Communication Accommodation Theory and Job Interviews

Based on the Communication Accommodation Theory, knowing how to accommodate your communication behavior for a job interview would be pretty important.  If you are in a job interview, you will probably want to converge your behavior with the interviewer.  Convergence is when you adopt your behavior to be like (similar to) the other person (Griffin, Ledbetter & Sparks, 2015).  You wouldn't want to over-accommodate however, because then the interviewer might feel like you are being fake, or even insulting them.  I think that can sometimes be a common mistake when people try to communicate with someone; when I talk to my grandmother, for example, I sometimes feel like I'm over-accommodating and people will notice, but I don't mean to because I am just trying to converge with her communication style so she understands.

In the context of a job interview, being able to converge is an important communication trait; for example, you would have to mirror the interviewer's professionalism and eye contact.  And in the off-chance (depending on the job you're applying for) that they are laid-back and conversational, you would have to be able to accommodate for the change, even if you weren't prepared for it.  I think the important thing to remember for job interviews is to stay professional and definitely adjust to the person's communication style.  I had a phone interview about 2 weeks ago, and I had a little trouble gauging a good convergence with the woman that was interviewing me.  I think talking on the phone is hard because it's not a face-to-face interaction, but I notice now that I was mirroring her speech pattern and tone; which was concise and professional.  I felt good after the conversation and my roommate had heard me talking on the phone and she commented that I had sounded professional as well.  I, obviously, don't always sound like that; you have to adjust your communication to each different situation.

References

Griffin, E. A., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2015). A first look at communication theory(9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.