Interview nerves affect people in different ways. Some people speak very softly, some talk too fast and start gabbling, others become hesitant and leave long gaps between words. Some people stammer under pressure and some just answer briefly, replying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ whenever possible, rather than speaking up about themselves. None of these responses is helpful in an interview.
We have already noted that the whole purpose of your being invited along is for the interviewer to find out as much as possible about you in the time available. Short, quiet, babbled or hesitant answers will not suffice. Of course, any experienced interviewer will make allowances for initial nerves, but will expect you to settle down to the task in hand fairly quickly.
In the interview, just try to imagine that you are talking to someone you know fairly well, and speak in a relaxed and easy manner. Normally, the longer you worry about getting every word and phrase exactly right, the more tangled up you become. Pauses sound fine as part of ordinary speech and are preferable to ‘ums’ and ‘ers’. Pauses only become a problem if they are excessively long, in which case an interviewer may not realise when you have finished speaking. If you know that you are prone to leaving such gaps in the conversation, you could mark the end of your answer by saying something like: ‘Those are the main points that I want to make.’
Many of us speak with a regional accent of some kind. It is one of the things about ourselves that we cannot change, or at least not without a great deal of effort. Do not feel self conscious about the way you speak. It is an important part of who you are and different accents add variety and interest to the way we sound. However, if you are worried that your accent may mean that you are not understood in interviews, try to enunciate clearly, speak slowly and limit your use of local words and phrases if their meaning will not be clear outside your own community.