{"id":276,"date":"2015-03-23T08:17:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T08:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=276"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:58:20","slug":"whats-in-a-handshake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2015\/03\/23\/whats-in-a-handshake\/","title":{"rendered":"Whats in a handshake?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You might think a handshake is straightforward \u2013 you clasp, shake, release \u2013 what could possibly go wrong? Well, here are five types of common handshakes you might want to avoid in an interview:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The floppy fish:<\/strong>\u00a0nerves can play havoc with the best of us and sadly for some this can result in sweaty and clammy palms. The best thing to do is to use the washroom before hand and to wash your hands using cold water. The other alternative is to\u00a0subtly wipe your palm on your clothes to dry them a bit.\u00a0A clammy palm says you are nervous which isn't the message you want to be giving.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The bone crushing\u00a0grip:<\/strong>\u00a0don't take the idea of a 'firm' handshake into\u00a0palm crushing vice like grip! Research by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessballs.com\/body-language.htm#handshakes-body-language\">Businessballs.com<\/a> found that an overly firm grip could indicate a bullying nature. The best thing to do is to practice with friends, if they wince when you shake their hand then tone it down.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The water pump:<\/strong> top marks for enthusiasm but you don't want to give your interviewer whiplash or dislocate their arm. Interviews are all about first impressions and over shaking someone\u2019s hand isn't the most positive of starts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The lingerer: <\/strong>handshakes aren't just about pressure \u2013 duration is important too. A handshake that goes on for too long can become uncomfortable and make the other person feel awkward.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The finger tickler:<\/strong>\u00a0Just pinching the interviewers\u00a0fingers or touching their\u00a0palm with yours is an inadequate handshake and could make you seem rude. If your reluctance to shake hands is as a result of religious or cultural reasons, then be upfront and explain your reasons from the start. This way you'll\u00a0manage any awkwardness on both sides.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think this video by Snagajob is really useful!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Job Interview Tips (Part 13): How To Do The Perfect Handshake\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/koJSeW_kLwo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You might think a handshake is straightforward \u2013 you clasp, shake, release \u2013 what could possibly go wrong? Well, here are five types of common handshakes you might want to avoid in an interview: The floppy fish:\u00a0nerves can play havoc...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[106,44],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-handshake","tag-interviews"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}