Advanced interview technique: Tweak your authority level

During any interview process, you can tweak several non-verbal variables to signal different ideas about yourself.

Doing any of the following will make you seem more authoritative:

• Speaking more slowly

• Deepening your voice

• Lowering the intonation at the end of your sentences (i.e. do not end your sentences as if you’re asking for a question)

• Breathing more deeply

• Saying less words

• Nodding less often

• Smiling less often

Conversely, doing the opposite will make you seem less authoritative:

• Speaking more quickly

• Increasing your voice pitch

• Increasing the intonation at the end of your sentences (i.e. ending your sentences as if you’re asking for a question)

• Breathing less deeply

• Saying more words

• Nodding more often

• Smiling more often

More authoritative people signal more competence, but this comes at the tradeoff of appearing warm and humble.

Conversely, less authoritative people signal less competence, but this comes with the benefit of appearing warm and humble.

A good way to figure out if you need to signal more or less authority during interviews is to reflect on past experiences.

If you typically get rejected from interviews because people think you’re under-qualified / incompetent / a push over, you may want to signal more authority

Conversely, if you typically get rejected from interviews because people think you’re cold / arrogant / egotistical, you may want to signal less authority

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