What Your Words Say About You
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“I think it's one of the major reasons why an individual gets hired or not,” says Tom Defillipo, a 15-year veteran of a recruiting business that places IT candidates. “Very often, clients will ask us to qualify people on their ability to communicate verbally.”
This doesn't mean you should try to grandstand by using fancy words for the mere sake of demonstrating your intelligence. “Some people use high-brow academic vocabulary words, where you have to almost build a sentence around the word,” says Greg Ragland, cofounder of Executive Vocabulary. “Then a lot of people give you a blank stare when you use it, and you have to explain what it means. That's not going to get you anywhere. You can be called out really easily if you use a word you're not comfortable using. You have to be really comfortable using a word and feel comfortable other people will understand it.”
