Right now you might think you have read absolutely everything about making a good impression during an interview.

The odds are, though, that what you are about to read will turn your ideas upside down. Especially, if you believe that an impressive track record and the ability to unabashedly highlight your accomplishments will guarantee you success.

Check out “The Surprising Secret to Selling Yourself”  and use the knowledge to your advantage! May the force be with you.

Glossary

• shortage of – lack of
• for the love of Pete = for the love of Jesus
• bias – prejudice against something
• ingenious – clever, original
• inherently – by nature
• figure something out – understand it
• in-depth – comprehensive and thorough
• pitch – e.g. a speech to persuade someone about something

Think about it

Based on the text answer the following questions. Leave your answers in the comments below!

• What is typical advice on making a good impression?
• Describe the sets of “ingenious studies” referred to in the text.
• What did the results of the studies prove?
• Why do people find risk more interesting?
• What advice does the author give on how to improve your pitch?

Practice makes perfect

In the sentences below replace the phrases in bold with the expressions from the original text. Leave your answers in the comments below!

• There is a lot of advice out there on how to impress somebody — impress well enough to get you a new job, score a promotion, or bring in that profitable sales lead.
• We have a prejudice — one that operates below our conscious awareness — causing us to favor the potential for greatness over someone who has already achieved it.
• In this case, they compared ideas about someone with two years of relevant experience who got many points on a test of leadership achievement, versus someone without related experience who scored highly on a test of leadership potential.
• And this is not, incidentally, a camouflaged preference towards the young.
• When human brains are faced with uncertainty, they are likely to focus on information more because they want to comprehend it, which triggers longer and more thorough processing.

Fill in the blank spaces with the correct form(s) of the words listed below.

• perception – (verb) ________, (adjective) _________
• pay – (noun) ________
• achieve – (adjective) ________
• prefer – (noun) ________
• impressive – (verb) ________

• There was a ________ decline in public support.
• No matter how hard you try, it’s almost impossible to _________ Bob.
• He was quick to ________ the danger and backed out of the venture.
• He had a strong ________ for the other candidate.
• These objectives are rather ________ provided we get down to work now.
• He got a discount for ________ in cash.

Explore it more

Some examples of sales pitch:

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