#JobSearch : How To Appear More Intelligent: 5 Ways To Look Smarter Than You Are. It’s Only Natural to Want to Impress Someone on your Next Job Interview.
It’s only natural to want to impress someone on your next job interview. However, trying to appear more intelligent may not be the smartest move. When your reach exceeds your grasp, it makes you look desperate. And trying to look smarter than you are can blow up in your face. But, with the current job market, most people are looking for an edge. Everyone wants to appear more intelligent, and therefore more valuable, to an employer. Authenticity – being yourself – is always the smartest choice for the interview.
So how can you let your intelligence shine through, and appear more intelligent when the stakes are high? Here’s the smartest way to convey what you’ve accomplished, in the career conversation.
1- Never Do This in the Job Interview: It’s counter-intuitive, but using big and fancy words isn’t helping your cause. As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it.” Life is complicated enough, especially in this day and age.
Don’t try to reach for impressive words. Sure, you want to demonstrate that you understand the jargon of your industry. But what do you think the company is looking for: someone who can complicate a process and make it denser and harder to understand? A convoluted conversation isn’t helping your cause. Simplify your speech, if you want to access opportunity. Instead of trying to impress someone, why not try to serve them instead? Why not choose the words that will help everyone the most? Because if your words are impressive, but you don’t get the job, well, how smart is that?
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2- Learn to listen. It’s been said that EQ is more important than IQ. EQ stands for emotional intelligence. That means your ability to sense and read the emotions of others, while maintaining control over your own emotional state. The only way to raise your EQ is by learning to listen. Can you hear that?
Sometimes thoughtful consideration is the most important part of the conversation. When would your silence speak volumes for you? Intelligence comes to those who listen for it. If you’re running your mouth 100% of the time in the interview, how is that helping your cause? Consider that the questions you ask – and the way you process the employer’s answers – shows your emotional intelligence. And gets you closer to the job.
3- Remember this: A lot of what is considered “intelligence” is just good memory. In the job interview process, have key metrics and data at your fingertips. It’s easy to memorize pieces of information – which ones are going to help you most? Make a list of key numbers that you can share: how many people you supervised, how many social media followers you gained, how much revenues you brought in to the company last year…you get the idea. But don’t forget the importance of synthesis: how you bring facts and figures to bear on current issues is where higher-level thinking shows up. Data alone is never enough. Be sure to connect the facts from the past to the solutions of the future.
4- Tell the truth. If you need to be someone you’re not in order to get this job, it’s never going to work. Building your career on posing, or clever fiction, is the opposite of intelligence. The most powerful conversation is based on honesty. What’s the most honest thing you can share, right now? How can you turn trust into a super-power? If you want to appear more intelligent and smart, tell it like it is. Honestly, you’re going to be hired for your insights, and the way that you share them, so don’t rely on alternative facts to build your career.
5- Don’t Tell People You Are Smart. That’s the dumbest thing ever. Have you ever met someone who went to a particular school and they can’t go five minutes without mentioning that fact? Or maybe someone who grew up in a particular town who wants to make sure you never forget it. That kind of repetitive personal branding is exhausting and counter-productive, especially in the job interview process. Telling people how smart you are invites suspicion: if you’re so smart, why are you constantly advertising it?
The key to the interview is to stop telling people about your history, and start demonstrating it. The easiest way to go from telling to showing is through a single word. Here it is: because. It’s because you went to school at Northwestern that you’ve discovered something…something about your area of expertise…something about yourself…something about leading teams. Get it? The word “because” can help connect your interviewer to your past experience. Be relevant, not redundant, if you want to make the smartest move.
Success comes to those who prepare for it. Just as you have curated your background on LinkedIn, consider how your background appears on a video call. An intelligent person would be deliberate about how they show up in an interview. Even though nobody can see you from the waist down, research shows that wearing professional attire helps your focus and concentration (two aspects of intelligence).
Don’t fall into the trap of restating your background, in an effort to establish credibility. Consider this prompt instead, as a starting point for your next job interview: “Let me share with you something that’s not on my resumé…” Start by looking in the direction of service, and choose the words that will serve your employer in the most powerful way. Because demonstrating how you can create solutions is the most intelligent thing a smart candidate can offer.
Forbes.com | September 16, 2020 | Chris Westfall
