Speaking Confidently From Your Beliefs

Being able to engage effectively with employers in an interview is a common job seeker hurdle.

I often hear questions around “what to say” or “how to impress” an employer, almost as though interviewing is some sort of game with cheat codes that you can learn to boost your chances of “winning.” 

However, it’s often how we are speaking and where our words are coming from in an interview that create the winning conditions for a job seeker.

Instead of being stuck in your head trying to find the right words to say, it’s more striking to come from somewhere deeper: to come from your beliefs.

Your belief in your ability to find, understand and solve the employer’s problems.

Your belief in your ability to build and nurture relationships with the strangers who would become your colleagues.

Your belief that the employer needs you as much as (if not more than) you need them.

Your belief in being the employer’s guide, while letting them play the hero in the hiring story. (You never want to be the hero in the hiring process.)

Your belief that if this opportunity doesn’t work out, there will be other opportunities that come your way down the road.

What I’ve learned from writing these last 100 weekly emails (some admittedly better than others!) and producing almost 80 podcast episodes, is the impact that consistently exploring and expressing your thoughts has on your beliefs, and in turn your confidence.

The more you write and speak publicly – the more often you show up for others – the more you get to know about yourself and what you can really do for the people you want to help.

So if you feel a lack of confidence in interviews, it may be time to focus your energy on exploring and deepening your beliefs.

Maybe it’s time to start that blog, podcast or YouTube channel that forces you to show up regularly and present yourself to the world.

Or take on a volunteer position that puts you outside your comfort zone.

Or dust off that journal and begin diving into your thoughts and feelings a bit more, learning about how you’re wired as a human being (not just a job seeker!).

Tell your stories, while asking more curious, open-ended questions of yourself and others. Lean more into your growth mindset and believe that your beliefs can evolve.

When it finally comes time to present yourself to an employer, you simply take what you’ve already learned about yourself, the organization, and the way you can solve their problems, and share it in a two-way conversation where both sides have the pleasure of discovering one another.

Listening carefully, asking curiously, and speaking confidently from your beliefs.

Those are the real cheat codes.