Sitting in front of the job interviewer, I pulled a gold pocket watch out of my suit pocket and started to swing the watch from left to right. Before the interviewer could stop himself, his eyes were following the swinging watch, and slowly his head dropped forward as he fell into a trance. In a deep voice, I commanded, “When you wake up in a few seconds, you will feel an uncontrollable desire to offer me the position.”
If that’s what you imagined when you read the title of this post, you may be surprised. Interview hypnosis really can work — and it’s not just a matter of hocus-pocus.
How Interview Hypnosis Works
To hypnotize an interviewer, you don’t have to swing a gold watch and repeat the words “you’re feeling sleepy, sleepy, sleepy…” In fact, any applicant who tries this technique won’t only fail the job interview; they may be asked to take a mental examination.
Hypnosis works by getting the “subject’” — in this case, the interviewer — to go inside themselves, to get them to imagine in detail what you are describing. The more vivid their visualization, the more emotionally attached the interviewer will be.
Try this: Imagine you’re holding a lemon in your hands. See the bright color of the juicy lemon. Feel the weight of the lemon in your hands, and notice the waxy texture of the lemon’s skin on your palms. Imagine cutting a section of the lemon; as you slice the lemon with a sharp knife, see the spray of lemon juices bursting out, spraying your hands. Hear the slicing of the lemon’s skin, smell the lemon perfume in the air, breath in the lemon flavor and taste the sour lemon taste on your lips.
Did you get caught up in the description? Did you visualize the lemon in your hands? Could you taste the lemon? Is your mouth salivating? Most people will say yes.
You yourself have been in a trance state many times. If you’ve ever been a passenger in a car, you know the feeling of passing an exit (say, exit number 10), only to look minutes later and see you’re passing exit 22. Wait a minute, how could you have passed 12 exits in 10 minutes? You must have been daydreaming, because in reality, it’s actually been 40 minutes since you passed exit 10.
Imagined Success
In the interview context, you need to use hypnotic language patterns that take the interviewer into a trance (or a daydream-like state) for just a few seconds, so the interviewer can vividly imagine you being successful in their company. (Warning: Don’t let the interviewer trance out for too long!)
Remember, visualizations seem real to the conscious mind. If you imagine a past funny event, you will want to laugh. If the interviewer visualizes you as an asset, they will want to hire you, and this desire will be extremely strong as it will be emotionally driven.
Hypnotic Interview Tricks
Following are several hypnotic language patterns that will quickly take an interviewer into a short trance. Just one of these hypnotic language patterns alone won’t make a real difference to the interview outcome, but several language patterns combined throughout the job interview will compel the interviewer to hire you.
This psychology works the same as when you visualize a character from a book. The author introduces a character in a few words: “A woman walks past him on the high street…” In your mind, you’ll already have an image of this character. As the author adds more detail, your image changes: “She’s wearing a fitted pinstriped suit. Her long golden hair hangs all the way down to her shoulders…”
You need to do the same in the job interview. Start by describing yourself positively, adding more detail with each question asked. By the interview’s end, the interviewer will have a detailed image of you and how you will add value to the company.
Try these three hypnotic language patterns:
1. The Imagine Pattern
When you say “imagine,” the listener takes this word as a command and will visualize, or imagine, your next sentence.
“Imagine the success we will achieve if I bring over my extensive list of contacts…”
Now that we’ve met, you can imagine how well we’ll work together…”
“You can imagine how my experience and knowledge will increase your profits…”
2. The Presupposition Pattern
Using “when” rather than “if” is more powerful because it bypasses the interviewer’s conscious mind and presupposes you’ll be hired.
“When you hire me, I will first set up a meeting with my contacts…”
3. The Double-Blind Pattern
The double-blind pattern creates an illusion of choice where there is no choice, because the outcome of each choice relates back to the same result — the result you want the interviewer to think about.
For example, let’s say you state:
“I’ve brought you a copy of my resume.” [Passing the interviewer your resume.] “If you want, you can read the whole resume, or you can skip down to my previous job, where I’ve highlighted my successes…”
The interviewer now has a choice of reading your whole resume or just a section of the resume (your goal). Without offering the double bind, the untold choice is to either read the resume or not read the resume.
When the interviewer asks, “Do you have any questions for me?”, try asking:
“Now that you know my background and strengths, imagine that you hired me today. Would you want me to first start working on increasing the product’s quality, or increasing the company’s profits?”
Either way, the interviewer has to visualize you working for them.
The key here is to state your words in the positive while presupposing you will be hired. Use command words such as “imagine” to create a vivid visualization and direct the interviewer’s thoughts through the use of double-blinds.
These techniques will give you control of the interview and, more importantly, control of the interviewer’s emotions. When you leave, the interviewer will have a “gut feeling” about you, and in most cases, they won’t even know why.
Are you ready to be more in control of your interviews?
Image: Flickr
