Ideas on the challenges that most students face when asked to speak "Ex-Tempore" in the interview process.

1. Extempore Speech: Spoken or Performed Without
Preparation, Interview Tips
Extempore speechis usually the first round of an interview. Compared to
the personal introduction round, extempore is more stressful.The stress is
due to the inability of the candidate to say meaningful things about the
given word or phrase, for more than 60 seconds,and less than 120
seconds.That is just one to two minutes, of course! During a real life
situation, it seems to stretch to eternity!
Question: what does the interviewer expect from the candidate in this
round?
Answer:the interviewer wants to screen a large number of sub standard,
below par applicants in a very short period of time. They do not wish to
interview everyone because that is too much work and too time consuming.
In simple words, it is the elimination round.
In this tricky situation then, what strategy should a candidate adopt?
1. Pay attention to your first impression; for example, personal
grooming, professionaldress and gait ( style of walking)
2. Relate the given word or phrase to some positive idea. This
suggestionis based upon the personality projectiontheory from
psychoanalysis.
3. Start by speaking slowly. End slowly as well.
4. Tell a personal story with the human touch.
5. Use humour if you can. Bring emotions, at least.
6. Adopt open& forward body language.
7. Lookat the audience all around, not just at the selector.Don't
avoid eye contact.
8. Work on voice modulation.
9. Smile.
10. Use quotations, commonproverbs,famous sayings for
creating intellectualimpact.

2. Let us discuss these points one by one.
The first point is about first impression.In interview world, there is a
commonerror made by selectors everywhere. It is called the Devil's
horn effect.Sometimesthe interviewer dislikes one aspectof a candidate
so much, that it colours their judgementnegatively. Because of this effect,
even a good candidate may get rejected because of a single factornot
liked by the interviewer. Just make sure that this factor it is not how you
look, walk or talk.
Personality Projection is the conceptthat a candidate can only see or
notice in the world, and the people around, that already lies in the
mind, characters and behaviour of their own. By attributing negative
qualities towards other people, the candidate reveals his or her own
weaknesses.
We need to speak slowly in the beginning because of the stage fear,
nervousness, and anxiety of rejection and fear of failure. The speechof
individuals deteriorates under difficultcircumstances.
The whole world loves a story and no one likes boring lectures.
Humour and emotions make us appear human too, and this influencers
the selectorto be able to relate to us.
Open body language implies that the candidate will not shy away from
looking straight in the eyes of the people.It also means not crossing arms
across chest and even crossing the legs while standing. Closed body
language indicates fear and diffidence,whereas openbody language
shows, an honest and fearless personality. Forward body language is like
leaning towards the personor people you are interacting with. Leaning the
body away, or pointing one of the limbs, or the head away
from people reveals our reluctance to connectto them.
Avoiding eye contact is a sure shot indication of shy and nervous
personality.
Voice modulation is a very simple concept.It requires you to bring
in variety in voice, with the changes in pitch, loudness and speed. The
voice without modulation is known as monotone, which means speaking in
a single tone. Naturally it sounds flat, boring and may convey mental

3. depressionin the applicant, or lack of interest for the job, or the company,
in the candidate.
Smile relaxes your tense facial muscles,jaws and neck muscles.This
improve your appearance, and prevents your speechfrom being affected
by this nervousness.
Quotations of famous people proverbs sayings are pieces of refined
wisdom with which no one can argue. It also shows a certain level of
wisdom and maturity in the candidate.
Finally rememberthat the best method of learning any skill is repeating
that skill so many times, that it becomesa habit and second nature.
However do not go on repeating without expert feedbackand continuous
improvement.Record a video of your performance to see your own
mistakes. Most people are too diplomatic to say anything critical to anyone.
Presentation by Praveen Jha
Senior lecturer
Institute of Hotel Management, Hajipur
District- Vaishali, Bihar
June 15, 2020