Are you a right or left brained thinker?

Knowing the answer can help you improve your interview skills.

Let’s look a little more closely at how that roughly 3 pound lump of grey matter that you depend upon to get you HIRED works. Here goes: The left side of the brain is the logical, analytical side: it evaluates factual material in a rational way, only understands words in their most literal sense, processes information sequentially, one step at a time, allows advanced mathematical calculations to be made, controls speech, is able to read and write, recalls names and spells, and controls the movement of the right side of the body.

The right side of the brain: works in images rather than words, can process many kinds of information simultaneously, sees problems holistically, can make great intuitive leaps, is able to see the whole problem at once, remembers faces, interprets facial expressions, and sees the features as a whole, perceives space and location, allows one to do jigsaw puzzles and prevents one from getting lost on the street or in one’s own home!, can fantasise, make up stories and knows how to play, can ask “What if?”, is the side for worship, prayer, mysticism and dreams, controls the movements of the left side of the body.

To further illustrate this, here are some examples of how the left and right brain hemispheres complement each other:

• A scientist needs the left brain for deductive reasoning, but it is the right brain that often facilitates a leap of insight that solves a complex problem.
• An architect creates special and aesthetic relationships with his right brain, but depends on the left brain for dimensions, stress estimates and building regulations.
• A poet draws feelings and imagery from the right side, but the left side finds the words that suit the thoughts.

It is a global phenomenon that most professionals trained in IT and Engineering are significantly left-brained due to their typical, predominantly left-brained education, and the intense practical training that is required to become a qualified professional in these fields. Therefore, the imaginative, creative, discerning and communicative right side of the brain – in these individuals especially, if not in almost all educated adults, has not been developed to be used to its full potential.

To view other videos in the “Marketing You” Video Series about marketing yourself to employers and recruiters please view Introduction to Marketing You, Success and Creative Visualization, 60 Second Pitch,  Job Interview Tips, Resume Writing and Resume Cover Letters videos. The next video in this series is Interview Skills for Left Brained Individuals  Video 6.

You may also want to download one of our Marketing You FREE E-books or visit our vast Resources Section including Tax Tip Videos and the Interview Coach articles.