The Trick to Bragging in a Job Interview

It is a classic problem for entrepreneurs, job seekers and, well, anyone: If you brag about your accomplishments, you seem more competent—but less likeable.

The solution? Add a dash of playfulness when discussing your talents.

A team of researchers have found that “humourbragging”—referring to your accomplishments through a veil of humour—allows people to play up their skills without coming across as smug or conceited. And that makes them more likely to get hired or get their pitch accepted.

“The self-enhancing humour helps them be seen as confident without sacrificing likability,” says Jieun Pai , an assistant professor at Imperial College London who led the research .

Laughs get results

The researchers used a series of studies to test the impact of what they called humourbragging. In one instance, they sent out two résumés to 345 companies—but one version of the résumé added a dash of self-promotional humour instead of being purely serious: “The more coffee you can provide, the more output I will produce.” The résumés with the joke got an email or a callback by 156 companies, versus 125 for the others.

Another study got similar results when looking at humorous bragging on the first four seasons of “Shark Tank”—people who used humour to highlight their accomplishments were more likely to get funding than others.

In another case, the researchers found that study participants were more likely to hire a pastry chef who used some levity in selling themselves. One candidate described making a soccer-themed cake for a boy’s fifth-birthday party and capped off the story by saying they got the biggest tip the bakery has ever seen. The baker who was the hiring favourite told the same story, including the part about the tip, but ended up by saying, “I am just glad that I only had to make the soccer ball, not actually kick one.”

Pick your jokes wisely

People need to be cautious, though, when using humour to sell themselves, Pai says. Self-deprecating humour without any bragging at all, or humour intended to belittle others in any form, doesn’t have the same positive impact that humorous bragging does, according to the research. “We sometimes use self-deprecating humour, but that backfires and downplays your achievements,” she says. “It doesn’t help you be seen as more competent.”

For many Australians, the 2026 Federal Budget initially felt like a direct challenge to the way wealth is created, held and transferred between generations.

The headlines were immediate: changes to capital gains tax, reforms to discretionary trusts, restrictions on negative gearing and increased scrutiny of investment structures. Unsurprisingly, affluent families, business owners and investors began asking the same question:

Is the way we hold our wealth still fit for purpose?

In recent days, the government has announced several significant amendments following industry consultation and public feedback, including exempting testamentary trusts from the proposed 30 per cent minimum tax and expanding capital gains tax concessions for small businesses.

The backdown is welcome. But it also highlights something much bigger.

This Budget has accelerated a conversation that many Australian families have been postponing for years.

The conversation is not really about tax. It is about wealth stewardship.

For decades, Australians have built wealth through businesses, property, investments and careful long-term planning. Yet many families have not revisited the legal structures surrounding those assets in years, sometimes decades.

We often see clients who have spent years building significant wealth, only to discover their legal arrangements no longer reflect their current circumstances.

Their children are now adults. They may own multiple properties.

They may have sold a business, entered a second marriage, become grandparents or accumulated digital assets that did not exist when their original estate plans were prepared.

The trust that distributes income may need to be reconsidered. The bucket company may no longer be so attractive.

The Budget has simply exposed a reality that already existed: wealth structures cannot remain static while life continues to evolve.

Importantly, trusts themselves are not the issue.

Trusts are legitimate planning tools that provide flexibility, protection and continuity. When used appropriately, they allow families to adapt to changing circumstances over time.

And neither is tax the issue, really. Getting the fundamentals right is more important for long-term, sustainable wealth than a few favourable tax treatments around the edges.

The real issue is complacency.

Too often, families create structures and assume the job is done. It isn’t.

Estate planning is no longer a document you sign once and file away in a drawer. It is an ongoing process that should evolve alongside your life.

We are also seeing a broader shift in how Australians define wealth itself. It is no longer just the family home and an investment portfolio.

Modern wealth includes businesses, digital assets, cryptocurrency, intellectual property, frequent flyer points and increasingly complex family arrangements.

At the same time, Australians are living longer than ever before, meaning wealth may need to support multiple generations simultaneously. This creates new responsibilities and new risks.

How do you help your children enter the property market without exposing family wealth to relationship breakdowns?

How do you structure wealth so that it remains a source of opportunity rather than future conflict?

These are the questions families should be asking now.

The recent debate surrounding testamentary trusts also serves as an important reminder that policy decisions can have unintended consequences for vulnerable Australians. It is encouraging that the government has listened to feedback and clarified its position.

But the lesson remains: the wealth landscape is changing.

Increasingly, governments, regulators and tax authorities are paying closer attention to how wealth is held and transferred. That means families cannot afford to adopt a “set-and-forget” approach to their structures.

The families who will be best placed for the future are not necessarily those with the greatest wealth.

They are the families with the greatest clarity. Clarity around ownership, succession and governance. And clarity around how wealth will transition from one generation to the next.

Ultimately, preserving wealth is not about avoiding change.

It is about preparing for it.

Because the greatest risk is not change itself.

It is losing the ability to respond to it.

Anthony Hunt is Co-Founder of Wealth Lawyers and former COO of Westpac Private Bank. He advises business owners, investors and affluent Australian families on wealth protection, succession planning and intergenerational wealth transfer

The Trick to Bragging in a Job Interview

‘Humourbragging’ can make you seem less conceited when you’re boasting

Laughs get results

Pick your jokes wisely

The Federal Budget may have softened some of its proposed tax reforms, but it has exposed a bigger issue: too many families are relying on wealth structures that no longer reflect the realities of modern life.