What if I sound too young in my interviews?

You can have the right skills and great answers to every interview question and still not get the job if you sound too young.

I know you can’t suddenly become older, but there are some common bad habits that can make you sound younger than you are. Do you have any of them?

How sounding young can hurt you professionally

I worked with a client who was applying for a Global Talent Acquisition Manager role in one of the big tech companies. One of the reasons she came to me was that she wasn’t getting the senior level jobs even though she was getting the interviews and she didn’t know why.

I read her resume first and her experience was right on the mark for a senior level role like the one she was applying for.

But when I talked to her I was surprised, because she sounded like she was in her 20s. That wasn’t what I was expecting from her resume.

What was going on? She sounded much younger than she actually was (in her 40s).

Companies don’t give you feedback, so it can be hard to know the reason you’re getting rejected, but I suspected she might be having problems because she sounded so young.

Habits that make you sound younger than you are

When someone says you look younger than you are it’s a compliment, but sounding or seeming young can hurt you professionally. If you seem too young, someone might say you don’t have “executive presence” or “gravitas” and refuse to promote you.  

There are some bad habits, verbal and otherwise, that can make you sound young.

If you’re coming across as younger than you are, you might have one of these habits. If you do, you can spot it and adjust.

Not presenting yourself as a manager if you are one

If you’re talking about your work, and you’re the one getting the work done but are not actually doing it all yourself, don’t just say “I did this.” Say “I asked my team to do such and such.”

Often this is the #1 reason you seem young - you aren’t being very clear and direct about all the skills you have. If you’ve done something at work, you should be showing this in your stories.

Say “I talked to the stakeholder about their pain points and then went to the Product team and worked with them to develop a plan to fix the problem. Then I planned out the next three sprints for our team so we could get the work done.”

That’s very different than just saying “I did this.”

Asking unnecessary questions

Normally being inquisitive is great. But my client was asking the interviewer questions she should have known the answers to. For instance, she was asking what their intent was behind the question. That’s not a bad thing to do if you really have no idea what they’re talking about, but in her case if she’d put more time into preparing she would have known what was going on.

You have to know the difference between asking smart questions and asking dumb questions that make you look uncertain (aka young).

If you’re coming across as young, put more time into your prep than you used to.

Thinking you don’t need to prep for the interview

Another thing that was hurting my client was that she hadn’t really prepared as much as she should have for her interviews. Like she said to me, she had executed some pretty large and impressive projects, but she hadn’t ever sat down and planned how she would explain them.

That’s a common mistake. I know you’re busy, but even if you’re so good at your job that they really should hire you, they don’t know that unless you tell them.

Sit down, plan your answers, get some feedback.

Using filler words

Using fillers makes you seem young, as well as less smart, less quick, and less educated than you are. If you can fix this one thing you’ll make a fast jump up in credibility.

Examples: “you know,” “like,” “um,” “I mean,” “really,” “so,” and “literally.”

Using these words is a hard habit to break. Try to substitute a pause in your speech instead of the filler word. That gives you time to think of what you want to say and gives your listener a chance to process what you’ve said. It also helps slow down your speech.

Asking questions that make you seem weak

Which of these questions makes you sound more confident?

1.     “Does this make sense?”

or

2.    “Do you need more details?”

The second one, right? If you ask someone whether what you’re saying makes sense, you’ll sound unsure of yourself.

Don’t ask “does this make sense?” Ask “do you need more data?” or “do you need more details?”

If you know you say this often, do you have other speech habits that are making you sound young and unsure of yourself?

Making things sound like questions if they aren’t

This is also known as “uptalk.”

Do you end every sentence on an upward tone, as if it’s as question? We should end questions with an upward tone, but many people will also end other types of sentences - not questions - like this.

Uptalk and fillers are also seen as feminine, so if your male interviewers are seeing you as too young, eliminating these can make a big difference.

I hope this gave you some ideas for pinpointing the habits making you sound younger than you are. If you’d like to work on your interview skills, let me know.