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Presence and empowering yourself

By Weronika Z Benning, on 19 February 2016

Do you ever come out of a stressful situation, for  example  after an interview, and think to yourself that you didn’t really show yourself in your best light? Yes? Me, too, on occasion.

So, here is one small trick that might help you overcome that feeling and improve your interview performance. Of course it’s no substitute for being well prepared and doing all your research before the event. It comes from a Harvard Business School psychologist called Amy Cuddy (find her on Twitter here) – you might have seen her hugely popular TED talk about body language shaping who you are – it’s here if you haven’t seen it.

Amy was in London last week and I was lucky enough to see her give a presentation about presence and the power of power posing. Just 2 minutes standing in a power pose like superman or wonder woman (do this in private please!) can help you to become calmer and more focussed  to give you presence before a big event. She has data that shows it will increase your good hormone levels and decrease you anxiety levels. Why not try it and see? And for all that other preparation, such as talking through what to expect in an interview come and see your friendly careers consultants at UCL Careers or  attend some of our employer led preparation events that we hold – sign up to find out about them all here at UCL Alert.

By Kate Woods, UCL Careers Consultant