Classic Rock for the catering industry; Trip-Hop for marketing; Classical orchestral music for editors; Drum and Bass for nurses; and piano sonatas for legal aids. This kind of segmentation is laughable. Music genres aren’t limited to specific sectors of activity. It’s not as cut and dry as that. But our musical tastes do form a part of our identity, they express a lot about who we are and what we choose to identify with.
Much like the interview attire to impress the hiring manager, the music you identify with can go a long way toward ingratiating yourself to the person you are interacting with. (The opposite is also true; it can serve to repulse or put off others.) It’s just another way of answering the “what are your hobbies?” interview question.
Of course, your personal tastes are just that – personal. It is up to you to decide if or when and how you choose to share those tastes with others. This article will not attempt to address those questions.
Instead, in this short article, we will be asking ourselves several questions – a bit of a thought experiment, if you will – about what the music we listen to says about us from the perspective of an employer, current, future, or past.
Preferred Genre vs Eclectic
Put yourself, for a moment, in your employer’s place. He or she has to decide whether the person they are interviewing has the personal and professional attributes they need for the job and that they have the personal and professional attributes that will make sure they successfully integrate and grow with the team. And they need to make this decision in a relatively short amount of time with relatively little information.
In order to achieve this, they are more likely to place more weight on assumptions or statistics on probabilities and correlations than they might otherwise be.
All things being equal, if it came down to 2 candidates – 1 whose tastes in music vary greatly, spanning many seemingly unrelated musical genres, and the other, whose taste seems to be focused or limited to a few artists or one or 2 loosely connected genres – ask yourself what kind of assumptions or correlations would the employer be likely to make about those 2 candidates.
On the one hand, having an eclectic taste in music suggests that the person is quite open-minded, that they have a certain level of intellectual curiosity, and that they aren’t afraid to step out of their comfort zone. These are all highly sought-after attributes that employers look for in their employees.
On the other hand, having an eclectic taste in music could suggest that the person lacks focus, that he or she has a nebulous, at best, the notion of their identity, that they might be short to stay in any one context and quick to jump to another not necessarily connected one.
Nostalgia vs Trends
Put yourself, for a moment, in your employer’s place. He or she has is left interviewing 2 candidates for an important position they need to fill. The candidates are both equal in all other respects, but one prefers music that evokes nostalgia while the other jumps freely along with the current trends.
Ask yourself what kind of assumptions or correlations would the employer be likely to make about those 2 candidates.
On the one hand, having a preference for what’s current or trending does show the person is in touch with – or at least attempting to be in touch with – the pulse of the people, in a large sense of the term. It shows they are excited by the new, the latest. There are many jobs for which this would be an apt description of the ideal candidate. Conversely, there are also many other jobs where this would be in contrast to the job profile.
On the other hand, having a preference for music that evokes another time, another place might also express a lot of admirable attributes. A person with preferences for the nostalgic might elicit the notion that they have a healthy respect for order and stability. They may be more inclined toward long-term thinking.
The validity of these assumptions or correlations can certainly be put into question. But ours is not to wonder about the merits of an assumption. Ours is to be concerned with what those assumptions are and be prepared to defend ourselves against them or use them to our advantage.
In a Nutshell
When people form an opinion about others, especially when they do so in a relatively short amount of time with a relatively little amount of information, they often tend to take leaps and make assumptions. Sometimes these can work for you, sometimes they can work against you. Ultimately, you have the right to decide how much of your personal preferences- if any – you want to share and how. But, when trying to make a good first impression to an employer (new or prospective), you shouldn’t underestimate what the music you like says about you to employers. The tips you get can be used when you find your dream job on Jooble.
Hi, I’m Erick Ycaza — a music blogger with a BA in Advertising & Graphic Design. I created this blog to keep you updated with daily music news. Surprisingly, I’ve been writing about music since 2007. If you’re an artist and would like to be featured, feel free to reach out: info@electrowow.net
