In the third part of The Interview Edge series, we will be discussing the importance of maintaining eye contact with your interviewer. If you missed the first two parts in this series, please see the links at the bottom of this article.

During an interview, where do you look? Your feet? Your hands? That spot on the wall that is just a slightly different color than the rest of the wall? If you answered yes to any number of these options, then you are the audience I’m writing this article for. The fact of the matter is this: If you are not looking at your interviewer during your interview, then you are looking in the wrong direction 95% of the time.

Why look them in the eye? Two words: Confidence and Interest (more on confidence in the next installment of this series). Being able to look your interviewer in the eye portrays you as confident, as well as interested in what they have to say. These are two very important things you want to come across in your interview.

With that being said, here are three tips for comfortably maintaining eye contact during your interview:

• Don’t stare like your interrogating them - There are many different kinds of ways to look someone in the eye. During your interview, you don’t want to drill into your interviewer like your trying to get some secret out of them. Relax, don’t think about it, just act like you would normally when talking to someone else.

• Blink normally - Just because you are looking someone in the eye doesn’t mean you’re having a staring contest. If you blink, you don’t lose. Like with the first point, just relax. You don’t have to blink every two milliseconds, or every five minutes. Just act normal.

• If you have to look away, you can - If for some reason you need to look away, don’t be afraid to. As I stated above, the intention of this is not to look awkward, it’s simply to look confident and interested. One example of this would be looking for something in your bag. It’s perfectly normal to look while your searching, it would just look weird if you didn’t.

Is it awkward to maintain eye contact at first? Of course, especially if you are not used to it. Don’t worry, more than likely you’ll be going on more than one interview (we all do), so you’ll get plenty of practice. Another way to practice is to try and maintain eye contact with whoever you’re talking to during your normal day. This way it won’t feel so awkward when you get to your interview, it will feel normal.

Check back soon for the next installment in The Interview Edge.

The Interview Edge: Part I Part II Part III