For a long time I treated interviews like tests: prepare the answers, deliver the answers, wait for a mark. It took a fair few rejections before I started paying attention to the rest of it, the part that isn't the words.
So this chapter is about delivery: being clear and easy to follow, what to do with your body and your voice while you talk, how to set up for video, and panels specifically. None of it needs you to be naturally outgoing. I'm not, particularly.
Being clear and easy to follow
Panels assess evidence against the role requirements. Clear, respectful communication helps them understand that evidence, which is the practical reason any of this matters: a tense, rushed or hard-to-follow answer makes the content harder to take in, however good the content is.
Being polite, listening properly and responding naturally covers most of it. If ordinary small talk happens at the start, take part without trying to force it. Rapport isn't something to engineer, and it isn't a substitute for the evidence you're there to give.
Nerves
It's normal to feel nervous before and during an interview.
An unsuccessful result can still be disappointing, especially when you've spent real time preparing or were counting on the opportunity. What helped me was remembering that I could control my preparation and my answers, and not much else, and that every interview gave me more practice for the next one.
I applied for an APS6 role straight off the graduate program, while I was still an APS3, and I genuinely wasn't sure I could make that jump in one go. I told the panel I was nervous. They said that was fine and to take a moment. Afterwards, one of them said I hadn't come across as nervous. I can't say what part that played in the outcome, if any.
You don't need to announce that you're nervous, but a brief acknowledgement is fine if it helps you reset. Panels and people differ in how they respond to it, so treat it as an option rather than a technique.
A few weeks after starting, I asked my manager what had set me apart from the other applicants. I never got a clear answer, and the conversation moved on to something else. I can't say what influenced the decision.
The greeting
A warm opening sets an easier tone for the conversation that follows, and it costs nothing.
Nerves can make some people sound flatter, quieter or more rushed than usual. A simple, sincere greeting is enough. There is no need to rehearse a particular expression or posture.
Sitting, speaking and listening
The core of this is comfort and attentiveness, not a set of rules everyone has to follow the same way. People communicate differently, and treating one style of eye contact or posture as the only credible way to interview isn't fair to a lot of genuinely strong candidates, including neurodivergent applicants, people with disability, people managing anxiety, and people from different cultural backgrounds. If you need an adjustment, whether that's extra processing time, a different format, or anything else, you can raise it with the contact officer or the recruitment team beforehand. Reasonable adjustments are a normal part of the process.
With that said, a few things are worth attention:
Sit in a way that's comfortable and attentive. There's no posture you have to hold, and sitting still isn't a requirement.
Keep your notes within reach, where they're allowed, so you're not fumbling for them mid-answer.
Speak at a pace you can sustain, and pause when you need to think. Taking a moment before answering is completely normal.
Use natural eye contact rather than forcing it. Some people find sustained eye contact uncomfortable, and that's fine. Looking generally towards the person speaking, or towards the panel as a group, is enough.
Make sure the panel can hear you clearly, and if you're not sure, ask.
Name what you did, plainly. This is about accuracy rather than presentation. If you led something, say you led it. If you contributed to a team effort, say that instead. Vague phrasing like "was involved in" often isn't dishonest, just underspecified, and it leaves your actual contribution unclear.
Listen properly when someone else is talking, and respond naturally rather than performing a fixed set of listening cues.
I'd leave out anything more prescriptive. Rigid instructions about exact eye-contact durations, gesture placement, or never crossing your arms describe one narrow way of presenting, and none of them are requirements.
Video interviews
Many recruitment processes now include a video stage. The basics are practical.
Camera roughly at eye level. A stack of books under the laptop is usually enough to avoid an awkward angle.
Choose a comfortable framing where the panel can see you clearly. Including your upper body rather than only your face is a common choice, but there's no mandatory frame.
Light in front of you, not behind you. Facing a window with the camera between you and it is a cheap fix for most rooms.
Put the panel's video window near your camera, so looking at their faces means looking close to the lens. One monitor is simpler than two if you can manage it. Practise on the setup you'll actually use.
Test your microphone. Use whatever you already have and check the recording is clear. Upgrade only if it isn't.
Test the whole chain before every session, even if nothing has changed: connection, volume, background noise. Silence notifications, sort out anything likely to interrupt you, and have a backup plan if your connection is unreliable.
A short recording review can help if you find it useful: record a couple of minutes of yourself answering a typical question, then watch it back for clarity and pace, check the sound and framing, and adjust anything that stands out. Not everyone needs this, but it's a low-cost way to catch a bad angle or a mumbled section beforehand.
If the technology fails
Sometimes it goes wrong regardless of preparation. During the interview for my current role, my connection in one room was patchy, so I moved to another room partway through setting up, and mid-answer the connection dropped completely. I got back online as fast as I could, apologised briefly, and picked up where I'd left off. The interruption was inconvenient, but the panel allowed me to reconnect and continue.
If it happens to you, the practical response is the same: reconnect, apologise briefly, and carry on with the answer.
Panel interviews
Preparing for a panel isn't very different from preparing for a one-on-one interview. Same examples, same structure, same questions. What changes is that instead of one person, there are usually several, and panel size and format vary between departments and processes.
Include the whole panel
When someone asks a question, it's natural to answer mainly to them. Include the whole panel naturally as you go, so the discussion doesn't become focused only on the chair or only on the person who asked. The same applies when it's your turn to ask questions: spreading them across the panel where it makes sense keeps everyone part of the conversation.
Senior panels
I've sat in front of panels with several directors and EL1s in the room, sometimes with a transcriber typing up the conversation, and through my research degrees I've sat in front of panels of professors and researchers. Senior titles can feel intimidating, but the task stays the same: listen carefully and answer the question in front of you.
Remote and hybrid panels
Hybrid panels, with some people in the room and one or more on a screen, are common now. The main adjustment is making a deliberate effort to include remote panellists, since they're the easiest to leave out of the conversation without meaning to. Glancing towards the screen and directing at least one question to a remote panellist helps.
Talkative panel members
Occasionally a panel member does most of the talking, about the department, their own experience, the team. It's natural to worry that you barely got to speak, and it's hard to know what it means, so I wouldn't try to read anything into it either way.
If it's eating into time you need, it's fine to redirect politely: "this has been really helpful, and I want to make sure I've given you what you need from me today. Is there anything specific you'd like me to cover?"
A few situations worth naming
Short interviews. At lower classifications or in high-volume graduate rounds, you may get a shorter slot, sometimes around 30 minutes. With less time, it helps to be clear and to choose examples that map closely to the role's requirements, and to prioritise your questions.
Questions early about your questions. If a panel opens by asking what you'd like to know before you've said much about yourself, it can simply be how that panel runs its process. Ask what you'd planned to ask and let the rest of the interview follow.
Being honest about what you don't know. If a panel raises a scale of responsibility beyond your experience, running eight sites when you've run two, the more useful conversation is usually what you'd actually do to prepare for that scale, rather than arguing the two are equivalent.