Job hunting is never fun, and even the thought of updating your resume can fill you with dread. But what if we told you that there was a way to hack your next interview and strike the delicate balance between showcasing your skills without coming off as an arrogant bastard? Luckily, psychologists have the answer. It may be.
Recent research shows that humorous boasting is an effective way to highlight your abilities while making someone actually want to hire you. The trick is to mix raw self-promotion with humor to counteract the discomfort most of us feel when forced to talk about ourselves.
“To overcome this awkwardness, we have found ourselves using humor from time to time. Intrigued by this, we have realized that we need to prove our abilities and at the same time appear likable and relatable. “We saw the potential of humor as a strategy to overcome the dilemma of balancing this,” said lead author Jieun Pai, assistant professor at Imperial College London Business School. Cypost.
The study was split into four separate studies, with the first focused on scary resumes. The team created two fictitious resumes that were identical in all respects, except one contained a humorous boast and the other was simpler.
The two resumes were sent to 345 companies, and the researchers measured interest in the hypothetical candidates through website visits and contacts from recruiters.
Resumes with sarcasm like “I'll get more done if you offer me coffee” get 3x more responses; humor can help get employers' attention in a crowded job market. It was suggested that this may be an effective method.
The next part of the study focused on job interviews. The volunteers were asked to pretend to be the manager of a restaurant hiring a pastry chef, and he was given two interview transcripts to evaluate. Again, one had some humorous comments thrown in, and the other simply summed up the candidate's experience.
Candidates who brag about their humor are perceived as warmer and more competent, and evaluators are more likely to offer the job to that hypothetical person. That doesn't mean you need to tell jokes at every opportunity. Unless you're interviewing for a job as a stand-up comedian, that gets old fast. But just one funny comment can give him an edge.
“One of the most surprising elements of our findings was that just one line of self-enhancing humor can have a huge impact on outcomes,” Pai told PsyPost.
The study then examined entrepreneurs' pitches from television shows. shark tank, examining trends in investment offers as a function of humor within pitches. Researchers focused exclusively on male entrepreneurs from the show's first four seasons (154 total pitches) and found that using humorous boasts within a pitch was significantly more likely to result in an investment. Did.
The final part of the study looked at distinguishing humorous boasting from other types of humor in interviews and confirmed that humorous boasting is the magic formula, especially when you want to stand out from the interview crowd.
Although these findings are interesting, the authors acknowledge that the study has some limitations.
“While our study shows the positive effects of boasting humor, the big caveat is context and execution,” Pai explained. Humor must be carefully tailored to the situation, and what may work in a job interview in one field may not work in another. Cultural and social factors should also be considered. Simply put, not everyone has the same sense of humor.
So the next time you fill out a job application, consider adding some casual humor here and there. However, it does not need to be included in every line, and may not be included if it is likely to be misleading. Unless, of course, you're actually interviewing to become a stand-up comedian. If so, please depart with our blessings.
The study is published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
[H/T: PsyPost]