Confidence or Arrogance? ??

There is a slight difference between being confident and arrogant and you should be aware of the difference if you are looking for a new job opportunity.

I have a friend that is incredibly hard-working and well-skilled in her area. She was struggling to find a new role when she was unemployed. I couldn't believe she was having difficulty because she was an outstanding professional and any company would be lucky to have her onboard.

We had a couple of conversations about her situation and I realised my friend was the victim of being overly modest ??. Although she was an amazing and very capable professional, she didn't want to oversell herself and be perceived as a show off. This resulted in the interviewers always coming to the conclusion that she was under-qualified for their roles.

She was a "fantastic candidate" that positioned herself as just an "okay candidate" at interviews

Have you ever experienced a similar situation in your career?

It's essential to recognise what are your strengths are. After all, you have worked hard to improve your skills, haven't you? There is nothing wrong with this and you must learn how to set aside the modesty and sell yourself with the abilities you have developed.

I recently read an article about the difference between confidence and arrogance and the author explained that someone confident just feels competent from the inside out and uses their talents to genuinely try to succeed and help others succeed with their daily challenges. Someone arrogant on the other hand only feels intelligent if someone else feels stupid, they want to feel superior and they find it easier to depreciate others instead of building their own growth steps.

With this clear difference in mind, let's practice confidence?

?? Write down every single compliment you heard from your colleagues, teachers, friends and relatives. They are crucial to remind you of your strengths and help you to see some skills that may even you haven't realised you have.

?? Review your CV and the projects you have worked in and consider all of the problems you were able to solve through your career. This will give you confidence in regards to your competence and will enable you to be more prepared to speak to your competencies at interview.

?? Understand and be ready to explain your weaknesses (I prefer to call them areas of development) and what you have learned from your mistakes. Nobody is perfect. Understand what skills you have to improve and plan how you will work to improve in these key areas.

The more prepared for the interview you are, the more confident you will come across and less arrogant you will look.

So what happened to my friend? I know you are curious ??

Nathalia is still one of the most modest people I know, but she has now learnt that she can be confident without being arrogant and most importantly, she knows that real knowledge about yourself is indispensable. She is confident sharing with others the extraordinary things she can do, but all with kindness and humility. Her career is developing fast and most importantly, she feels way more prepared and ready to tackle the next phase because of this ??

I hope this article helps you recall the amazing things you have done, or crystallises the things that you are capable of doing for your next employer, all while enabling you to feel more confident selling yourself at interviews and help you land that dream job.

Now, the rest is up to you. Go out and win in these areas! ??

My name is Edineia (most call me Gigi. It’s easier!). I am the talent Sourcing Manager for Hyre NZ. We specialise in Digital and Technology solutions for our clients and we love good content, be that great jobs, articles of interest and giving back to the Tech community with tips and trick to hack your job search. I love to connect with people in the Digital / Tech and truly believe that we operate in one of the most exciting sectors with companies that are changing the world we live in. Would love to connect with you if you enjoyed this article. You never know when we may be able to help each other in the future. ??