Your words, phrases & body language reflect your attitude. Unless you are an award-winning actor or a con-artist extraordinaire, it’s very difficult to disguise your underlying attitude in your verbal and non-verbal communication. If you lack confidence, then you may not realize it but you’re saying subtle, tell-tale things like, “I’m hoping you’ll see how effective I can be at such and such” or “If given a chance, I’ll show you what I can do.” Instead of, “I’m confident you’ll see how effective I am at such and such” or “I look forward to showing you what I can do.”
A candidate I interviewed once sent an email to the hiring manager in which he wrote (and I quote) “I had a great meeting with Angela Loeb this morning and I am confident she will give you positive feedback. If this is true, I want to see if we can meet again to discuss a few questions that I have.” Did you catch it? He let slip how he is NOT confident in the second sentence when he said, “If this is true…”
Okay, so you find yourself in an interview with someone you barely know. You think they hold all the power because they have a job to offer. Let me assure you that they don’t hold ALL the power because you are in control of how YOU think and feel about yourself, about the company, about the potential job. When you feel desperate or uncomfortable about your qualifications, you project low confidence. When you do this – whether you and the interviewer realize it or not – you have just placed the interviewer into a position of power over you. A meaningful interview should not be about who has the power during the conversation. A meaningful interview should be a quality exchange of information that helps you and the employer determine if it’s a good idea to enter into a business relationship with each other.
Choose to be different from the rest of the candidates the interviewer meets. What that takes is reworking your thoughts so the words that come out of your mouth assure the hiring manager you’re the one they’ve got to have on the team.
Here’s something to consider as you work on shifting your mindset: Just as you are being interviewed by the prospective employer so they can determine if they should hire you, you are also determining if the prospective employer is who you want to work for.