Saturday, April 07, 2012
How do I love me? Let me count the ways, and also ace that interview
sciencedaily.com: Narcissism, a trait considered obnoxious in most circumstances, actually pays off big-time in the short-term context of a job interview, according to a new study to be published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Narcissists scored much higher in simulated job interviews than non-narcissists, researchers found. They pointed to narcissists' innate tendency to promote themselves, in part by engaging and speaking at length, which implied confidence and expertise even when they were held to account by expert interviewers.
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5 comments:
Part of acing a job interview is knowing that you are indeed qualified and not being afraid to show it. While this article chose the term "narcissism" to describe this behavior, I think it's more about just having faith in oneself, in our field especially, I have seen through many examples (interviews, presentations, pitches) that if you don't believe in yourself, it's not likely that anyone else will. It is certainly true in acting, where the job search is far too competitive to allow for those who aren't willing to put themselves out there and prove they deserve the role for x y z reasons. That is hard to say in just an audition or brief portfolio review, but int's so important to have that quality, not narcissism, but faith in your skills and strength in self-assertion.
I can see how a narcissist can come off as confident but that shouldn't be the only thing an interviewer looks for. Like the article said, they can end up being difficult to work with in the end which means they weren't the best choice. looking at a resume , discussing what the person has done, and their experience is the most important thing. Once an interviewer likes that, then hopefully they can bring out the best in their personality because that is also very important. I agree that staying away from a narcissist is a good decision. Someone that is too into themselves will tend to not be a team player.
I think that the author of this article is confused. They pretend like they are saying that only narcissists can talk about themselves a lot. But what they end up really meaning is that anyone that can not back down when confronted and who is really actually very good at positively portraying themselves will be a narcissist. I don't really see it that way I see it more as self-esteem and confidence which one would assume most good interviewees would have. Also the most important part of interviewing is just showing all your best parts and hiding or masking anything that is not that great.
Portraying yourself in the best light, and advertising yourself are two things that I've learned are mandatory in making an interview successful. Though I disagree with the fact that only narcissists are successful in interviews, I feel that people who have a better view on themselves do far better than those with a more negative perspective of what they're capable of. Interviewing was initially a challenge for me, but is something that I am working on, and improving upon. I think that what I can take away from this article is the importance of believing in your best qualities before, during, and after the interview process.
I am not sure that the author is saying only narcissists are good in job interviews. "Narcissists scored much higher in simulated job interviews than non-narcissists" is not a statement about individuals, it is a statement about the groups. Not all narcissists are better at job interviews than non-narcisissts. But I would not be surprise to find that as a group narcissists are better at job interviews. They are likely to have fewer lower scores which bring down a statistical group. And they do talk themselves up a bit more, even when challenged. This could be a difficult trait to work with, but if the person recognizes it, they can conscientiously work against it; but in the heat of an interview instincts come out, and narcissists have more natural and quicker self-promotion and "challenge accepted" responses.
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