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[Closed] What's easier to fake – intelligence or charm?

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...in, let's say, a 30-minute job interview?

Can you fake intelligence for this long in a cogent and convincing manner?

Or are you better Leslie Philips-ing your interviewer, hoping the suave foxiness you practised for weeks in front of your OH/lift mirror wins out?

Best strategies appreciated. 8)


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:18 pm
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Dunno. I have oodles of both so it has never been an issue.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:19 pm
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Isn't charm an inherently fake character trait?


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:21 pm
 LoCo
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Charm, 30 mins of trying to be intelligent you're likely to get caught out unless the interviewer is a moron, I've been trying for the last 30 years and am still yet to achieve it 😛


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:21 pm
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But can anyone sustain 30 minutes of fake charm?

As a case in point, I spent this morning listening to an interview I held some time ago with a senior chap in the mining field, who I was whorishly trying to impress.

I was going for charming? That's not at all how it sounds on tape though... 😳


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:25 pm
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I has neither, fool.

'It is better to stay quiet and have people asume you are a moron, than speak up and remove all doubt'

Go with charm. It's better to be lucky than good.

/cliches

Make sure you ringfence the unicorn. 😉


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:25 pm
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Best strategies appreciated.

accentuate any diversity that you may have (ethnicity, disability, sexuality). it's a foot in the door, at least for the HR box-tickers.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:25 pm
 IHN
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It's impossible to fake charm. It's not that hard to sound clever.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:30 pm
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[i]But can anyone sustain 30 minutes of fake charm?[/i]

I've watched many young 'gentlemen' who I would otherwise class as morbidly self-obsesed, infantile orangutangs entice a wide selection of attractive (yet slightly less intelligent than average) young ladies to go to bed with them by delivering whole days worth of charm[1]

[1] And in these cases I would chose the word bullshit over charm but there you go.

So from those experiences I'd say charm is relatively easy to supply while faked intelligence can be stopped merely with the introduction of one real intelligent person.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:35 pm
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After IHN and samuri's posts I'm more confused than ever.

This is me confused. Charming, but confused:

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:41 pm
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Charm = Fluent in bullsh!t


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:43 pm
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As has been said though, charm is inherently a fake trait, whereas intelligence isn't. Go with the pretend charming, and hope your interviewer isn't well practiced at detecting BS...


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:44 pm
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Svhrick- yes, such a disappointing lesson to learn!


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:46 pm
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A former (female) boss of mine built her (successful) career entirely on charm and cleavage.

It worked for her.

Sadly, I have no cleavage. 😥


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 1:48 pm
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It really does depend who is interviewing you though.

It is impossible to fake inteligence to someone who knows what they are talking about for 30s, let alone 30 mins.

However two BS merchants would probably be able to maintain the suspense that they both know what the other is talking about for an entire carrer for fear that they would outed as being full of hot air.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:32 pm
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Here is the most important lesson you will ever learn in your life and it's free- EVERYONE IS WINGING IT.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:37 pm
 loum
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It's impossible to fake charm.

Not if you're clever about it. 😉


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:38 pm
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Fake intelligence, charm must come from the heart, intelligence is learned.


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:40 pm
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Maybe the solution is actually knowing what you're talking about.

Dammit!


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:45 pm
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If you try to fake charm you might come across terribly (you're either charming, or you're not).

If you try to fake intelligence to someone who knows what you're [i]supposed[/i] to be talking about you might come across terribly.

If you don't give it a try, you might miss out on getting the job 🙂

C'est la vie. Fudge the interview sounding as nice and knowledgeable as you can, that's how it's supposed to happen 😉


 
Posted : 04/09/2012 2:50 pm