One of the biggest tells about people’s confidence is how they talk about themselves and their accomplishments. When I'm interviewing people I always look for slip ups in how they speak. Two phrases that are absolute killers are ‘kind of’ or ‘sort of’.
 
Here are some examples:

• “We developed the integrated campaign and we kind of generated more leads than we anticipated.”
• “I sort of came up with a great idea for solving this business challenge we were having.”

 
You kind of generated more leads? Is there another way to generate more leads?
 
You sort of came up with a great idea? Wow, I’m sort of impressed.
 
Here's what to do about it

​Experts say that roughly 93% of communication is non-verbal. That’s a deceiving number, because everyone then thinks that the rest is body language. But it’s not. According to a study led by Dr. Mehrabian Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, that percentage breaks down into three areas. Seven percent of communication is verbal. 38 percent is vocal and 55 percent is visual. So even though it’s only 55 percent, and not 93%, how you communicate with your face, arms, hands and body really says a lot about you – and it can tell employers a ton.
​

In 2012, TheLadders.com released a research report revealing that recruiters spend an average of 6.25 seconds on a resume before determining whether or not a candidate was a fit for a position.
 
Whoa. A whole six and a half seconds? Imagine that. You spend countless hours writing the best possible resume only to have someone, who’s job it is to vet your resume, spend a whopping six seconds on it before deciding you’re good enough for an interview.
 
Kinda makes you feel special, huh?
 
If you read my book, It’s Not About You: How to think like an employer and get the job you really want you’d hear my full opinion on the sheer futility of applying for jobs through submission of a resume. But for the sake of this blog post I’ll keep it fairly short.