Ramit Sethi explains “competence triggers”: verbal and nonverbal signals that hiring managers read quickly in interviews to assess social value. He contrasts low vs. high competence triggers with concrete examples (salary discussion, answering underlying questions, crafting a personal story, and negotiation language) and promotes techniques taught in his Dream Job course to signal higher competence.
You. When you walk into an interview room, the hiring manager is sizing you up on dozens, maybe hundreds of characteristics instantly. The way you talk, the way you walk, what you're wearing, the way you smile, the questions you ask, and of course, the answers you give. We call many of these things competence triggers. There are low competence triggers and high competence triggers. Think of the phrase act as if you've heard that right? Where you may not necessarily have those skills, but you act as if. Well, competence triggers are actually the same thing. You're not trying to paper up weaknesses, but you're signaling with the behaviors and the answers you give that you are of a high social value. Let me give you some examples. If I am the hiring manager and I ask you, what's your current salary? A low competence trigger would be, I'm not really sure, or I'm not sure I can tell you that. Or you might say, well, my current salary is $45,000. And you just tell them, a high competence trigger would go like this. You know, I'm sure we can discuss salary a little bit later on in the process, but right now I just want to make sure that it's a good fit for you and a good fit for me. Why? Because top candidates don't want to discuss salary. They know that they have plenty of other offers out there. So they use phrases like this. You can use those same phrases and almost be blessed by the power of a high competence trigger. Let me give you some other examples. When you go into an interview, a low competence trigger is simply answering the interview questions that you get. Now, that might seem surprising. Isn't that what you're supposed to do in an interview? But a high competence trigger is not only answering the questions, but answering the questions behind the questions. So, for example, when they ask, what's your greatest weakness? You don't just tell them your greatest weakness. What are they really asking? That's one of the things we cover in the dream job course. And how do you come up with the perfect answer for that? We also cover that when an interviewer asks you tell me about yourself. A low competence trigger would simply address things chronologically. Well, I graduated here, then I did this, I studied that, then I worked at this company, and now I'm really interested in this company. That is a low social competence trigger, because you're just addressing things chronologically. A high competence trigger in this case is picking out the key elements of your story. Because in an interview, of course, it's not about just telling the facts. It's about a Story. What is your story? And I want to teach you how to craft those things in the course. In negotiation. A low competence trigger, let's say you get, you're expecting to make $60,000 and they come at you with a $45,000 offer. A low competent trigger would be, I'm really disappointed in that offer. One of my students actually said that, and I had to correct him. A high competence trigger, if you're way off, would be to say a phrase like this. You know what, first of all, I really appreciate the offer and I'm very excited to get started working. But I have to be honest with you, the numbers that I have based on research are pretty far apart from the offer you've made me. So it's going to be really important that we're able to close that gap if we want to move forward. So what's the difference there? Again, I'm not acting angry or adversarial. I'm simply saying those numbers are pretty far apart. That's what a highly skilled top candidate would say, because they're just being blunt. Look, I'm not going to take a $15,000 pay cut if the research says this. It's very matter of fact. So you can use these elements. You don't even have to be a top performer, although I do expect you to be one. And I expect you to develop yourself over the course of the Dream Job program. But act as if we show you the triggers that work and we show you the triggers that don't. The most interesting thing about competence triggers is how unconscious they are. The words I use, the body language that I use, all of these things telegraph signals, often dozens of signals per minute as to how competent I am. Now, you can learn this, you can tweak these things and you can signal as soon as you walk into a room, as soon as you pick up the phone. In fact, as soon as you send a resume over that you are highly competent rather than simply mediocre, I'm going to teach you how.
