Pitch.

I don’t mean a baseball or a sales idea but rather your voice.

Vocal pitch is an important and often overlooked aspect of communication in English. We respond favorably to rich, deep, resonant tones. They comfort us and make us feel the speaker can be trusted. And you want a potential employer to trust you.

Don’t go nuts trying to get a low voice, my voice teacher always told me “if it hurts, don’t do that.”

On the other hand, tension drives up vocal pitch. It’s a sign of anxiety. Of course, you ARE anxious, but there’s no reason to tip your hand to the interviewer. If you lower your pitch just a bit you’ll seem more confident and won’t hurt your throat.

Here’s a trick: close your eyes and hum a bit. Don’t try to make music or anything, just make noise that’s comfortable in your normal speaking range. You should be able to feel a bit of vibration somewhere in your body.

Note where that is then adjust your pitch up or down. Notice how the vibration moves. When you find the place where your throat feels better, you’re there. Practice putting the vibration there when you speak.

If you’re like most folks, that point was about two steps below what you’re used to using. Now if you record yourself, you’ll find you recognize your own voice and like it a lot better. You’ll also find people in your daily life being more polite to you and smiling more. At least I did. It’s because you sound respectable. Maybe a little older, but older as in wiser (not decrepit). Wisdom is something that won’t show up on paper in any real way, but people think they know it when they see it. Really it’s like they know it when they hear it.