I’ve come across countless articles describing the science of the “perfect handshake”. In fact, almost every how-to-interview article brings up this gem of advice at one point or another. With the amount of confusion circulating on how to correctly shake a hand, it's no wonder that people continue to fail at this simple task. I hope to clear up things a bit by providing an extremely short and definitive guide to pulling off the perfect shake.
You may have read advice such as the following,
"Grip the hand, but not too hard. Be firm, but not too firm. You don't want to hurt anyone!”
"Don’t be a wet noodle! No one wants to shake a floppy hand!"
"No one wants to shake a sweaty hand. Wipe those paws off, son.”
You're being led astray.
My advice: grab their hand and shake the SHIT out of it, as HARD as you can. If their knees aren’t buckling, you’re not gripping hard enough. The secret is the patented "pop" sound. When you hear their hand make an audible popping sound, you'll know you've reached success! Have girly hands? Gain leverage by placing your dominate foot behind you, bringing your elbow into your side, and pushing down on their hand until they’re looking up to you in submission. The key is to drop the mentality of "hand-in-hand", and to start thinking "hand-to-hand". Submission equals success.
Just remember, if they’re not walking away nursing their hand after your encounter, you’ve failed the handshake. Turn around and exit the building -- you sir, are a wiener. Go take a shower.
Finally, you may be thinking -- I don't want to hurt them! Well that kind of mentality smells of failure. Who do you think they're going to remember, the guy who gave them a firm handshake, or the guy who broke their hand. My vote is on the latter.
A perfectly executed handshake.