Fake it till you become it

Body language matters. Non-verbal communication is at least as important as what you actually say, especially during job interviews. What is the point of trying to convince someone when your body language isn’t in line with whatever you say? You have to be confident. But what if you are too nervous, or suddenly feel too intimidated to give all the answers like you prepared them. You should try power posing!

Say what? Power posing. That is what Amy Cuddy talks about in her TEDx talk. Dominant people tend to use dominant poses. They make themselves big and take up space. On the other hand, people who feel powerless tent to make themselves small and try not to stand out. These low-power poses are not going to make you feel better, I can tell you. So can you actually feel more confident if you pretend to be supermen/woman before you go for your interview? Well, yes. I will let the power posing expert explain for herself; watch her TEDx talk here. The main message: don’t fake it till you make it, but fake it till you become it! Power pose and it will make you feel more confident. 

I know I can be confident. I’ve been told I can even be intimidating sometimes.. Sorry, I didn’t mean to. Whenever I have such a mind-set I can deal with stressful situations much better than usual. Someone else is less likely to make me feel insecure or intimidated. I am much more relaxed. When something unexpected happens I can quickly deal with it. And when important information is told I can actually listen to it (all of it), process it, think about it AND be critical about it within seconds. I actually feel powerful. Only the awesome soundtrack is missing..

On the other hand, I also know what it feels like to be very insecure, shy and intimidated. It especially happens when I don’t want it to happen, when I have been mentally preparing for something important – like a job/PhD interview. And it is true, while mentally preparing I don’t want anyone to bother me. I make myself small. I disappear into my own little world, and maybe that is exactly what I shouldn’t be doing. At least, not on the day of the interview itself.

This week is different from other weeks, because I am not sitting at home for a change. I am working for a week, through a recruitment agency. It’s just a one week job and the work is completely irrelevant: I monitor how many people are using their offices and what they are doing. No life science at all, although it is in a research building. People are curious and a little scared, because if they don’t use their offices often enough there might be consequences. That gives me a powerful feeling actually, although I don’t decide if and what is going to change. My body language is confident and open all the time, and that has already worked in my favour. Random people have started conversations with me and have asked me how I ended up doing this job. Shortly after explaining I am actually looking for a job in life sciences they suggested I could work in their labs. Today I actually spoke to two of the team managers and they gave me a copy of an upcoming vacancy. I was also contacted by recruitment agency in clinical research this week after I responded to one of their vacancies. I was very confident while I was on the phone during lunch break, and I was calm enough to quickly think things through and ask a few very important and detailed questions that probably gave them an even better impression of me. I think the powerful and confident feeling I had since Monday definitely played a role. Meanwhile I keep playing awesome soundtracks in my head.