People Who Use This Interview Trick Always Get The Job, According To Research
How can you increase your chances of getting a job? By doing this.
Alliance Images | Canva What can you do to get your dream job? You have to dress the part, have the right experience, and show off your personality to make sure you're the right fit.
But you also might want to focus on using your voice.
A 2015 study found that job placers think people are smarter, more competent, and more thoughtful if they get to hear the candidate's voice.
The study formed these conclusions after having people create a pitch for the company that was interviewing them. Some wrote the pitches, while others recorded themselves saying them.
The evaluators rated those who had recorded their pitches as more intelligent and competent.
"Although text-based communication media such as email may be a quick and easy way to connect with potential employers, our experiments suggest that voiceless communication comes with an unexpected inferential cost. A person's voice, it seems, carries the sound of intellect," write the authors of the study.
Why would hearing a pitch be better than reading a pitch? Researcher Nicholas Epley has an answer for that.
He says that in addition to being a way for one to communicate their thoughts and ideas, a person's speech conveys their ability to think, as well as the high capacity they have for reasoning, thoughtfulness, and intellect. The evaluators who heard the pitch subsequently rated the candidate as more intelligent, thoughtful, and competent than the evaluators who only read a transcript of the pitch; the evaluators who watched the video pitch did not rate any differently than those who heard the pitch.
So, if you have a way to speak to the people doing the hiring, do that instead of shooting them an email.
Researchers believe that your voice might come across better because employers can hear your charm.
"Pitch variance can convey enthusiasm, interest, the active deliberation whereas a monotone voice sounds dull and mindless. Indeed, one reason why text may not convey a person's intellect is that readers do not spontaneously add pitch variance or other paralinguistic cues into written text," explains the authors.
The researchers did another experiment, and the results showed that the evaluators who listened to trained actors reading job candidates' written pitches out loud believed those candidates to be more intelligent and had a higher chance of being hired compared to evaluators who read candidates' own written pitches and didn't hear them from a trained actor's mouth.
It turns out, that even professional recruiters were more likely to hire a candidate because they heard their pitch and didn't read it.
If you have to talk to them about getting your foot in the door, don't be afraid to add your enthusiasm about the job.
Nicole Weaver is a senior writer for Showbiz Cheat Sheet whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more.