So let's move on to the Etiquettes part. In China, we do not have a clear, definite definition about what is being implied, what is the proper etiquette when you are taking an interview. Even most time, the worry you heard is that you need to dress formally. You need to appear appropriate at the interviews but those are very vague ideas. Now today I'm going to share with you, what is their typical practice in the Western world for people to take interviews. The first thing is that, certainly, dress formally, which means dark suit. By dark, we mean black or dark blue or dark gray. They're always started by a dark. You don't wear blue or gray, but dark. And, a suit means that the coat and the trousers are in the same color. And for ladies, as you have seen in the picture, if in seasons like Spring, Autumn, those are the best seasons for recruiting and ladies are dressed in suit. Suit means that include a skirt not trousers. And they are also well in dark colors. For gentlemen, a tie is necessary. This is not optional in the Western world. For any serious interviews, always a tie. Whether you think you look good or not with a tie, but you have a tie over here and the haircut. And then, today, these young graduates, today you have very soon ideas, and they have different interests to some. We all like to dye their hair in red, some green. You sometimes see this on the street, right? This will never happen on interviews or otherwise in interviews we will ask you the question why that part of your hair is kind of red. Are you an artist? Well, meaning there's sometimes, yeah., if you are an artist then you want to be unique, and you dye your hair a little bit. I believe on that occasion that could be acceptable, but most times like do not try to make yourself distinctive with your haircut. And especially for gentlemen, your haircut should be kind of short. A long haired man, you'll see this, even artists and professors, and they have long hair, I think that's after they already have a good job. And before that, you need to prove that you are a natural born artist and you deserve the long hair. But most times will not for new graduates. So just make it normal. And about the rings. I mean most Chinese young graduates, they do not wear rings, either finger ring or earring, well I mean for ladies but sometime you see gentlemen which is not acceptable especially for people who are born in the 70s, that sometimes rings for like experienced professionals. They may wear rings in order to send out a signal. Yes and the most common received information about wearing rings, I should say finger rings. Like we all know that if you wear a ring on your index finger, that means what? You are expecting a boyfriend or girlfriend. In the middle, you are courting or dating with someone and here, married. I mean sometimes people are looking for a job. The westerner, traditionally they wear if they are married, they will wear a wedding ring, here. In China, it seems not a common practice, so it's really up to the interviewee whether you wear a ring or not. But on this occasion, it could be possible. Like you are experienced professional and you are looking for a long term job, and you know the company prefer people who are already married, who got a family, who are rooted locally and who will not switch their jobs frequently. Then probably you'll wear a wedding ring over here, that send out a signal, right? For most young graduates, for some of them, they simply do not know what that means and they are wearing some kind of a ring just to appear good. This is not acceptable here. Earrings, for female students, young graduates. I mean, this is something that you need to take a second thought. I mean if your earring is question number one is more and sometimes negligible, it is accepted that I have seen that interviewees, they wear very big ones, like this big. Are you a model? That's the question you naturally will ask. So don't try to attract attention because you are wearing something weird, something attractive, something very obvious. And also for the nails. And nowadays, some ladies would like to paint their nails. Red, green, some favorable color they like. We have some conservative opinions about that. And especially, this is not tolerable if you keep a long nail. Yes. If you carefully observe people around you, there are people who keep a long nail and also dye it into different colors and then I seriously doubt, I mean today even a receptionist needs some time to type, right? And how do you deal with your nails? This is so hard. And it's also about handbag. I mean different handbag may send out a different signals. Just imagine a lady in, carrying a big red handbag with her. What is your first impression? Could this lady could be, well, I'll go in aggressive and whatever, and anything that indicate, different people may have different interpretation about colors, about styles. For most young graduates, they cannot afford something ideal, so the simplest suggestion is that you don't take a handbag with you. And to move on we focus on ladies. Now here we're talking about in Western world, typically, a lady who is looking for a job. The dressing code is like this as we have mentioned over here. These are the things that she will be prepared with. We didnt talk about necklace. Necklace could be the only one piece of ornament. That can show your personal character. But again do not make it too gorgeous, too attractive. For a handbag, try to make it professional if you really want to bring one. But normally, ladies do. They have different little pieces that they want to put in somewhere. And they have to carry a handbag. So on that occasion, try to make it as simple, professional, not too distinctive. Okay? High heels. Or not, it doesn't matter, but for Western ladies, they prefer high heels. And then we move on to gentlemen. So this is a typical Western gentleman will wear. A shirt, a tie, we mentioned, a belt a suit and shoes. Do you wear like red shoes? No, it's always dark-colored. And to be specific, it's only in black, all black. And also you need ties. I mean the shoes that you need to tie with shoelaces, mm-hm, that is cord formal, okay? Watch or not? It depends. Nowadays we use cellphones as a timekeeper but if you have one it is not like you are a millionaire or billionaire then probably you may wear it. Briefcase, for gentlemen. At least it can contain one page of A4. Is it that size? If you have one you may take it. If not then, well, just set out a paper cover, some plastic paper cover or paper holder. You take it, and inside it is just your resume. That will be pretty good for your graduates. A lighter, that means you smoke. Maybe not. But some Western Gentleman, they prefer, this is their typical equipment, but not for the Chinese. Okay. And then we talk about handshake. Most people need to be remind that you do not need to only shake hands in the very beginning but also at the end of the interview you need to shake hands. How do you do this? Number one is that you try to step up, that means that you've, if you are a gentlemen. You may step up. You're a lady, you may step up. But it certainly depends on who is the interviewer. Like the interviewer is a gentleman then whatever your gender you should step up and try to shake hands. If a lady. Then you need to wait until she reaches out her hands. This is something you need to keep in mind. And how you shake hands. People say I have a good knowledge about that, but not 100%. Here you can see the picture, this is a good handshake. It's not like that just gave half of your hand. Some little shy girls, and they do this. You're shaking your hands, and each one just give you several fingers as a handshake. That means what? You didn't have a deep thought about this actually. The interviewer may feel, it could be that you are very shy. Number two, it could be that you are less confident. Number three, that you don't like the interviewer. None of them will leave good impression, yes. So you need to practice to shake hand. And squeeze, we use the word squeeze, gently and shake but not too hard. When you are watching this video, if you've got a partner you may try to shake hands with her or with him and try to reach out your hand, squeeze, shake, two or three times. Or normally two. You don't shake like this. And you don't squeeze too hard, as if you're fighting with someone, you're fighting, competing for a girlfriend with the interviewer. No. You just. Okay? Locking your hand, squeeze gently two or three times. And at the same time, where are your eyes looking at? Where are your eyes looking at? You look directly into the eyes of the interviewer. Right? Yes. Also, you need to dry your palm. That means sometimes if you're shaking hands with a person and that person got a wet hand, what would be the first impression? Imagine that. That could say, well, number one, this guy could be shy. Number two, well, lacks confidence. Number three, In bad health. Yes. They send out a vague idea, an active idea like that. So, let's assume that the typical Western interview training session will always give you such a detail, that try to dry your hand. Discreetly, or secretly. Like you put a hand into your trousers, and you dry your hand, okay? And make sure when you shake hands with others, your hand is dry. And then we move on about eye contact. As I mentioned that when you are shaking hands, you are also making eye contact. And I would say they developed this little technique. Make it a point to discover the color of the interviewer's eyes, okay? So just imagine that you are shaking hands with someone and you are watching into the eyes and try to find out the color, okay? That means, at the same time, you need to keep your eyes cheerful. That means you look awake, you look very interested, and you're cheerful. Do not send out inactive signs. And look at the interviewer's eyebrows sometimes, because I mean, some persons are very shy. They have this kind of experience, if you ask them to look directly into the interviewer's eyes and they will forget about anything to say. They are unable to talk anymore, because they're so shy and was kind of lost. So to avoid this you may want to look at the eyebrow, yes, a little bit above eyes. If you try to do that it will make you more comfortable. Yes. If you are that kind of person, you may practice this. And also smile. Yes. Keep smiling, if possible, from the beginning to the end and by this I would like to ask all of you guys. And if you're alone or you have a partner then you may want to practice to smile at others naturally. I mean there are people who seldom smile. Even when they are required to do so, they cannot smile. So they will be very hard. In my experience that you can train yourself to smile, okay? Now everyone does this like me. Yes, if you want it, then you can smile. Yes. And then we move on to sit posture. After you are invited to be seated, and then in mind we see your posture. The first one is good, you sit straight. Sometimes you may lean a little bit forward, but not too much, okay?. Do net bend your back like this, and more importantly avoid crossing your legs. Never, and especially for ladies. So what we recommend for ladies. Sit like this. Yes? You may try it yourself. And for gentlemen, like this. The two legs may be a little bit open, but not wide open, just a little bit. So these are the postures that we suggest. And here are some taboos. Things that you will never do. Smoke. It's not during the interview, but also, before the interview, when you are waiting outside, and some get nervous and smoke, you came in, and then people smell that you have just smoked. This is totally impolite, spitting, okay, not to mention that. Some will shuffle their feet. That mean they shuffle their feet and it happens subconsciously. You never know. So data wise, is that before you do a real interview, you need a mock interview. That means that you need a camera shooting you and then a partner is asking you a question and you try to answer. And shoot everything. And then later on you watch the video and you will find out whether you shuffle your feet. And never chew gum. And almost everyone doesn't like people who are too boastful. They boast about everything, use big words, big words, or complain about the university you have studied, the last job. If you complain a lot that is not something polite. And that is also means that probably in the future, you are going to do the same thing with the interviewer. And lies. That is taboo. Sometimes we find our students, they do lie in interviews. Because they want to appear better than they really are. They may have done something in their resume like, we, you know, the interviewers are very experienced. Like a language major. He boasted that he had then a software development project. And then certainly [INAUDIBLE] what kind of developing tool, what kind of programming language you used and how long did it take, they dig into details and later find out that it was a lie. So that gentlemen will turn down. So that is something that you would never, never do. Sometimes people are too honest and too direct and then they tend to ask confrontational questions. What is like a confrontation question. If an interviewer was asking you, are good at JAVA language. And then you said, why JAVA? I think that matters much better. This is kind of a you know, particularly they want you some development experience in Java, but you are giving out something opposite, confrontational. So be careful with that. And sometimes you simply, off the topic, it happens a lot. And I find out the reason is number one, the interviewee didn't get the question. Like 60 up to 70% of the time. If the answer was totally off the topic, it was mainly because he or she didn't catch the question. But, you know, what happens in most student they pretend that they have got a question and answer something according to their own understanding. Now my suggestion is that, the first time you didn't catch the question, well you may use the traditional line like, I beg your pardon, could you repeat your question? You can do this. This is quite normal. I mean even interviewers got accents so it's so natural if you didn't questions for the first time. But suppose even interviewer asks the question again, still you didn't catch it. And then there is another way, like could you put your question another way? I mean sometimes we're using some kind of a special terms or jargons or something that you don't understand. Or the interviewer is using a word that you have no idea about. It is out of your vocabulary. Then you may ask the interviewer to put it in another way. Okay? Say the interviewer interpreted the question again. Still you didn't catch it. And then what you will say? Some will simply keep silent or some will say sorry. But those are not good strategies. The good strategy is that tell the interviewer your understanding. Do you mean this? Do you mean that? You can double check with the interviewer about your own understanding until you are 100% sure that you've got a question. Okay. So this is super important to avoid off the topic. You are not supposed to slangs or jargons. I mean those jargons especially you are working with a special industry. You are software developer and like in daily work we use specs instead of specifications. Specs or specifications means that the document that noted it down, that what has been done with the program or something. I mean, when you are saying specs, it is quite likely that an interviewer will not catch you, because normally interviewers, they are not IT majors, right? Now make a good guess, what are the common majors hosted by the interviewers? Those HR managers. What are the quite possible majors for them? They probably majored in, yes, human resource management. They could major in language, English quite possible. It happens a lot in China. They could major in business administration. And very occasionally, they major in IT, engineering, very few. So that means that you do not bring your industrial knowledge, although it sharpens, into your interview and to make the interviewer appear stupid. This is not something you will do. And the last thing is that some interviewee says that they were advised to be relaxed. Talk at ease in the interview. But, to the other extreme they totally lost concentration and too relaxed. As if he or she is not interviewee. Totally detached. It sometimes happen. Okay, so these are the things that you will avoid. And to conclude, we'll portray you an image, like this. You have as a gentleman, you have a trimmed haircut and you are cleanly shaved. You always wear a warm smile, and people will say this guy's got a good feel of confidence. You are just formally, you make a very firm handshake, and their body posture from beginning to end is correct, acceptable. And for ladies, more or less the same.
