How to Ace a Job Interview with Jedi Mind Tricks

Having a good resume and great on-the-job skills will help you in an interview, but we all know that it really boils down to mind control. Fortunately, you don't have to be a jedi to influence your interview with good verbal and body language. Here's what you need to do.

1. Copy the interviewer's body language. Studies have shown that people react well to anyone who displays the same body language as they're displaying, and in an interview this can be especially true, since the interviewer's watching everything that you're doing. When you shake their hand, copy their grip; if they talk with their hands held out and open a lot, use the same techniques. This will make you a more desirable hire to the interviewer, and it's extremely covert and ninja-like.

2. Ask questions. Why should the interviewer get to ask all the questions? Certainly respond to everything they ask, and it's not great to respond to questions with other questions, but ask your own questions about the job and what responsibilities you'll have there. By asking questions, you appear to be someone who...groan..."thinks outside the box," an inquisitive person that's able to solve problems through their own virtues. Interviewers, obviously, like this, even if the job is just at Burger King.

3. Use your hands while speaking. Interviewers, and for that matter humans in general, pick up on subtle body language cues, and it's to your benefit to use positive ones. People see holding out hands with palms exposed as a sign that you're not threatening, which is good, but they see pointing as forceful, which may be bad depending on the situation. Pointing at something on your resume could be good, for example, but pointing at the interviewer would not be. When in doubt, copy their body language as I'd suggested above, but it doesn't take much to pay attention to what your hands are doing and use them to influence the direction that the interview takes.