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In the spirit of improving your EQ, when speaking to a potential employer (or a headhunter), it's important to calibrate the speaking/listening equation. We are all going through an unsettling period, and the job market is precarious, which brings a lot of emotion and sometimes anxious talking. For the first-round conversation with an employer, I suggest aiming for 30% employer talking and 70% candidate talking. If you end the call or Zoom session feeling like you spoke more than 70% of the time, you need to re-calibrate. For the second round with the same person, the balance should be closer to 50/50.

Additionally, I always learn a lot about a candidate by the questions they ask and the listening they do.