Leveraging The Power of the First Impression Helps You Win The Interview

First impressions are so important in the initial meeting that one would not be too far off base if they argued the most important part of the interview. First impressions set the tone for the interview and often determine the types of questions, length of the interview, and ultimately the outcome. Making a strong first impression is often the deciding factor in who makes it to the next round. If the candidate makes a strong first impression they are immediately liked by the interviewer. This candidate just moved up the point scale towards the next round and they haven’t even been asked one question. On the other hand, if the candidate makes a weak first impression, the candidate starts out in the hole. This hole if often so deep  that no matter how well they answer the questions, the interviewer cannot overcome their first impression. In fact, they may have decided right in the lobby that this person isn’t getting the job.

Tips to making a strong first impression:

· Good eye contact.

· Remain a comfortable distance from the person.

· Firm handshake – even if you think you have one ask someone who will be open and honest. Many don’t, so don’t assume you do.

· Strong introduction coupled with a smile, a strong handshake and eye contact. Practice this introduction.

· Have a couple of conversational questions prepared in advance to engage the interviewer.

· The most important of all are the four “A’s.” A VP of HR at Rockwell Corporation gave us these. They are so important more than 25 years later we still remember them.

1. Appearance

   
   

2. Articulate

   
   

3. Affable

   
   

4. Assertive

Bring these four to the first impression and you will move up the scale – not down.

Study after study reveals that likability is the single most important factor used when determining who ultimately gets the job. Underestimating this is a failure of many candidates. Those that make a strong first impression will often do better in an interview than candidates with better experience.

Join our Job Search Networking Linkedin Group. There are over 2700 members and an extensive supply of resources for you to tap into. CLICK HERE to join. Membership is FREE.

We have numerous free downloads on our Web site to help you in your search. Sample cover letters, audio downloads from past radio shows,a transferable skills list, Linkedin Profile Assessment Matrix, and our Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. All can be downloaded from our homepage at www.impacthiringsolutions.com.

Every Monday at 11 AM Pacific time listen to our radio show anywhere in the world on www.latalkradio.com channel 2.

I welcome your comments and thoughts

Brad Remillard

How To Shoot Yourself In The Foot While Conducting A Job Search

I think the best way to shoot yourself in the foot while in a job search is not having a structured, formal, repeatable job search methodology or process. In the case of a job search HOPE and LUCK are not a process.

A methodology has a series of steps, that when followed, increase the probability of a desired outcome. This also implies that when a step is skipped the probability of the desired outcome is less. There is only one thing worse than skipping a step in a methodology, and that is not having one at all. Unfortunately, we find that most candidates don’t have a real methodology. Most tend to have a little of this and a little of that and candidates are easily distracted. The results tend to be no methodology.

Our job search workbook, “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” is a 5 step process for making you a sales person during your job search. After all, when you are in a job search you are in sales. There are 5 basic steps in the sales process that are a good outline for a job search.

1. What is the product or service? Before a sales person can sell a product they must know all about the product. This not only includes the facts about the product, but what makes this product better than the competition, what makes this product unique, how the buyer will benefit from the product, and often a SWOT analysis is performed. Since you are the product in a job search have you addressed all of these issues?
2. Once step one is completed it is time to identify the customers and put together a marketing plan. Not everyone may need or want your product. In fact, your product probably is not right for everyone. So you must identify the high potential customers. Those that have a high probability of not only buying your product, but also can afford your product. Why waste time meeting customers if they don’t fall into one of these categories? In a job search we call this, “networking with a purpose.”
3. Now that high potential customers have been defined and identified, every sales person needs marketing materials. Marketing documents, regardless of the form, strive to get to the customer’s underlying motivation. Often this requires multiple marketing materials and multiple formats. Regardless of formats, most marketing documents are about the customer, not the seller. Is your resume a marketing document? Is it about the buyer or all about you?
4. Sooner or later every sales person has to make a sales presentation to get the sale. Top salespeople have this down pat. They rehearse, they anticipate questions and practice the answers, they know what the buyer’s objections to the product are, and have thought through how to overcome them. Finally they have studied the competition and know exactly why their product will better meet the customer’s needs. Obviously, this is the interview for those in a job search. Would you be considered a top sales person?
5. Finally top salespeople know how to follow-up and close the sale. This is the most difficult part of any sale. It must be done tactfully, in a manner that engages the customer without bugging them and continues to overcome issues as the process continues. For candidates, this is all of the additional interviews that take place as you move through the hiring process.

These five steps are the basic steps in an search process. Just like the sales process, there is a lot more that goes into each step. Top salespeople spend an enormous time training, preparing and practicing each step. Top candidates do the same.

Join our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group for a lot more help with developing and enhancing your job search methodology. CLICK HERE to join the group.

Our job search workbook, “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” is based on the five steps outlined above and goes into great detail on each step. We will send you the book to review for just the cost of shipping $5. CLICK HERE to read more. Readers have rated this workbook 4.5 stars out of 5.

I encourage your comments and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Job Search: On-line vs. In-Person 1st Impressions

Chad Levitt, a guest blogger at Dan Schwabel’s Personal Branding Blog posted a blog a few days ago titled “What is Your Digital First Impression?” Chad claimed that making a digital first impression was very similar to making a personal first impression. He inferred in the blog posting that when people are searching for you on google, those first few links that come back are your first impression.

By the way, Chad is an extraordinary authority figure on personal branding, particularly in networking and sales. His own blog at The New Sales Economy Blog is one of my favorite.

No disrespect intended, but I think Chad may have defined digital first impressions a little too narrow.

In a personal meeting, you typically have one chance to make a good first impression. Blow it – and it’s over. Rarely will you have another opportunity.

On-line, first impressions are radically different. Not only are your first impressions scattered across a wide array of sites, such as LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, forums, discussion groups, Twitter, and many other indexed sites/comments.

Not only is your first impression scattered across a wide variety of sites as compared to a one-time event in person, you also have the ability to constantly improve, manage, build, develop, and evolve your first impression on-line. What appears today in a Google Search is NOT what has to appear next week.

The major question is: are you continuously working on your digital first impression so that you can be “found” by buyers, hiring managers, senior executives, recruiters, and human resources?

Let’s tackle one small area of starting to more effectively manage your digital first impressions: A few months ago, we posted on our website an 8-point Success Matrix to evaluate the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Profile. The scorecard was intended to determine if your LinkedIn profile was strong enough to let you be found by hiring managers, recruiters, and human resources.

Our research around the use of LinkedIn as a Personal Branding Tool and for Job Search 1st Impressions was depressing. Less than 10% of those who took the challenge to assess their LinkedIn Profile using our Scorecard met the minimum standard for effectiveness.

If you would like to gain a deeper understanding if your LinkedIn Profile can be more effective in helping you to be “found”, download the LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment.

Barry

Join our LinkedIn Discussion Group where we release first all our new tools, templates, and advanced self-assessments.

Put On Your Sales Hat in Your Job Search

I just conducted one of our regular weekly Internet Radio Talk Shows. You can download the new audio broadcast from our website in our FREE Audio Library.

In this program we discussed the following topics and took questions from our audience regarding their job search issues about “Putting On Their Sales Hat”:

Plan Their Work

1. Networking Plan
2. Target Plan
3. Group Participation Plan
4. Research – hot industry’s/goggling hiring managers

Numbers Count!

1. Well-Prepared to being their sales efforts
2. Documents lined up
3. Details/Research/Comparative Information – armed with right info
4. Rehearsed and polished

The Interview/Presentation

1. Quick Rapport/First Impressions
2. Solution Selling – what’s your pain (should know this in advance – top 4 typical problems/issues for that role
3. Enthusiasm/Energy – show your passion

Follow-up after the interview

1. Thank You Notes
2. Sending relevant information
3. Networking
4. Finding backdoors

We’ve got a wealth of tools on our website to help you Put on Your Sales Hat. Check out our Candidate Product Library – where we’ve taken this concept and built a structured workbook, templates, and audio programs.

Take a look at our Job Search Service Catalog where we’ve developed a series of coaching and assessment tools to determine if you’re effectively applying the concepts and methodology behind “Putting On Your Sales Hat”.

Finally, join our LinkedIn Discussion Group which provides a vibrant forum for posing questions and getting answers from other candidates conducting a job search and how their applying each of the key steps of our Career Success Methodology.

Barry

photo credit JL McVay

Does the Hiring Manager Believe You?

Although we might not like to admit it, most hiring decisions occur through likability, rapport, and personal chemistry. Not only do you have to prove that you’ve got “the right stuff”, you’ve got to market it/sell it with enough enthusiasm and excitement that the hiring manager really believes it.

How do you overcome this natural tendency to focus on first impressions in the hiring process? One major technique is to do a better job in preparing to interview – this reduces and eliminates the employer bias toward style, personality, and presentation.

We identify this preparation as one of the five key elements of a successful job search.

You can also learn more about limiting the effect of first impressions and reducing the influence of personality and presentation by following out Internet Radio Show where every week we explore a different element of conducting an effective job search. The past programs can be downloaded from our radio show library.

Here’s a post from one of the many blogs I follow that offers an additional perspective:

From Amber Shaw of the Geniusopia Blog

Are You a Believable Candidate?

You need to tell them you’re excited about the job because you want to do this kind of work and work for a company like this.  You need to tell them you’re going to be fantastic in this  job because your experience gives you this list of skills.  You need to say this because if you don’t, it’s fundamentally implying that it’s not true.  So you say it.

Except … if you say that you want this job because you want to work at this company but you really want the job so you have a job, they can tell.  If you say you’d be absolutely fantastic in this job because of your whatever but you really mean that you’ll show up and do a good job for awhile and then possibly start slacking off, they can tell.

If you don’t believe it, then they won’t believe it either.

The solution is to only apply for jobs for which these statements are already true.  Just because you fulfill some or all of the requirements for a job does not mean it’s the right job for you.  Just because you want to work somewhere does not mean it’s the right job for you.

It’s the right job for you if you fulfill the requirements, if you want to work there and if you think you’ll be successul there.  Yes, that does narrow down the jobs you apply to, but it also saves you time and means you’ll end up in a job you actually want.

http://geniusopia.com/2009/05/are-you-a-believable-candidate/

Barry