Advanced interview technique: Tweak your authority level

During any interview process, you can tweak several non-verbal variables to signal different ideas about yourself.

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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 fewer words
• Nodding less often
• Smiling less often

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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

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More authoritative people signal more competence, but this comes at the tradeoff of appearing warm and humble.

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Conversely, less authoritative people signal less competence, but this comes with the benefit of appearing warm and humble.

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A good way to figure out if you need to signal more or less authority during interviews is to reflect on past experiences.

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If you typically get rejected from interviews because people think you’re under-qualified / incompetent / a pushover, you may want to signal more authority.

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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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-Kareem