Speak with Confidence and Showcase Your Skills in Job Interviews

I recently saw a post from someone on Quora asking how you can talk about yourself in a job interview without sounding arrogant. Are you wondering the same thing? If so, read on to help improve your interview skills.

Arrogance is a funny thing because it’s a matter of perception. Ask 10 people and you’ll probably get 5 different answers. Ask 10 people from 10 different cultures and you’ll probably get 10 different answers.

The funny thing about perception is that it’s personal, so you don’t know what someone else is thinking. In situations like this, we imagine what people are thinking based on our own perceptions and biases. Essentially, we are just judging ourselves based on what we think other people are thinking about us.

The good news is that you can let it all go. You might think other people are judging you, but they probably aren’t. Most people are paying more attention to themselves and imagining what other people think about them, just like you.

In a job interview, the interviewers are evaluating the skills and competencies you reveal in your stories against what they need to solve the problem(s) they have. You need to be open about what you can do for them, so speak honestly and in-detail about what you have done, what you’d like to do, how you’ve developed and what you’d like to learn.

To speak confidently about your skills in a job interview, keep these three tips in mind while you are preparing stories that showcase your abilities.

1.        Employers need learners, so be sure to talk about how the things you’ve learned have brought you to this place in your career development.

2.        Employers want to know how you handle difficult situations. We learn when we are challenged and when things didn’t go according to plan. So, talk about the challenges you’ve faced, how you overcame them (or didn’t), and what you learned.

3.        Employers are looking for people skills, so don’t forget to tell stories that include other people, collaboration, coordination, how others have helped you and how you have helped them.

If your stories are always about you, how you’re the best, and always saving the day, you won’t be believable. If your stories don’t say anything about the contribution of others to what you’ve learned, you won’t get hired – not because you’re arrogant, but because you’re dishonest.

If you’d like to know more about how to present yourself on paper or in person, download Master Self-Promotion: top Tips for Getting Noticed by Employers

If you have questions about your job search, contact us, or leave a comment below.