Career Cube Blog

What your body language says is often more important than what you say verbally, especially when the two conflict. When they’re in sync, your movements are a reflection of what you’re thinking and what you’re feeling: your conscious and your unconscious. But when they aren’t, the unconscious prevails.

Why? Because while people will make themselves conscious of their words, few are conscious of their feelings and how that translates into body language, much less what that body language is saying. And in an interview, that can result in sending a message opposite what you intend.

A person who was recently fired or laid off is a good example of this dichotomy, especially when the termination takes place for reasons that have little to do with any situation the individual instigated. You did nothing to cause the severance, but you feel responsible anyway.

Since few job seekers know how to put a termination in perspective and handle it appropriately, it comes out how they move and how they conduct themselves. Almost every action is an apology. You knock gently on the door when the administrative assistant says, “Mr. Jackson can see you now.” You not only ask permission to sit, but you ask which chair. You either over explain or under answer.

Instead of speaking smoothly in a relaxed manner, your voice is too loud or can’t be heard. You say “um” or “ah” at the beginning and in the middle of your sentences. Everything about you screams insecure, even though you’re managing to articulate your accomplishments.

The result is that the hiring authority is puzzled as to how you managed to achieve so much, when your manner isn’t conducive to making things happen. It leaves him with a question about you. Hiring authorities don’t like to be left with questions; they want to be 100% confident of who they hire. So you’re out of the picture. Read more

Popularity: 8% [?]

Googling “I hate my job” brings up a depressing website full of people complaining, often hatefully, about what they do for a living. Very few seem to be doing anything except finding fault. Are they expecting to walk into the office one day and find a significant change has taken place?

Job scenarios like these are one reason why it’s so vital to identify the components of your perfect job before you go looking. Understanding the science and psychology of the search process helps you see that through your mental attitude and ensuing choices, you’re the one controlling both the process and the outcome.

It’s generally fear that keeps people where they are: fear of change combined with landing in the same miserable type of environment. If you’ve never had a job you enjoyed, you’ve no reason to believe the next one could be different. But a shift in perspective and you can say, “Maybe every job isn’t bad; maybe it’s how I’m looking for them.”

Once you’ve stopped blaming circumstances outside yourself, then you can take responsibility, be open to finding a new way, and watch your search unfold in a dramatically different manner.

Fear of change, fear of landing in the same situation, fear that you won’t be paid well or enough or more, that it will be too far to drive (the list goes on) are all underlying - and often unconscious - reasons why change doesn’t happen.

It’s the belief that “There’s nothing out there that’s different/better than this,” that’s part of the problem. What you think, what you say, and what you believe is what you manifest, thus the belief perpetuates itself. If that’s what you believe, you won’t look. But how will you find anything if you don’t look? Or if when you look, you find something wrong with every opportunity that catches your eye? Read more

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People form impressions of others based on the smallest details. Perhaps when you read this message line you laughed at how improbable it would be to NOT get a job offer because your handshake was too strong or too weak.

Well, you’re right, it doesn’t work that way. However, it IS one of the details that people use to form an impression of you.

We’ve all been the recipient of those bone-crushing, gee-I’d-like-to-USE-that-hand-in-the-future handshakes. Think about the impression you form of the person who just delivered that blow. Do you consider them too aggressive? Inconsiderate? Powerful? Overcompensating? Overbearing? Are you likely to want to shake hands with them again? They could have a great personality and be a nice person, but nevertheless you form an impression of them from the handshake. That seemingly minor detail you then compile into your mental database to help you make an overall impression of that person.
What about those handshakes that are the typical limp fish? Or, those kind of “fingers-only” handshakes? They leave me with the impression that this person doesn’’t want to get too close to me because I’m somehow contaminated. I never get a warm, friendly, approachable impression of those types of people. I am personally more influenced by the weak vs. the ultra-strong handshake to the point where if I was interviewing them for a customer service position, I would scrutinize their work experiences and resume a little harder to assure myself I was hiring the correct person. All because of a handshake.

It is hard to describe a “perfect handshake”, but I strongly recommend that you practice with a partner who will give you honest and direct feedback about what you are doing wrong. It might seem like a very minor detail, but when you’re interviewing for the perfect position you don’t want to take any chances.

Popularity: 5% [?]