Why You Shouldn’t Brag in a Job Interview
Modest bragging is disgusting. But sometimes it seems necessary. For example, in job interviews, we are often asked to answer the dreaded question “what is your greatest weakness” in a dodgy tone, such as “I’m too perfectionist.” People see right through it. Better to either brag openly or talk openly about your weaknesses.
Together with some colleagues, Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino conducted research on humble bragging. They asked a group of subjects to write down how they would answer the question of “greatest weakness” in the interview. More than three-quarters of the subjects responded by trying to reimagine a positive statement as a negative statement – better known as humble bragging . The researchers hired assistants to evaluate the subjects’ responses. Here’s what they found:
Interestingly, this strategy proved to be ineffective: assistants indicated that they would be much less likely to hire humble braggers than those who seemed honest. These results indicate that, during interviews, demonstrating that we are aware of ourselves and are working to improve our performance may be a more effective strategy than modest bragging. After all, real people who are willing to demonstrate their vulnerability are likely to be the type of candidate that interviewees want to hire the most.
In subsequent research, the researchers found that it wasn’t just potential employers that were turned off. Gino says these studies show that people actually prefer braggart and complainer to humble braggart. She reported:
These results seem to suggest that in deciding whether to brag (honestly) or (deceptively) modestly, would-be self-promoters should choose the former – and at least reap the benefits of seeming sincerity … Together, these studies indicate that to an important truth: our intuition about which types of strategies will make a positive impression on others is often wrong. We believe humble bragging will be more effective than simple bragging, when in fact it backfires. And we also believe that meeting the interests and expectations of others will help us look good, when in fact, just being ourselves produces better results.
The old adage “be yourself” may sound boring and boring, but these studies show that it is true. Of course, we talked about how being yourself can backfire if you have personality “quirks”. But that doesn’t mean you should be acting fake either – we suggest taking a closer look at these quirks. The point is that people seem to prefer authenticity, even if that authenticity is negative. To find out more about this, follow the link below.