Chapter 13

Voiceovers: Your Voice Speaks Volumes

Do you remember sitting in a classroom fighting to stay awake while your college professors lectured? You even wished you had a couple of toothpicks handy to prop your eyelids open, so you looked like you were awake and paying attention. Often, it wasn't the content that was ridiculously boring, but rather the lackluster delivery of the information. The professors droned, showing their own lack of enthusiasm for their topics. If they sounded bored with their own subject matter, how could you possibly muster up any enthusiasm?

But, what if they had infused energy and excitement into their voices, peppered with variations in pace and volume, some strategically placed pauses, and corresponding facial expressions and hand gestures to add emphasis? Instantly, they would have grabbed their students' attention. By injecting exuberance into their voices, they could transform a boring presentation into ear candy. The audience would hang on every word and want to hear more.

Now, imagine a similar scenario in a hiring manager's office. The first job candidate walks in and slithers quietly into a chair. She speaks in a soft, hushed voice, so low that the interviewer must crane his neck forward to hear her. Her meek demeanor immediately raises doubts and concerns about her ability to do the job effectively. The next job candidate marches in confidently, and clearly states his name and his unique value proposition (UVP). Within seconds, he instills confidence in the interviewer.

Lesson: Your voice is a powerful interviewing tool. Learn to use it to your advantage.

It's not enough to have an impressive resume that highlights academic achievements and previous job experience. Many job applicants mistakenly assume that if they have a glowing resume, and they respond correctly to the interviewer's questions, they will be handed a job offer on a silver platter or, at the very least, they will feel they are in the running for the job. You know what they say about the word “assume”: It makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me.” True, the content of the responses is extremely important, but the tone of voice is equally important.

Your tone of voice sets the atmosphere during an interview by projecting your inner confidence, your vitality, and your authority. An interviewee can use all of the right words in his or her responses, but if the answers aren't delivered with confidence, the interviewer won't buy them. When you are confident, people can hear it in your voice. You deliver your message loud and clear with conviction.

Your voice conveys your personality, and people form immediate impressions of you based on your voice. A Stanford University study found that people can hear personality in the voices of others, and the sound of one's voice influences opinions about everything from credibility to sexual prowess.

Your voice and speech are as unique as your fingerprints. You are judged by the sound of your voice and the clarity of your speech in job interviews, business meetings, and at social occasions. Your voice is a persuasive tool that is often neglected when preparing for job interviews. Truth be told, job applicants spend more time choosing their interview attire than they do rehearsing their verbal responses. How about you? How many hours have you dwelled on what shoes (or tie, handbag, or scarf) to wear with your interview suit, compared to the time you have invested in practicing your responses aloud to potential interview questions? Your voice communicates your intelligence, your educational level, your thought processes, and your personality. Isn't it more important than selecting the right tie or handbag?

Sound Off: Elements of Voice

The elements of voice can be divided into three categories: vocal clarity, vocal variety, and vocal emphasis.

When used effectively and in combination, these skills help people deliver a message with poise, power, and passion. Your voice can make you stand out from other candidates, particularly those who mumble or speak in a monotone.

President Barack Obama is an excellent example of a speaker who speaks clearly, emphasizes words for impact, and infuses his warm personality into his speeches to make an emotional connection with his audiences.

Have you ever heard a parent reprimand a mouthy teenager by warning, “You'd better watch your tone of voice with me”? Or perhaps you were a rebellious teenager who was scolded in this way. Certainly, you are familiar with the expression “It's not what you say; it's how you say it.” Your tone of voice plays a major role in communicating your message and expressing your emotions. Soft, murmuring tones are non-threatening and convey pleasure and bliss. Harsh, loud words convey displeasure and anger. Listen to your voice on a tape recorder and assess your own tone. Is it friendly or bland? Engaging or forgettable?

Ladies: Do you purr like a kitten with a soft, sensuous hum? Or do you squeal like an excitable junior high school girl? If you're lucky, your voice is controlled and melodious.

Men: Do you rumble like thunder, evoking an image of Darth Vader? Or do you talk a mile a minute like a slick used-car salesman? If you're blessed, you have a deep, resounding voice.

When your tone is clear, strong, and energetic, people naturally assume you are capable and confident. If your tone is soft and low, people may assume you are weak, timid, or just plain exhausted. If you use no inflection in your voice, you may be viewed as boring or unimaginative even if you are highly intelligent and creative.

Here are some ways to inject some life in your voice during an interview:

• Reveal your personality by emphasizing key words to add impact. If you were a hiring manager, you would warm up faster to someone who shows personality, rather than a bore.
• When telling an anecdote, relive the experience in your mind so you are more in the moment, and sound animated and excited about it. Don't go hog-wild, though, and act frantic. The result could leave a crazy bad impression on the interviewer.
• Use corresponding facial expressions or hand gestures to double the impact of your words.
• Vary your tone and pitch to make your speech pattern more interesting. A monotone will put listeners to sleep—as you experienced for yourself in those boring lectures in school.
• Speak loudly enough, so the interviewer does not need to strain to hear you, but not so loudly that the interviewer reaches for ear plugs.

Voice Modulation

You've heard the expression, “Moderation in everything.” When it comes to using your voice for maximum impact, the operative phrase is “Modulation is everything.” Modulation is simply varying the pitch of your voice rather than speaking in a monotone, which puts people to sleep faster than a sleeping pill. Modulation makes your voice more pleasing and interesting to the listener. Nearly everyone modulates their voice naturally in social situations, but often they are so nervous or overwhelmed when delivering a business speech or answering questions in a job interview that they forget to add some variety to their speech pattern.

You can practice modulating your voice by slowing the pace and enunciating clearly to emphasize a point. When summarizing a final and very important point, deliver it with a faster pace. Then, pause and repeat the last few words in a slower, lower voice. The different delivery styles will make the point stand out.

Open Wide

Do you talk through your nose? If you do, people probably have remarked that you sound nasal. That's too bad because many people find a nasal tone demanding and calculating. You can overcome the nasal sound by opening your mouth more as you talk. This action encourages the sound waves to emanate from your voice box, not through your nose.

Perfect Your Pitch

Women typically have higher pitched voices than men. Women with high, squeaky voices sound irritating and are perceived to be immature and inexperienced while those with low-pitched voices may be viewed as unfeminine, or downright masculine. When you speak quickly, the pitch rises. Thus, women who already have high voices should slow down a bit. If you are a squeaker, don't fret. You can work with a vocal coach to lower your pitch slightly and sound less annoying.

A clear and confident voice is an essential business skill, especially for men. Effective leaders, managers, and communicators usually have deep, low voices which give them an authoritative presence. A deep voice exudes strength because it a sign of high testosterone, and it commands more attention than a fast, squeaky voice. That is why men with deep voices are often found in high positions.

Pace Yourself

The speed of your speech is an important aspect in communication. You can pick up the pace to add energy and animation to your voice. Speeding up will invariably make the tone of voice more urgent or compelling, but if you speak too quickly, you may appear nervous, and your speech could be difficult to understand.

You should slow your speech down to emphasize important points and allow time for the listener to absorb the information. Try to control your speech without slowing it down too much. Speech that is too slow is monotonous and boring.

Pleasing Pauses

Silence is an excellent exclamation point. By slightly extending a pause, you can emphasize a key point, concept, or anecdote. If you're stuck for an answer, you can pause and say, “That's a good question.” It signals to the interviewer that you need a moment to compose your response. If you pause too often, however, you will look unprepared, so keep your pauses to a minimum for maximum impact.

Don't Fill 'er Up

Beware of using fillers or padding in your speech. Fillers are sounds and words that have no meaning but are used to keep a person's speech flowing. Some of the most commonly used fillers are “er,” “um,” “uh,” “you know,” and “all righty.” These words serve as padding but also give the interview the impression that you lack confidence or, even worse, you don't know what you're talking about. Speaking fluidly without these annoying little distractions will give you a confident air of authority. It pays to sound like a professional in high-stakes interviewing.

Practice Perfectly

In an interview, you must come across as polished, confident, and natural. You can achieve this level of natural confidence by rehearsing your responses to potential interview questions until you can say the answers effortlessly. By saying the responses aloud, you will be more prepared when it's show time.

Ask a friend to role play with you, so you can rehearse your responses using different speeds, pitches, and volumes to determine the most effective combination for driving home key points. You can ask your friend to videotape you, and then you will be able to critique your vocals and accompanying facial expressions and gestures.

Cures for Cotton Mouth

It is completely normal to feel tense before you walk into a job interview, particularly if you have been searching for a job for a while. After all, this is your big chance, and you want to create a good impression. Fortunately, there are some common-sense cures to prevent or alleviate dry mouth, a crackly voice, or a case of the nerves, so you'll come across as cool and collected even if you're not.

Drink water: Before your interview, drink a glass of water to moisten your vocal chords. Why do you think Letterman and Leno keep water pitchers on their desks?

Breathe: Practice deep abdominal breathing before your interview. Fully inhale and exhale. This method will calm your nerves and give you a sense of stability before your interview.

Put the candy bar away: Eating a chocolate bar before your interview will make your throat feel scratchy.

Ditch the dairy: Milk and other dairy products lead to mucous formation. You wouldn't want to hock a loogie during your interview.

Lay off the hot stuff: Spicy food can cause acid reflux, not to mention bad breath. Spare the interviewer.

The Way You Talk

It is important to appear professional in an interview, so you must avoid slang and colloquialisms, such as “you know.” In everyday life, you may have picked up some bad speaking habits that can negatively impact your interviewer's impression of you. If you hale from various parts of the United States, you might talk like a Valley Girl, a redneck, or a gangsta. In such a case, you will need to practice your pronunciation, enunciation, and rhetoric before walking into an interview.

Rate the Behavior

For this exercise, use the Psychotron to rate the following speech patterns below from crazy bad to crazy bad-ass.

Talk Like a Valley Girl

Some Gen X and Gen Y females have adopted the Valley Girl way of speaking. This style of speech, which originated in California's San Fernando Valley and was made popular in the movie Clueless, occurs nationwide. You should seek treatment if you exhibit any of the following speech patterns:

• You speak with a high rising terminal. That means your sentences end with a rising intonation as if you are asking a question with every statement you make.
• You say the word “like” at least once in every sentence; for example, “She like aced her LSATs, and like, got into law school right away.”
• You use the words “totally” or “way” in place of “very” or “really.” For example, “I could totally do this job. It's way cool.”
• You add the word “duh” or “whatever” to any negative statement (with a slight pause between what and ever). “I was fired from my last job for being late. Whatever.”
• In place of “good” or “great”, you use these words: “awesome,” “amazing,” “rad,” “sweet,” “classic,” “excellent.” “You know, like, I could totally see myself in this job. It sounds amazing.”

Talk Like a Redneck

Redneck humor, also called blue-collar comedy, has experienced a surge in popularity. Heck, there's even a redneck comedy channel. The term redneck refers to a distinct class of people who live in rural areas of the United States. When used by outsiders, the word can be insulting, but many rednecks are proud to call themselves rednecks.

Are you a redneck? If you talk loudly, like to cuss, and are comfortable with the phrases below, you just might be one. Kick it up a notch when you are interviewing by enunciating your words, unless the interviewer is a redneck. In that case, the two of you will be in hog heaven.

Talk Like a Gangsta

Rap is still popular, along with wearing sagged pants and walking like a gangsta, but it's totally inappropriate for a job interview. Gangsta talk is a cool version of redneck talk, and is indicative of today's youth culture. If any of the following phrases are part of your everyday speech, leave them at home before you venture out on a job interview. You'll be considered annoying and disrespectful if you talk like a gangsta when face-to-face with the interviewer.

• Instead of saying “For sure,” you say “fo sho” (the last letters are silent)
• “I is fro da street o L.A.” (or Chicago, New York, or Philly).
• When greeting the interviewer or hiring manager, your first inclination is to say “Yo,” “Sup,” or “Wazzup.”
• You say, “You know,” “Ya dig,” or “Know what I'm sayin.”
• You use the following expressions: “Don't be trippin,” “Don't be hatin,” “Break yo' self,” or “Don't be bustin' my chops.”

(Caution: If you mispronounce any of these phrases when you're in the 'hood, you may be “dissed when yo chillin' wit yo homies.” Translation: This lingo is cool—and expected—when you're hanging out with your friends, but it's the kiss of death in a job interview.)

Employers want to hire job candidates who are good communicators, so even if you don't talk like a Valley Girl, a redneck, or a gangster, be cognizant of your grammar usage and enunciate your words clearly during a job interview.