Forbes, there are seven things your handshake says about you. Hiring managers can get an idea of your confidence level from the firmness of your handshake. Too limp of a handshake says you are quietly unsure of yourself, while too firm of a handshake can indicate overcompensation for a weakness. Remember good ol’ Goldilocks? You want to hit the Goldilocks-Zone for firmness- not too hard and not too soft.

The amount of time you hold your handshake also can say something about your composure. A rushed handshake conveys nervousness and is often paired with shifty eyes. On the other end of the spectrum, a handshake held for too long is just awkward. The last thing you want to do is make a hiring manager uncomfortable. Holding the handshake for two seconds and your eye-contact for just as long is the advice peddled by many experts.

How to Get Your Handshake Right

The first thing to understand about handshakes is there is more to the handshake than just the shaking of hands. Eye contact, facial expression, and posture are the other three ingredients of the perfect handshake.

Your handshake can have the perfect firmness but be completely ineffective if you don’t make eye contact. Shifty eye contact conveys nervousness. Holding eye contact tells the hiring manager you aren’t put off by a pressure environment, which is a quality most hiring managers desire.

Your facial expression and posture must also be conveying confidence. Facial expressions are simple- SMILE. Not a fake school-picture smile, but a genuine, from-the-eyes smile. Think of that hiring manager as the person who is about to give you the opportunity you’ve been waiting for all of your life. Let that person feel the excitement transfer to their body from your fingertips during the handshake.

Finally, your posture should be conveying confidence. That is purposefully vague, as you don’t want to get too formulaic with your posture. The important thing is feeling confident in your own skin. If you focus on actually feeling the confidence flow through your body, then your posture will respond naturally.

To recap, your handshake can be a deciding factor in your next job interview. Practice getting your firmness in the Goldilocks-Zone, follow the 2-second rule for handshake and eye contact length, and smile from your eyes. These tips will give you a hall-of-fame handshake in no time. Have any tips on perfecting the handshake? We’d love to hear it in the comments.