Not all psychopaths are killers. Many career professionals with psychopathic tendencies will quickly reach the grade of their sector, often kicking people in the face on their rise to the top.
Psychopaths are often found in top-level positions in industries including the finance sector, medical professions and sale roles. One in four people in your workplace could be a psychopath but rarely does the none psychopath recognize the psychopath’s traits, allowing these master manipulators to gain promotion after promotion.
But how do psychopaths win over the interviewer? How do psychopaths quickly climb the career ladder, winning job offer after offer? What do psychopaths do differently in the job interview, and can you learn from these persuaders?
You can use these 5 psychopathic traits to win over your next interviewer.
The Psychopathic Interview
Psychopaths have particular traits which they use blatantly during the interview process. This devilish designed manipulates the interview, stopping you the none psychopath, from being recruited, while helping the psychopath rise through the ranks gaining pay rise after pay rise, promotion after promotion.
Superficial Charm.
The Interview Psychopath wears a well-fitted interview mask, mimicking the employer’s personality or creating a charming front that wins the interviewer over.
This confident charming persona, which is not their real personality, creates strong rapport and likeability. The psychopath will uncover the employer’s values, likes and interests and state how he himself enjoys these same passions and preferences the interviewer’s likes.
To learn from the psychopath you also have to be charming and confident. Research has shown how a warm smile creates positive feelings in the recipient. Create a conversation to find commonality with the interviewer which increases likeability.
A Grandiose Self-Perception.
Psychopaths truly believe they are smarter and more powerful than they actually are. This belief system oozes confidence and confidence is a key quality to winning job interviews.
The psychopath will give examples of past projects, explaining how they achieved the contract KPIs, how they increased profits and how they rallied the team to meet the deadline. The psychopath is happy to blow their own trumpet, and in the eyes of the psychopath their musical instrument is massive.
Take a leaf out of the psychopath book and throughout the interview shout about your achievements, don’t shy away and minimize your effort, instead make it clear that it was you who was the pivotal person that achieved the desired outcome
Deceits and lies.
Most people feel bad when lying, but the psychopath is highly comfortable creating a perfect picture of themselves which may be far from the truth. No matter what the employer requires, the psychopath has the experience, whichever skill is essential the psychopath has in abundance and however the employer approaches task, the psychopath has the same work ethic
Now, we won’t suggest that you lie as this can have implications during your employment. Instead you need to think about previous roles and look at what skills are transferable, how you have approached work different in similar organizations and how your hobbies have given you a new set of qualities and make these fit the interviewer’s essential criteria.
An Absence of Emotions.
The psychopath lacks emotions, they don’t feel guilty when lying, or remorse when taking credit for other people’s achievements and the psychopath rarely feels nervous in the interview process.
The psychopath, who always feels superior, looks down on the interviewer increasing their personal feeling of power. The psychopath sees the interview as game, a place to manipulate and deceive, an arena to show off and to showcase his talents.
For many, interview nerves kill the interview. You don’t need to go as far as the psychopath but you can create a new perception of the interview. Instead of one where the all-powerful interviewer questions you, demanding to know the answer, you can frame the interview as a place where you are an authority, an expert and industry specialist, and this person talking to you, wants to learn from you, they want to know why you are so successful and how you always achieve KPIs.
Never Being Wrong.
The psychopath rarely admits to being wrong, making mistakes or errors. In a promotional interview situation the psychopath will quite confidently put the blame on others, highlight colleagues shortcomings and explain how other peoples errors where the catalyst for the failure in the project.
In external job interviews, the psychopath will simply not mention any inadequacies and focus the interview on their unique selling point. When questioned on weaknesses, the psychopath will reframe the answer and talk about development opportunities.
Too many interviewees happily offer up their weaknesses and failures, even when not asked. Instead keep the interviewer focused on your strengths, positives and achievements. You need to associate only positivity to your interview as these create the basis for a successful job interview.
Do You Need To Be A Psychopath?
To increase your chances of being offered a job at the interview you don’t need to be psychopathic, but you can take a couple of tips from the psychopath’s interview approach.
The key to a successful interview is to be confident, charming and likable. You need to frame every interview answer as a positive.
Remember times when you have used the required skill they are questioning you about and reframe negative based interview questions.
By framing the interview as a place to showcase your talent increases confidence and never discussing negativity creates a positive association that can only lead to more job offers.
