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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