The Balance Between Arrogance And Confidence: A Quick Change To Better Results
How to phrase yourself confidently, not arrogantly
I have encountered a very interesting article written by Ali Abdaal called “Be concise and confident, but not arrogant”. This write-up was written in mind for interviews (specifically for people wanting to study as a medical student), but this, in no doubt, can be practically applied in all sorts of ways creatively e.g. in essays, in real life conversation, in any kind of interview etc.
It talked about how they interviewed their students, and how, from their answers, came across as arrogant — having an exaggerated sense of one’s own abilities. It really is tough, because the goal of an interview is to show and prove to the interviewer that you have what it takes — the right attitude and ability. When consequently trying to do so, it leaves a bad taste. Making your image not really likeable.
The key difference to do is this: don’t tell them what you are; tell them what you’ve become. Here are some examples to better explain this:
What you are:
I am a leader who brings out best in people— I led our business group and won the x case competition .
What you’ve become:
I believe I’ve grown to be a leader through guiding them, and working together, consequently bringing out the best in them and winning the Betlog case competition.
What you are:
I am friendly and hardworking–I’ve worked with a lot of people at school’s news publication.
What you’ve become:
Through being part of my school’s news publication, I have developed into being teammate who is friendly and hardworking .
One more thing he pointed out is to use moderate language. For every answer you give, make an effort to not absolute it. Absolute language makes every answer you say either 100% correct or 100% wrong. All or nothing. Using phrases such as “I believe” or “I feel”, can remove the weight of an answer coming across as arrogant.
This is added a new level to my thinking. How we phrase words to portray a look that we are a good person can be tricky on occasions. Hopefully you can use this as much as possible whenever the time comes. Thanks!
