Looking for a job? Use this one superpower you didn’t know you had.

by Outside-In® Team Member Kelly Hocutt

Have you ever asked or been asked, “if you could have one superpower, what would it be?” My guess is that you have. But, have you ever applied this question to searching for a job? Perhaps — “If you could have one superpower to land your dream job, what would it be?” This has to be pretty common as well. It’s only natural to daydream about ideal job search scenarios when you’re beginning to feel desperation after weeks or months of searching for a job. So, what superpower would you wish for?

Would you want to read the interviewer’s thoughts so that you could formulate your answers or change your interview behaviors based on his or her negative thoughts about you?

Or would you wish for time travel capabilities so you could go into the future to see what the process looked like and what questions would be asked of you?

There are plenty of fun superpowers that would be pretty neat to have to help land a job. But while tackling every step of the hiring process, from getting noticed to landing the job is hard to accomplish, you don’t need any superhuman powers. Everyone has an inner superpower to help score a job. But not every job seeker whips this one out of their quiver.

A few years ago at a TED conference, Amy Cuddy clued people in on this skill in her talk, “Your body language shapes who you are.” She introduced the idea of “power posing,” and how our body language can change how we see ourselves. She shared that when people stand in a posture of confidence, even when they don’t feel confident, the posture can affect the chemicals in the brain, which then makes you feel more confident.

Amy recommends you use this to your advantage in social situations where you are being evaluated. And what could be better time than an interview or hiring process to use the power pose? (Time: 12:50) The published research recommends finding 2 minutes before your interview to stand in a power pose. The high power posers were recorded as being more confident, passionate, enthusiastic, authentic, comfortable and captivating when compared to the low power posers. These are all things that are found more appealing to hiring managers and interviewers.

Will you give a power pose a try?