Comments on: How to Handle Being Out of Your Depth: 6 Tips from a Con Man

By: ker-ching

ker-ching — Mon, 20 May 2013 03:31:37 +0000

In the UK and other civilised countries, there are laws with severe financial and social penalties for lying in order to gain employment, and overstating your qualifications is basically a lie. I have never tried to decieve anyone regarding my qualifications, however, there will come a time in everyones career when they need to cover for laziness or oversight. I was once supposed to research on some aspect of my job (IT industry) and then discuss that with colleagues to setup a client with a network that was, necessarily, going to be more complex and take more of our skills than any we had so far implemented. A lot of money was at stake. So I was lazy and just bought a couple of network manuals on the subject, cut out the relevant pages that dealt with that kind of network and then read from those when i needed to sound technical, and just made out that when the time came it would be obvious how this would be done and it was then just a matter for others on the team to prioritise the work. I thought I had failed but afterwards people congratulated me on my hard work

By: JT

JT — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 04:35:06 +0000

I’m a city boy and I didn’t have to much knowledge about agriculture. I applied at the local gas bar but they said there was no openings and asked me if I would like to work at another store location my reply was “sure anywhere you need my help”. I smooth talked my way through the interview and got my self a job in a warehouse that stocks agriculture goods( feed, salt, oil). First day I get an order form from a customer had no idea what anything was and went off a hunch what he wanted. When loading the order I causually asked about his animals and made small “country” talk. Worked hard and showed I was willing to do the dirty work and now I’ve had that job for several months.

By: Allen Uribes

Allen Uribes — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:52:19 +0000

This is very interesting information that I shall put to use.

Thank you.

By: Timothy Cui Malferrari

Timothy Cui Malferrari — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 17:06:59 +0000

The Italians call it SPREZZATURA.The Art of Making Difficult things look easy.Sums up your article.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:10:13 +0000

I work for a chemical company, and my coworkers tell the story of a young, new lawyer who cowed the EPA out of millions of dollars. The company was fined for non-compliance, and they went to the EPA office to try for some kind of settlement. They had never met their lawyer, and when they walked in he (with dip in his mouth, muddy cowboy boots and a Panama hat) marched right up to the EPA officials and threatened to make their lives miserable and tie them up in court for years. The EPA caved and the lawyer saved my company millions of dollars. As soon as they were out the door the lawyer went into the bathroom where he spat out the dip, changed out of the boots and took off the hat. They were shocked that he had been playing the part of some roughneck... he wasn't who they thought he was at all. The point is: attitude and appearance change things, they have the power to give confidence and intimidate!

By: Buck

Buck — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:35:39 +0000

I’ve had my law license for the past 13 months, and this article pretty much sums up my entire legal career. Beautiful!

By: Paul II

Paul II — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:43:28 +0000

I’m a natural at this, it was a fun read! “Being a Bullshitter 101″

By: Vair

Vair — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:09:24 +0000

This is akin to the saying: If by telling a fair woman that she is beautiful, the resulting glow on her face makes her so. What started as a lie, ended in truth.
Even if you don’t feel confident, you will become confident as you follow the other steps in the article. (Story of my life)

Great Job.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 07:20:59 +0000

I think there’s a lot of people in very good jobs today (myself included), who ‘test poorly’ (not great school grades) but ‘interview well’ (know how to be a charming bastard).

By: Gary T

Gary T — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 05:17:48 +0000

This is really a great article, and highlighting Frank Abagnale’s accomplishments is perfect.
Certainly, people first see what they expect to see, so a person who appears to be what they expect has a huge leg-up on passing as is if he is what he says he is.
So, yes, confidence is supreme, even false confidence, cause no one can tell, if you are smoothly confident. Form over substance. That crap seems to win everytime, if there is no prima facie suspicions. And sometimes even if there is.
Getting the lingo down is the next most important thing. Every society has its way of talking. Get that down, and you’ve notched out the second biggest problem of fitting in.
I really love this stuff. It plays morons for the lazy fools they are.
Only people of substance wouldn’t be fooled by this. Just hope you don’t meet one of them while doing this ;^)