Take the marbles out of your mouth

If you’ve ever seen Adam Sandler’s The Waterboy, it’s tough to forget Farmer Fran’s wise words of encouragement, “Wnem a liba nah tah fi anuddad ay.” (We live to fight another day) It’s even tougher to understand them or anything he said.

The first rule of communication is to listen. But the second rule is to be clear. This doesn’t apply just to the message you have to impart but also the way you say it. This is especially important on a job interview when you are specifically being judged for your communication skills as well as your credentials.

Before you start setting up interviews, do a quick communication test. Call your phone and leave a voicemail as if you were returning the call of a potential employer. Listen to the message back.

• Did you mumble? Practice enunciating, watch My Fair Lady and say “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”


• Are you speaking too fast? Unless you’re the Micro-Machine Man slow down!


• Were you too loud? Nobody wants to be yelled at.


• Was the phone too close to your mouth? This can cause awful feedback and make you look like a putz.


• Was your message cluttered with stalls like um, uh or you know? Excessive breaks in your train of thought does not speak well for how you will be able to handle assignments.


• How heavy was your breathing? You don’t want human resources to think Darth Vader is applying for the job.


• Is your accent too thick to be understood? Mumbling was only half of Farmer Fran’s problem, his French Creole dialect made it especially difficult to understand him.

Once you’ve mastered the phone message have a friend role play an interview scenario with you. You can use your phone’s video recorder to capture it for critique. It’s easy to get nervous and forget to reign in the rambling. Practicing ahead of time will put you at ease and help you to get your point across clearly.

If you are interested in a better career in customer service visit http://www.customerservicejobs.com/

By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a writer and blogger for Nexxt. She researches and writes about job search tactics, training, and topics.