Are you actually interested enough?

"To be seen as interesting, you must first be interested."

This is probably one of the most valuable people skills provided by Dale Carnegie in "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

Many people have this concept backwards.

Many people think that being the smartest or most experienced person in the room makes you the most interesting.

On the contrary, however, we as human beings are more naturally attracted to people who seem genuinely interested in us!

If you want to be more likable, more respected or more appealing as a professional or a person, become more genuinely interested in other people.

This skill can also become your secret weapon if you're a job seeker.

How?

If you're pursuing a role, seek out people within the company who are close to the role you want.

When reaching out to them, show genuine interest in who you are speaking to first. Ask questions about them, their role, the company, etc. The more you show a genuine interest in them, the more they will be interested in you.

Moreover, the more insight you're able to gain about the company, team or role, the more you'll understand what they need to succeed. You can discover the pain points they need help mitigating or the problems they need solutions for.

It should be pretty well known at this point that the job candidate who offers the most value to a role is usually the one who is hired.

But in order to offer value, we must first understand what the role or the team actually needs.

That's where being INTERESTED comes into play.

Being interested makes you infinitely better with people. It attracts people to you on a subconscious level and elevates your sense of importance in their own mind without even needing to try to impress them.

Many people try to force it. They try too hard to be INTERESTING and end up turning people off.

Become a better listener. Remember people's names. Remember pieces of information that are normally swept away as "small talk."

Become a master of influence by zeroing in on one of the deepest-rooted desires of human nature: to be seen, heard and understood.

If you can demonstrate a strong ability to see, hear and understand someone, you will automatically be perceived as more interesting.

And being interesting is a major key to being selected for an interview or landing a job!

Need some help with this concept?

If it makes sense to you but you’re not quite sure how to implement this into your job search, I’ve built a networking strategy program that will teach you exactly how to land more interviews with this skill.

Unsure if this is what you need to finally land more interviews?

Let’s talk about it.

P.S. We’re still helping automate your job application process so you don’t have to apply on your own. (No, seriously. We’ll do it for you.)