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Many of the 2,000+ employers who partner with us regularly ask us questions like: “What’s a reasonable package for this role?” or “How much should I pay this candidate”.

We analysed data from 34,945 responses to answer this question.

 WHAT YOU NEED TO PAYIn all company types, the proportion of the value of total compensation made up by the ‘cash’ (i.e, basic salary + bonus) element, decreases with seniority. This is particularly stark in start-ups and private equity, where the majority of the value of compensation at senior levels is in equity. The trend is the same in corporates but to a lesser extent. 

CONSULTING AVERAGES

Consulting earnings are on average £45-270k, depending on seniority and the type of consulting firm. At junior levels, corporates and consultancies pay better than start-ups. However, the opposite is true at senior levels in a start-up. This is driven by the value of equity. Up to Manager level, consulting pay exceeds corporate and start-up pay; eclipsed only by private equity. However, senior-level consultants are paid between 10-30% less than their peers ‘in the industry’ – both corporates & start-ups – as the value of share options kicks in. 

PREMIUM PACKAGES

The average senior analyst-level salary in a large consultancy is £52k. If you are a consultant with McKinsey, Bain or BCG, that number is even higher – closer to £60k. If you’re hiring a consultant for a start-up role, this might also look less attractive to senior analyst level consultants, as the average start-up salary is £31k, compared to £52k at the same level in a large consultancy. 

SALARY IN START-UPS

However, start-ups are a wildly popular exit choice. Just in the last month, 908 start-up applications were submitted on movemeon. An associate role will start at £46k compared to £77k and a managerial level position will pay on average £91k vs £109k per annum.On movemeon, jobs in these industries are the most frequently posted types of opportunities. However, regardless of the average wages at these levels in these industries, you need to be realistic about what you will be new employees. Some businesses in the start-up stage would not be able to afford to pay the best salaries. However, start-ups are an extremely popular option for consultants. If you’re interested in more about hiring, talk to our team by emailing info@movemeon.com

The pay gap is everywhere, and it’s high.

It’s a commonly held belief that the national gender pay gap is largely driven by gender-based variation in career choices, and that more high profile discrepancies in the world of media and sport are due to institutionally entrenched biases that are soon to be left behind us. However, based on 20,000+ data points from ex-consultants and those in similar professions, the gender pay gap pervades even professional service industries.

What is particularly galling is that the differences are stark even at the most junior levels – this is not a legacy issue reflected by fewer women higher up in organisations, but instead suggests that a deeper unconscious bias is affecting pay decisions across the board.

• The difference is marked for bonus percentages, pay raises and total compensation packages, and is present in varying degrees across all seniorities, from those in the first few years of their career through to those at Director level.
• At the extreme, men at associate level (approx 4 years into their career) receive bonuses nearly 2.5 times the size of those received by women at the same level and have total compensation packages around a third higher than their female counterparts.
• Male analysts receive pay raises that are 19% higher than female analysts.
• Across all seniorities (from Analyst to Director/VP), men earn on average 20% more than women

In fact, at senior levels, since 2018 the gap appears to have widened. Women are paid between 12-20% less. Their pay rises are also smaller.

Download our full 2021 salary report here.

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Movemeon’s candidate platform is designed to make the job search a seamless, candidate-centred experience. So even basic use makes for easy discovery of relevant, exciting job opportunities. But our analysis shows that these additional (and free) features significantly increase applicants’ chances of being hired.

 1. JOB ALERTS¾ of candidates hired through movemeon have their job alerts turned on.Job alerts are notifications that land in your inbox every time a job matching your preferences goes live on movemeon. They allow you to be among the first applicants to jobs you like – applying early can itself increase your chances of being hired x8.They can be activated directly on the jobs page. 

2. PREFERENCES

Your movemeon account preferences drive the job alerts you receive. Too many and you miss the ideal job because you receive too many alerts. Too few, and you miss the ideal job because you don’t get an alert.Candidates hired through movemeon have, on average:

• 7 industry preferences
• 6 function preferences
• 4 salary range preferences
• 2 freelance day rate preferences

Preferences can be updated on your preferences page. Our machine learning algorithm also automatically updates them. 

3. COVERING NOTES & TAILORED CVS

80% of candidates hired through movemeon apply with a tailored cover letter or covering note & a tailored CV.Tailored covering notes and CVs show employers that you are genuinely interested in their opportunity and that you’ve put considerable thought into the application.We’ve written about the importance of cover letters here.Find tips for writing an effective cover letter/note here.You can now directly type or copy covering notes into your applications. You can also upload a new CV directly under the covering note box on the application page. 

4. DISCOVERABLE ANONYMOUS PROFILE

92% of candidates hired through movemeon have their profile turned to visible.A visible anonymous profile contains your (ex-)consulting firm, an executive summary, and key skills & expertise that employers can see and search. It allows employers to search for skills and directly invite you to apply for their permanent & freelance opportunities.It can be updated any time from the main menu in your account.

Movemeon: jobs, insight, events and career tips for (ex-)consultants and freelancers.Click here to create a free account and access all our opportunities.

Write the perfect resume (CV) using consulting skill. Every year 100s of people get in touch with Movemeon asking career questions. One thing that almost always comes up is whether their resume (and we use this word instead of CV for a reason – more below) is doing them justice. Almost always, the answer is ‘no’ and almost always for the same reason.

Here’s the advice we share and it’s exactly what they already know from consulting.

PEOPLE SCAN CVS. THEY DON’T READ THEM

There’s loads of research on the average time readers spend on CVs. Some say as little as 6 seconds. Whatever the exact number, the point is, it’s not very long.

PRIORITISE WHAT YOU SAY

Think about how you put a presentation together. You define the most important messages. You cut the other stuff. You use an appendix for the detail. You tailor the message to your audience. You create an executive summary. And you can verbalise that in an elevator pitch.

SIGNPOST CLEARLY WHAT YOU WANT SOMEONE TO SCAN TO

Again, think about your presentations. They’re not cluttered. They have 1 key message per slide. And each message has a few supporting points. You use font size and style to highlight what you want the reader to focus on.

…SO IF YOU APPLY THE SAME LOGIC TO YOUR RESUME, THE FOLLOWING WOULD BE TRUE:

The reason we say resume is because it’s a summary. It’s exactly what you should be aiming for. In contrast, CV is derived from an academic document which sets out all qualifications, publications etc. It is lengthy. And credibility is often derived from the length.

Here’s what you’d do if you applied your consulting skills to your resume:

1. You’d write a 2-3 line summary at the top. What they’re getting and why you’re a no-brainer.
2. You’d prioritise what are included based on the requirements of the job & remove less relevant (albeit ‘interesting’ experience/skills).
3. You’d create a concise document that’s not cluttered. 1 easy to read page with plenty of space for notes.
4. You’d use font differentiation to draw the eye to the priority messages.

1-3 are highly important. But 4 is where we see most people go wrong.

The most commonly used differentiators on a CV font are bold, underline and caps. But they are more often than not used to draw attention to generic things. Things that aren’t the elevator pitch for ‘why me’. Things like:

• Dates (from-to per job),
• Locations (if lots of international work is important, reference it in the summary)
• Section headings (i.e, education, professional experience, interests etc)
• Contact details (if they like you, they’ll find them)
• Bullet points (the actual bullet rather than the point!)

You get the drift. Imagine if, instead, the reader could use the differentiated text as an indicator of the bits of the CV they really should read. i.e, the stuff you really want them to read. And – less being more – you removed the stuff that’s nice to have (you can always voice that over at interview). You want them to scan down and quickly tick all their boxes. So for me, I’d use differentiated text – bold being the most obvious choice for:

• Personal summary (the 2-3 lines)
• Current role and/or company (sometimes they are both highly relevant, sometimes just one)
• Skills you have that they are looking for (e.g, team management, analytics, problem-solving). You must use the requirements they specify to determine the skills you highlight
• University/subject (again, depending on what they’re after)

To really hammer home how this works, here’s a worked example. Let’s assume Movemeon goes to pot (don’t worry, it isn’t) and our founder Rich applies for a General Manager job at another growth start-up. Here are the bold parts; everything else would not be highlighted such that the reader can just read the below and ‘tick all their boxes’:

Richard Rosser (name needs to stick)

Start-up Founder and former McKinsey consultant. 5 years management experience growing tech-enabled start-up. Operational responsibility for team of X spanning marketing, sales & product and generating X revenues growing Y% YoY. Seeking similar leadership role in a growth company. (this is the 2-3 line personal summary at the top).

General Manager (current role – it’s what you do & it’s what they’re after)

Team Management (skill 1; the job calls for a seasoned leader. Follow with 2-3 relevant bullets)

Marketing – user acquisition (skill 2; their main challenge is scaling use)

Revenue generation (skill 3; they want to start monetising)

McKinsey & Company (their Founder is ex-consulting)

Oxford (they are picky about top tier academics)

We've given this advice hundreds of times ad hoc and in person. So here it is for all! We promise (and there are many examples) that it works. Hopefully, in applying the same logic used for any presentation, you can easily see why.

Movemeon co-founder Rich published some intel that will massively improve your writing. Take a look here to get the best advice!

Private Equity funds need more consultants - This article is written by Quentin, our member who moved from consulting to private equity through Movemeon.

A couple of years ago, Movemeon offered me my first experience in the private equity (‘PE’) world. I joined TowerBrook, a mid-cap private equity firm investing in SMEs in North America and Western Europe, as a Portfolio Group Associate. Having been catapulted as the first junior non-investment banker hire in the firm’s 15-year history has convinced me that the world of private equity governed solely by bankers is certainly over and that strategy consultants will play a greater role in the future.

In my view, there are (at least) 7 reasons why:

1. Financial skills are now widespread in the industry and do not represent a competitive edge anymore.
The days where only a handful of ‘geniuses’ mastered the intricacies of financial leverage are long gone. Every year, thousands of students across the globe graduate in a financial engineering-related subject. As a PE firm, shaping a team solely around those highly specific skills does not suffice any more to create a competitive edge.

2. Conversely, in a world where ‘too much money is chasing too few deals’, operational improvement stretches the field of possibilities. Private equity firms are now holding an all-time high of c. $1,300bn in ‘dry powder’, i.e. committed but non-invested capital – see chart below. As a consequence, the competition for assets is fiercer than ever and tight auction processes have become the rule. The tension between private equity investors’ two main objectives, namely meeting price expectations while delivering satisfactory returns to investors, has subsequently increased. Analysing the target not only from a financial but also from an operational angle is the only way to alleviate this tension.

3. Setting up a portfolio team is however far more easily said than done. There is no perfect model and each private equity firm will have to decide on the best structure and operating model given its overall strategy. Typical questions, to begin with, are: shall we go for a thin portfolio group supported by a network of experts or a fully-fledged team? Shall we only target experienced hires or shall we include more ‘hands-on’ junior profiles? Shall we favour generalist or specialist backgrounds? As returns from successful investments diminish, ‘stress-testing’ the investment thesis from multiple angles becomes increasingly important: The corollary of the previous point is that ‘bad’ investments are relatively more penalising than before. Nowadays, thorough and multi-faceted due diligence is crucial to any investment.

4. Operational improvement strategies are becoming increasingly complex and now have to be handled by specialists. Private equity firms have been implementing basic cost-cutting and cash management techniques since the mid-1980s. However, the share of ‘secondary’ deals (i.e. a PE firm selling to another PE firm) has been steadily increasing and the room for obvious cost reduction measures has significantly shrunk as a result. This trend has led private equity owners to seek more holistic and acute transformation programmes whose implementation requirements often go beyond the traditional investment banker’s skillset.

5. Private equity firms are progressively acknowledging the importance of the ‘voice from the ground’, which consultants are trained to listen to. Private equity owners have realised that the success of an investment is highly correlated with the calibre of its executive team. A rising number of former headhunters and former HR directors have consequently joined PE firms in order to assess the quality of the management team during due diligence and develop the team throughout the investment lifecycle. A single ‘talent manager’, however, cannot cover an entire company portfolio. Strategy consultants can use their ability to develop two-way relationships with their ‘clients’ to act as day-to-day links. Indeed, in a private equity environment, not only can former consultants influence and steer the firm’s strategy but also they can actively listen to the concerns of the management team.

6. Former consultants are best placed to get the most of current consultants.When PE firms hire McKinsey, BCG or Bain, they do not care about slide formatting: they want to see analysis and recommendations. Having been on the other side of the table gives you a unique advantage to ‘skim the fat’ from due diligence reports and to enter more quickly into productive discussions.

7. Running an operating team will become a ‘must-have’ investment criteria for Limited Partners – and for the general public. Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, was appointed Senior Advisor at PE firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (‘CD&R’) in 2001. I am sure that Mr Welch’s wisdom is valuable to CD&R’s management teams, but undoubtedly there is also an element of public relations at stake here. Furthermore, the excesses of private equity have left a bitter taste in the mouth of the general public – millions have read Barbarians at the Gate. Operating partners give a more human face to the private equity industry.

Looking for a role in Private Equity? - See all of Movemeon's employer partners here

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There are many reasons why one would want to leave consulting. And although there are many perks of life outside of consulting, and many other career paths to follow. There are also benefits from staying, which we will highlight below.

SKILLS AND DEVELOPMENT

Consulting skills are extremely transferable. You work with some of the most capable people in the business. The skills you develop are highly sought-after in the job market. These are one of the most attractive aspects of following a career in consultancy.In consulting, there are also many benefits in learning professional management skills and technical skills in a quick turnover period. Being able to see a lot of different corporate operating environments before going straight into what you want to do is a huge perk. The additional reference points are great perspectives to know what good/bad look can look like. Consulting can also train people well from a comms and upwards / downwards / self-management perspective that sometimes the lack of structure in tech may not provide to the same degree. Many have had a great experience transitioning from consulting to tech.If you choose to stay in consulting, you also learn tangible business semi-basics (valuation, strategy, financial modelling…) – which is highly relevant in the UK where newly graduated candidates from all degrees can enter consulting. These transferable skills remain as sought after as they ever were.

COMPENSATION

The average senior analyst-level salary in a large consultancy is £52k. If you are a consultant with McKinsey, Bain or BCG, that number is even higher – closer to £60k. If you stay in consulting for most of your career, your pay will gradually increase to over £150k at director level (and over £250k at the same level in McKinsey, Bain or BCG).In general, consulting earnings are £45-270k, depending on seniority and the type of consulting firm. At junior levels, corporates and consultancies pay better than start-ups. However, the opposite is true at senior levels in a popular industry for ex-consultants such as start-ups. This is driven by the value of equity. Up to Manager level, consulting pay exceeds corporate and start-up pay; eclipsed only by private equity.Start-ups and scale-ups, for example, have become very popular destinations for consultants to move to. On movemeon growth stage start-ups receiving 24.59% of applications. Although this is a popular option, start-ups are unable to afford to pay the best salaries to ex-consultants. So the pay advantage of staying in consulting is even starker at junior levels than compared to corporates. At Manager level, for instance, pay in start-ups lags consulting by 20%.

FAST TRACK PROGRESSION

Despite the rise in huge tech brands, consulting still remains a fast-track. And certain brands in particular (in a similar fashion to the university/school you attended) are a rubber stamp of calibre. After many years in consulting, you are sought after for opportunities that wouldn’t be thought suitable for those with only a few years of experience elsewhere. Former management consultants can potentially make great CEOs and senior leaders.If you choose to stay in consulting, you are in a good position to start planning your next move well in advance. Most reputable headhunters are always happy to speak to good candidates even if it’s just to establish a connection or to learn about the market. Look for people who have been working in the sector for a long time and understand the landscape well.

A GREAT CAREER IN ITSELF

Consulting is a great career to follow and develop in. Yes, the majority of people use it as a stepping stone ‘into the industry’, but for many, it becomes a lifelong pursuit. And there are lots to recommend it: the variety of interesting problems to solve, super smart colleagues, travel, constant interaction with (often new) people – clients or colleagues. Our co-founder Rich says “I look back very fondly on my McKinsey days. I worked with great people, travelled the world and learnt a lot – all in a few years! However, given the opportunities on offer, if I had my time again, I’d make sure I got even more out of it.”

Freelance V. Perm - Here is our detailed analysis of the pay comparison between freelance and permanent employees.

Focusing only on day rates, the gap between freelance and permanent pay can look quite large, even if this gap tends to decrease with seniority. However, hiring permanent employees implies hidden costs that need to be considered.

Speak to us or email: info@movemeon.com and we’ll support you through your hiring project.

• Pay comparison: freelance v. permanent
• Data source: 34,945 aggregated, anonymised movemeon.com & payspective.com responses  

National insurance & pension contributions

National insurance and pension contributions from the employer represent permanent employee costs that are usually not considered as high as they really are. In value, these contributions represent more than 10% of the total annual compensation for permanent employees.

These costs don’t exist when you hire a freelancer.

The effective number of working days

One of the main differences between freelance and permanent employees is that you pay freelancers based on the actual number of days they work on your project. When it comes to permanent hires, it’s a bit different. You have to consider sick days, paid holidays, bank holidays or even weekends. There are 260 weekdays per year but a permanent employee, on average, will work only 223 days.

Taking this into consideration, the effective average day rate for a permanent employee is £411.

Onboarding and offboarding

You’ll invest more time in the onboarding process for a permanent employee. Also, you’ll have to consider training costs. Because you hire freelancers for their expertise, onboarding will take you less time. A freelancer will be ready to work as efficiently as possible faster than a permanent employee.

Regarding offboarding: freelance contracts can be ended with little to no notice. There are a number of reasons why you may need to let people go. Termination of permanent employment brings costs that don’t apply to freelancers. Hiring freelancers also mean hiring at a lower risk, knowing sunk costs will be minimal if the contract has to be ended.

Time to hire

Freelancers can be hired much faster than permanent employees. Recruiting for a freelancer can take just a few days on Movemeon. Freelance interview processes are generally fast as hiring managers are focused purely on competency, not team fit. In contrast, recruiting for a permanent employee takes a number of months. During this time, businesses may suffer simply because there is nobody in the role. Simply put, there is an opportunity cost to the business.

Looking for freelancers and need some more info?

We met Nika in central London for a drink after work. It was interesting to find out what a fellow Warwick graduate and a new Googler made of the world post-consulting. We chatted about the time at Morrisons Online and how it compared to their role at Accenture. Nika also talks about leaving consulting and, of course, how it is working for Google now.

Nika’s story gives some important lessons on how to maximize your development post advisory:

Why did you decide to leave consulting?  

I wanted a new challenge and to further develop my expertise in analytics and digital. It was daunting to search for jobs with so many job boards to plough through and recruitment agencies constantly hassling you. I wasn’t sure who was hiring consultants and where I should start looking. A friend in consulting recommended using Movemeon because of its’ niche focus on jobs that require a consulting background. Movemeon was the ideal solution, no-one was hunting me down and putting me forward for roles I had no interest in – it was all driven by me. I applied for roles I liked and had control over the process. I was after this hands-off approach (yet I knew if I wanted to get in touch with someone from Movemeon I could) so this felt like a perfect fit. The application was really straightforward too and I heard back from the employer promptly. This is how I landed my first job out of consulting at Morrisons Online.

How was the transition to Morrisons Online?

Working at Morrisons Online was a great pleasure! I am very much a ‘yes’ person when it comes to new opportunities so it was great fun just diving in. I wanted to work in digital so being there when Morrisons Online was just launching was incredible. In a way, it felt like I was working for a start-up; the vibe was really exciting and the culture really fitted my personality.

We were starting from scratch, which meant we had to build everything from the grounds up for our analyses and analytical modelling. We were all new, figuring it out and verifying our hypotheses as we went.  It was a crash course on how to run a new business – we had to be creative and learn on the job. Looking back at it, it was absolutely the right opportunity to take on after consulting. My team was great and I am still friends with them now (we used Movemeon to recruit into our team due to the positive experience we personally had with it).

What are the differences between working in a consultancy and in industry?

In consulting, you work on so many different projects, especially when you are junior. At Morrisons, I had to become an expert in my area very quickly. I also did not travel that much but that was actually quite nice. I had time to see my friends instead of spending the weekend doing laundry! I’d say consulting is definitely the best first job after finishing university. You learn the skills we now take for granted like work ethic, managing expectations, time management, learning to fail and learning from your mistakes with the safety net of a big company with all the resources you could want in order for you to develop.

How does Google compare to all your experience up to date?

Working in Google is incredibly collaborative. They make it really easy for you to work too; the tech always works and you have all the equipment you need so you can focus on the core of your job. You can call on experts as and when you need which allows you to move fast and really get things done. 

I work on conducting analyses and insights for FMCG brands, to help them develop their digital marketing strategies. We try to understand and make sense of online customer journeys and behaviours. I get very undefined problems and briefs and try to make sense of what is actually happening in order to answer how these problems can be tackled. Of course, it is challenging, but that is what I am after!  My immediate team is 7 people, but the hierarchy is flat. I really like Google’s ethos around learning and failing fast. It’s about innovating and always trying new things, and if something is not working, then it’s just about moving on to the next solution quickly.

Any tips for our members thinking about moving on from consulting?

1. Choose your manager well – make sure they are someone you want to learn from, and someone who is willing to teach you. Be honest with yourself around what you need and want, and look for a manager who can teach and inspire you to achieve that.

2. I keep an open mind when it comes to opportunities and disregard any preconceived notions you may have. Try as many new things as possible early on in your career, because you never know what you’ll end up enjoying or where your unique skills lie. I spent a lot of time resisting projects in the public sector at Accenture, and they ended up being the most rewarding and enjoyable ones while I worked there. I also recommend to get involved in as many projects as possible – your workload will be crazy, but your learning trajectory will be greatly expedited, take a look at this article to find out how to discover the best opportunities for you

3. Choose jobs according to your potential – you can always learn as you go. The great thing about consulting is that you gain the skills to learn and adapt quickly.

4. Learn by discussing your ideas and theories with your colleagues. I keep checking-in and comparing the way we each think about a problem and often that leads to the most fruitful outcomes.

5. Make a decision and commit to it 100%. This is the way you give yourself the best chance of succeeding (and other opportunities will follow).

6. Make sure you like what you do and don’t take that for granted.

What was best about each company?

I loved that I was surrounded by my peers at Accenture – moving down to London and starting a first job post-uni is made a lot less terrifying that way.  Everyone was the same age, figuring it out and making similar mistakes. We had a lot of resources and knew where to go for help. Morrisons was a great business crash course and perfect for developing expertise. At Google, it’s about growing this expertise further and working on a wider variety of problems as you help your clients navigate the intricacies of digital consumers, and just learning as you go. Consulting was a lot more high level whereas at Morrisons and Google I get my hands dirty. Sometimes we have to improvise and move on to the next thing. When it comes to life/work balance the busy periods oscillate with every job  – as I grow more experienced I am learning to enjoy the periods between projects and really recharge. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility (and privilege!) to make sure that you are working the way you like and want.

How does one land a job at Google?

It’s about doing all your prep, and then hoping everything works out on the day. I had 5 sets of interviews with 7 different people. They want to understand the way you think and if you fit into the team. Despite the stories you hear, there are no trick questions where someone is trying to catch you out. They were all fair questions which relate to the job, your experience and leadership, and a cultural fit. And everyone was really friendly and responsive throughout the process.

We have a number of interviews with ex-consultants, click here to have a look at some of our most recent inside view based articles.

How to get an interviewer to like you - The interviewer, a potential future colleague, after all, is simply looking to answer the question: do I get on with, and can I see myself enjoying working with, this person?

Once you’ve been asked to interview, you can rest assured that the interviewer is confident that you have the right experience, skills and qualifications to do the job. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have invited you in (they have read your CV and cover letter after all).

Yes, there might be a few “skills” boxes to tick (a case study in a management consulting interview for instance) – but these should be well within your comfort zone given your experience, skills and qualifications. The interviewer will want to get them out of the way quickly and tick that box on their interview sheet.

Much more important to an interviewer is whether or not they warm to you as a person. So try to be yourself and direct the conversation (for at least a small part of the interview) to personal interests, family etc. You’ll likely find some common ground (same interest, same age of kids, live/holiday in the same area) to talk about. The result of this is that you’ll relax and the interviewer will also feel comfortable in your presence.

An important point that’s easy to miss is that: if you don’t get on with the interviewer, it’s worth reassessing whether your personality is a good fit for that company. To many people, the most important aspect of a job is working with people that they get on with – so if you didn’t click with the interviewer but are offered the job, ask to go back to meet them again and also to meet some colleagues so that you can get a better feel for the company culture.

We recently read the following article suggesting 3 ways to build rapport and ace the interview. We’ve highlighted in bold bits we think are particularly useful.

People hire people they like

While your skills and experience are important elements to securing a job offer, just as important is your ability to build rapport that is natural and engaging with your interviewer. The rapport you establish during an interview can greatly impact the impression you leave behind.

Building rapport occurs in many ways. In addition to having subject matter that you both can relate to, it is also very much about body language. The handshake you offer when you first meet your contact, how you stand and sit, your facial expression and eye contact, to where you place your arms, hands, legs and feet is all part of body language to help establish the confident and engaged impression you want to leave with the interviewer. The more engaged you are and the more similarities the interviewer sees in terms of your body language, the easier it is to establish rapport.

Effectively building rapport is what gives many candidates the leg-up in the company’s interview process. Even if the candidate does not have as much experience as another candidate, he is seen as more favourable because he’s been able to connect with the interviewer in a way that is more relatable and can be seen as fitting along with the rest of the people at the company. Those who do the hiring want to know that the candidate is someone they themselves would enjoy working with.

Ace your interviews by applying confident and positive body language with relevant topics that help build effective rapport. You will come out of the interview leaving your contact with the best possible impression for consideration to a job offer.

Topics of relevance to help build rapport during an interview

1. Current events on the company and/or industry: Before you go in for an interview, look over the company’s website for news events. Most company websites have a section with press releases. Did the company just sign a significant partnership, bring in a key individual from the industry or launch a new product? These are topics that can help build rapport and show you are on top of what’s going on at the company or industry. It shows you have a sincere interest in the company.
   
2. Challenges of the position and challenges the company faces: Asking questions about challenges and then turning around the discussion to clearly point out how you may have experience handling the issues is an easy way to show your contact that you have a desire to learn, face problems and bring solutions.
   
3. Information about your contact: Establishing small talk with your interviewer may be done by asking questions such how she came to work for the company or her experience with particular projects. If you are conducting an interview in your interviewer’s office, take note of any family photos showing children or locations you may relate you. You may draw up small talk simply by commenting on the beautiful smiles of the children in the photo, asking how old they are, and sharing information on the age of children you may have of your own. You can also ask if a photo was taken at a certain destination and add comment on how it relates to you – whether it’s your hometown or if you went on vacation there recently. Small talk is a time where an interviewer can get a better feel for your personality and a chance to establish a stronger bond by showing how you two may have similarities. Many questions during the interview may be standard and seem a bit rehearsed, so slightly stray from the norm with small talk during the earlier part or latter part of the interview.

There’s generally a clear sense of what is expected out of an interview. The employer wants to know how serious you are about this opportunity by your preparedness for the interview and what you can offer to the company through your skills and experience. Now, just let them know you are someone who can work well with the team and you will be on the right path to acing the interview.