Is it alright to say good afternoon Sirs and Madams in a panel interview?rdis T idf 8i jhinnkds
I will be attending a panel interview (by 2 men and 2 women). I don't know their names. I want to be more polite, but I am not sure whether it is alright to
say good afternoon Sirs and Madams
in the panel interview?
Thank you!
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3As context is everything, what country is the interview in? And what sector (Academic, technical, creative, ...)? – jonathanjo 14 hours ago
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3And what country? This completely depends on context and culture. – Lightness Races in Orbit 6 hours ago
4 Answers
At an interview, you should not be too effusive with your greeting, or too verbose (unless invited by a leading question intended to draw you out). The interview panel makes the moves, so I suggest you be polite and uncontroversial.
Good morning / afternoon
is sufficient, with a brief look around the interviewers to make it clear you are greeting them all, and wait for them to take the lead.
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I totally agree with Weather Vane. If you started of with good afternoon Sir(s) and Madam(s) in any of my interviews you would have been quickly finished. The last thing someone wants to employ is a person full of B.S. and this is how it would come over. Unless you already know the leading member of the panel you should be courteous and polite but follow the lead given by the panel. Not over confident, not arrogant, not servile but also not afraid of the panel. – Brad 5 hours ago
When politely greeting one person, we can say "good morning/afternoon/evening", and possibly add "sir" for a man, or "madam" for a woman, although these are now very old-fashioned in Western countries, except for e.g. royalty, judges in court, etc. "Sir" and "madam" do not have plurals. To greet a group, mixed in gender, we can say "Good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen." ("ladies" always comes first).
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3Of course you're correct in what you say, but I'd comment that "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen" sounds like a performer addressing an audience rather than an interviewee addressing a panel. – jonathanjo 14 hours ago
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1I don't agree. It sounds fine to me for an interview panel, if a little over-formal. The point was to make it clear that "sirs" and "madams" are totally wrong. Just saying "Good afternoon", and looking at the panel and smiling would work fine, in fact. – Michael Harvey 14 hours ago
No, we tend not to use the plurals "sirs" or "madams".
In general, never use "sir", unless you are actually a servant or inferior of the person (for example in school to a teacher, or in a shop to a client). In a job interview you are being interviewed as a colleague, and so an equal.
You would just say "Good afternoon", no need for anything else. Greet each person individually making eye contact and with a confident smile. It is quite common at an interview for the first thing to be "introductions". The panel introduces themselves and tells you their names and roles. You might even get business cards. It is quite polite to use people's names, though you might use "Mr Smith" or "Ms Jones" to remain formal.
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3In Southern America “sir”, “miss” and “ma’am” (not madam) are perfectly polite, informal and friendly between people of equal station. I often say “Thank you, sir/ma’am” to customer service folks, or “Excuse me sir/ma’am” to get the attention of a stranger. It may be tricky for a learner to get the hang of, so I don’t know if I would recommend using it, but they probably should be aware of it. This is somewhat related Is calling someone 'ma'am' offensive? Does it make any difference to calling someone 'madam'? – ColleenV♦ 13 hours ago
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1@ColleenV It's best to avoid "sir" or "madam" altogether in the UK, because using it to somebody of lower station (or if you want to imply that somebody is of lower station than yourself) can be used as an insult. – alephzero 6 hours ago
In the UK I have very frequently and over many years been in meetings that begin with somebody addressing the group relatively formally. If they happened all to be men, no problem: "Gentlemen" does the trick. If all were women:"Ladies" is perfect . Likewise if there were several men and women "Ladies and Gentlemen" would be quite correct. But what do you say if there is only one woman? Far too frequently I have heard some kind of embarrassed "Er, Lady... and Gentlemen", on the false basis that the singular of "Ladies" is "Lady".
The correct form has to be "Madam, and Gentlemen". If she were there on her own (and recall that we are being formal here) you would address her as "Madam". That is not changed by the presence alongside her of men. The plural of "Madam" is "Ladies".
