One of the areas that an employer is looking at on the job interview are your communication skills. Many people will go into a job interview and say to the employer, “I have excellent communication skills.” But, if your interview suggests otherwise, then you’re just blowing hot air.

The interview gives you an opportunity to show off your communication skills. Communicating is more than just talking someone to death or listening to yourself talk. Communicating is a two part process. In an interview situation, you have to use active listening.

Active listening basically means paying attention to what the other person is saying. Many people practice lazy listening. This is where you are not paying attention to the person speaking and you’re busy thinking about other things or what you’re going to say.

When the interviewer asks you a question, you can start off your answer by restating the question. This gives you extra time to form your answer.

For example, the interviewer asks, “How would your former employer describe you?”

Your answer would start off as, “My former employer would describe me as…”

When answering a question, keep your answers short and to the point. If you’re telling a story, keep it simple. The interviewer doesn’t need to know the life history of the people in the story. Don’t use slang or a bunch of um’s and uh’s. Remember, you are trying to demonstrate to the interviewer that you have excellent communication skills. When you use um’s and uh’s throughout your answers, it signals to the interviewer that you aren’t sure of your answers or you don’t have excellent communication skills.

Practice your answers before the interview. You can’t know every question that he or she will ask you, but with practice, you’ll be more prepared than most people.