I’m continually annoyed with people who put “fillers” in their speech patterns, especially in the interviewing situation. I know they’re not conscious of their using these “lip loads,” but they are still annoying. Here are the ones I hear most often:
“You know… you know… you know”… it makes you sound so stupid
“Honestly”… as though you haven’t been honest with me and the other things you’ve said?
“Let me be honest with you”… which means you haven’t been honest with me up until now?
“Trust me”… and you say it so many times that I have to really wonder if I can or should.
“Let me be transparent”… as though you’ve been hiding stuff from me throughout the whole conversation.
“The truth is”… as though everything else you said hasn’t been the truth.
If you are in the habit of using these kinds of “fillers,” you need to practice getting them OUT Of your vocabulary, especially when you are interviewing. Interviewing and hiring authorities are making very quick judgments about you and everything about you based on very little information. Most of that information is communicated in what you say and the manner in which you say it.
These kinds of lip loads are used because people are very nervous. And worst of all they are uncomfortable with silence so they fill the void with these kinds of sayings. None of them amount to much, but in a 35 or 40 minute interview if you say them fairly often, that’s what people will remember you by. It takes about 10 to 14 days of practice but you can be rid of these things and quit embarrassing yourself.
