The Importance of Communication in a Facilities Management Interview

Good communication has never been so important when applying for a facilities management job. Your written communication is judged immediately when your CV is reviewed by the Recruitment Consultant and/or Hiring Manager. You will already know to check for grammar and spelling errors and to ensure it reads correctly, you can always get assistance from a colleague to read over and to check for mistakes and there is even the option of getting your CV professionally written.

Nobody however can help you with your verbal communication apart from yourself. How you engage with others in the FM industry and how you get your views and opinions across is 100% down to you. With competition for jobs higher than ever before it is not only essential that you have the right skills and experience for the job but it is also vital you communicate and present yourself well.

So what can you do to improve your communication? Preparation for a job interview in Facilities Management is paramount to your success; this will help you to feel more confident throughout the interview and will help you to answer questions efficiently and concisely. If you have the opportunity to conduct a mock interview with a friend or business associate this is definitely worth taking time out to do. Ask for feedback on your communication skills and take on board their feedback and work on ways you can communicate better.

Listen carefully to questions posed to you and take a few moments to consider your answer before replying. Keep the question in the back of your mind whilst replying, ensuring that you don’t ramble on and get side-tracked. As a rule of thumb you should answer the question within approximately 2 minutes.

Ensure you are professional throughout the interview. It is the interviewer’s role to make you feel comfortable and relaxed, don’t misinterpret this and let down your guard by treating them the same as you would a friend. Remember you are in a business setting and are being interviewed for a professional facilities management position so you should conduct yourself accordingly. Speak professionally and in a polished way, the use of slang words is definitely not acceptable. Be aware of using words to fill time such as ‘erm’ and ‘um’; the use of these during an interview will make you sounds unprofessional.

Let the interviewer steer the conversation in the direction they want, don’t interrupt or talk over or finish off their questions for them. Avoid mentioning negative issues or anything controversial; focus on the positives from your career and not on topics/experiences that could hinder the outcome of your interview.

How well a candidate communicates during a facilities interview will be the overriding factor on who gets offered the FM job. Don’t underestimate the importance of good communication and don’t rely solely on your qualifications and experience, the way in which you converse with your interviewers is of equal importance.

Dominique Bradley

Recruitment Consultant

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