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William Bowen, the former president of Princeton University, once said, “The university should be the home of the critic, not the critic itself.” If you’re interviewing for a job that will make a university your new professional home, you might feel the need to become a critic of something related to your discipline or maybe even the hiring institution.
It takes a critic to solve a problem, right? Critics at least appear informed. There are studies that show how people who voice their disapproval of something are perceived as more intelligent and competent, most notably Harvard business professor Teresa Amabile’s research of people’s evaluations of book reviewers whose commentary is negative or complimentary.
If you’re looking for a current example of this, there’s this thing called social media where critical opinions are validated and measured by clicks of raised thumb and heart icons that feed an elaborate algorithm. It can be difficult to distinguish between informed critics and people who are just cynics, so let’s first define them.
Critics vs. Cynics
Critics and cynics are faultfinders; they both express doubt and unfavorable opinions. Explaining the difference between the two, Scott Belsky, chief product officer for Adobe Creative Cloud, wrote that a critic’s doubt is “informed by curiosity and a deep knowledge of a discipline,” whereas a cynic’s doubt is “resulting from ignorance” and an “ingrained muscle memory of past experiences that handicaps their vision for the future.” Also, cynics, by definition, are convinced that people only act in self-interest.
Like critics, cynics are often perceived as being more intelligent than people who express positivity. This perpetuates what’s known as the expert fallacy and the cynical genius illusion.
Should They be Hired?
But what does this mean for job interviews? If the goal is to convince a search committee to hire you, then what’s wrong with offering your critique if it is going to make people believe you are more intelligent? You’re not actually solving any problems in an interview or proving yourself right.
Well, assuming you are using ethical approaches and representing yourself accurately, you might also have valid, evidence-based points to share with a potential employer. You might feel so bold and be justified to express disapproval and negativity in a job interview. And if you are specifically asked to assess a topic or situation, be honest.
But offering unsolicited criticism and exposing internal cynicism is how many job applicants sabotage their candidacy.
Here are three things to consider in a job interview:
Don’t Bad-Mouth
First, don’t bad-mouth your previous employer or former coworkers and students. There are many reasons why: it portrays you as someone who is combative, likely to say something bad about your next employer, or quit your job the moment you encounter conflict. Search committees aren’t seeking some sophisticated recommendation for a good book to read. They want to know if they can work with you. This type of criticism and cynicism creates doubt.
Be Socially Aware
Second, the job interview is rarely meant to be an instrument to measure a candidate’s intellectual ability. The search committee already knows your credentials and has seen documentation of your academic and professional prowess. During the interview, they want to get a “feel” for what you’re like, how you behave in certain situations, and assess your social and emotional intelligence.
Even if people are misguided by critiques and cynicism as a correlation to cognitive abilities and academic competence, researchers have found the opposite is true when it comes to social skills. “Individuals clearly differentiated between cognitive and social competences and rated cynics favorably with respect to the former but not the latter,” wrote Olga Stavrova and Daniel Ehlebracht, coauthors of a 2018 study about the cynical genius illusion.
Learn to Gain Trust
Finally, here’s where Belsky’s parsing between criticism and cynicism is most relevant: If you have a strong opinion, make sure it is weakly held and you remain curious. Don’t have fixed, negative opinions. Otherwise, the search committee will get the impression that you aren’t willing to learn, or, worse, you can’t be trusted. After all, you’re an outsider and you don’t know everything that’s going on at the hiring institution.
Researchers have found that trust in people is a greater marker of cognitive ability. “Arguably, this relationship exists because cynical people stop learning about the world and close themselves off to new ideas and opportunities,” observed Tony Evans, a behavioral scientist writing for Psychology Today.
In Conclusion
While you might be able to distinguish between your critical and cynical thinking, many of those thoughts might be best kept to yourself when it comes to presenting your candidacy.
Simply put: if you must point out a fault, be a critic, not a cynic. But you’re better off being a positive light, showing your depth of knowledge, but also your curiosity and vulnerability as a way to build trust and the impression that you have the cognitive and social skills to perform well in the job. If you do that, you just might find a new university for your inner critic to call home.
