Good body language for interviews?

Follow up: What to do when you're thinking about an answer and don't have the answer in your L1 cache and you're trying to think while answering

Can you say out loud how you are approaching the problem. For a question, you'll probably be given a set of input and some constraints or maybe it will be completely open-ended. What will help is to think about the ultimate goal and work backwards. Talk about any tradeoffs you have to make while coming up with the solution.

You don't need to have the perfect solution from the very beginning, but your thought patterns should be rational and flow smoothly.

I know that all seems super abstract, so maybe a counter-example will help. I've interviewed candidates that will just throw out multiple random solutions like there's a grab bag of solutions prepared beforehand. I would avoid doing this.

On top of making good eye contact and not stuttering, I recommend the following:

• Deep listening when the interviewer is talking
• Being enthusiastic, energetic, and positive in general
• Gracefully accepting feedback (don't be defensive, don't get a weird look on your face)

In general, pretend they're a friend. If they don't reciprocate the energy, that's fine as the important thing is that you're trying. If they do reciprocate the energy, your chances of passing the interview instantly go up 50%.

If you get stumped with something, a diplomatic immediate response is to say "That's a good question, I need to think about that...". It positively acknowledges the interviewer and transparently shows that you need to figure it out without being embarrassing/awkward (i.e. just looking at them dumbfounded with a mix of confusion and dread).

After that, just talk through your thought process and retread through whatever has already been said. From there, you pray that you stumble onto a solution haha.