Is there a secret sauce to interviewing? In a word, yes.
Confidence.
There it is. And, by confidence, I don’t mean cocky, arrogant confidence.
What is really magical in interviews is authentic confidence that comes from knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know. Having the courage to say, when necessary, “I don’t know the answer to that. Let me get back to you.” It’s being able to give a reasonable assessment of your skills and experience. It’s knowing your work, knowing why it matters and knowing what it contributes. It means knowing your strengths and your weaknesses.
Confidence also derives from developing the competency to communicate your experience to your audience – interviewers, coworkers, bosses – so they fully receive your message and they really see you and internalize the confidence you are projecting.
As Steve Katz, widely known as the first CISO, once noted: If the audience misinterprets the message, it’s not their fault, it’s your fault.
Well said!
Over the years, I have interviewed candidates that I was considering for a client search who would rate themselves a “5” (subject matter expert level) on every technology and skillset on our assessment form. Instant red flag. This was not genuine confidence talking, it was a salesperson. It didn’t take long to learn that these sorts of candidate would crash and burn in client interviews. The hiring leaders would quickly uncover the sales job and lack of skill.
The candidates who actually were SMEs were typically the ones who would say, “I’m pretty good, let’s say a 4, because I know a lot of people who are even better than me.”
Now I started out with interviewing, but projecting and communicating confidence is a professional skill that is also critical for presenting, for networking, for participation in meetings – in short, for all the activities in your life that build and support your professional brand and your professional presence.
“The candidate didn’t have professional presence.” This is the phrase used by HR and Talent Acquisition in their interview feedback when rejecting a candidate that just didn’t carry the day with sufficient confidence.
Professional presence. It’s not a fancy suit or just the right hairstyle. It’s the magic of connecting and engaging with the interviewers via clearly communicated messages and confidence.
I was going to call this article “Humble No More” because there has been a lot of talk in recent career articles about how being humble can sabotage one’s career. I don’t disagree. There is truth to that.
I have heard from a number of candidates over the years who say they “don’t want to toot their own horn,” viewing it as unseemly or arrogant, and risking the perception that they are taking credit for work that was done in a team. Other professionals have told me that if their work is good, it will be recognized; they don’t need to make a point of calling it out.
These beliefs do not help you grow your career.
When people do not articulate their work and the value they add, and promote their own wins as well as those of their team, they miss out. They miss out on potential promotions, miss out on being selected for great projects, and miss out on connecting with mentors and sponsors. Why is that? Mentors and sponsors look for high potential performers to share their limited time with. If you and your work are invisible, they won’t know your professional brand and take you on as a mentee.
But it really isn’t about being either humble or really out there with your self-promotion. It is about knowing your work and your value, and projecting that confidently at work and to the broader social sphere, especially your professional network.
How you do that depends on where you are in your career, the culture of your company (or your department/team), and where you are in the world. Culture is an important determinant of how we communicate the value of our work and the style that reads as “confident and professional” to the people who matter in our world.
One of my clients from France, a finance professional working for an American company, said that in France, she could be very direct in her communication. In France, logic and intellectual sharpness conveyed confidence. In the US, she is finding that to be heard well while projecting her professional competency, she is having to be more sensitive to the interpersonal dynamics in her workplace interactions.
A German professional I know well commented that many Germans respect being well-prepared and methodical; communicating those competencies demonstrates confidence and earns respect. In his work with American tech companies, he learned to communicate in a more casual style that won the trust of clients and still allowed him to project his technical expertise.
Finally, an IT audit director who is Chinese and worked in China before coming to the US found that he had to adjust his communication style in order to be really heard and seen at meetings in the US. He had initially taken the stance of listening carefully and commenting when there was a call for questions toward the end of meetings. To boost his visibility, he prepared for meetings and thought about where he could lend his expertise, and then looked for more openings during meetings to bring his knowledge forward.
There are other factors that come into play in how one projects confidence in communication, such as generational differences and gender differences.
The bottom line: Professionals working to build their career success are attentive to all these factors and are constantly working to improve their communication skills and emotional intelligence in order to project their professional presence and confidence.
You are working to strike a healthy balance between appropriate humility and confidence.
Humility takes the form of giving credit where credit is due and acknowledging when our success hinges on the work of others. Humility is saying I don’t know, and asking for help. Humility is knowing that there are people who know much more than we do, and that we can always learn more. As Einstein famously said “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
The flipside is healthy confidence in your work and accomplishments. You’ve got to toot own horn, not at mega volume but loudly enough so that the people who matter, including interviewers, bosses and potential mentors – hear you and see you. Not doing so can derail your career.
To counteract any tendency to being overly humble and not promoting yourself in a positive way, do these five things:
- Know your work and accomplishments inside and out and how they support the larger mission of the enterprise, your customers, your division, your department and team.
- Inventory your high value skills and talents.
- Understand your weaknesses and what you need to work on.
- Create your vivid, high-impact stories (often called “examples of your work” in interviews) that showcase your accomplishments.
- Practice these stories so you can deliver them with poise and ease.
Once done, you are ready to shine brightly and confidently as you hold your back straight and your head high!