Reader's question: What employers look for in interviews is what you might call personal chemistry ---- how you look and act, whether you exhibit self-confidence, how you would fit in with other members of the organization. Could you explain “personal chemistry”?

My comments:

In other words, rapport.

Basketball players, for example, talk about building “team chemistry”, the kind of camaraderie on court that enables players to play unselfishly as a well coordinated machine.

In other words, teamwork. With chemistry, players seem to tacitly understand each other, know where teammates are, what their strengths (or weaknesses for that matter) are, where they want to have the ball, etc so that they can seamlessly work together as one coherent piece instead of five players working as five independent individuals.

With personal chemistry in interviews, they’re talking about your ability to develop rapport with your potential employers quickly, thus giving them confidence that you are one for teamwork, able to “fit in with other (existing) members of the organization.”

Perhaps if you have played team basketball in college or high school, it helps.

Perhaps.

Related stories:

Butt-brush effect

Make the cut

Poker face

Win hands down

Out on the street

Fly-by-night

Apple polisher

Might-have-beens

Think the world of

Ante up

Sit on the fence

On top of the world

Button your lip

One for the books

Pass the buck

Raw deal

Fire sale

Spill the beans

Sacred cow

Cheek to jowl

Peaches and cream

Know-it-all

A long shot

Miss the boat

Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

Zhang Xin has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.