2 Judgments Potential Employers Make About You

2 Judgments Potential Employers Make About You

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First impressions count for a lot. In a business context, even the most highly-qualified people are required to present themselves to the best of their abilities within only a matter of seconds—and sometimes without warning.

The elevator speech, the job interview, the first day on the job: every brief interaction has the potential to make or break us. So what are people really looking for when they meet us?

According to Harvard Business School psychologist Amy Cuddy, who has been studying first impressions for more than a decade, people are looking to answer two questions when they meet you:

Can I trust this person and,

Can I respect this person?

While the questions may seem simple enough, helping people to arrive at the most mutually beneficial answer may be somewhat more difficult.

Also read: How to Build Trust at Work

Here are a few tips for how to ace your first impressions in three, common scenarios.

  • The Networking Event

For many people, the more informal the interaction, the harder it is to relax and make a confident first impression. Without the familiar and understood structure of a meeting or a job interview, it can be much harder to gauge when to speak about one’s own accomplishments and when to sit back and listen to the other person’s topic of choice.

Sometimes, what may seem to be a clear networking opportunity to you may appear to be nothing more than a chance, social encounter to the person you’re trying to win over. The best move here is to mirror your networking target: don’t launch into the finer points of your resume or try to shoehorn your best qualities into the conversation. Listen carefully, collect details and then try to find a way to relate similar experiences from your own personal or professional life that are interesting, memorable and show you in a good light.

Above all, stay relaxed and confident. Many employers want to work with people that they feel are easy to talk to—and it’s much easier to feel that a person can be trusted and respected when they don’t rush to present themselves but can simply talk and listen. After all, this type of impression will be more memorable than recounting a story about how you increased sales by 30-percent at your last job.

Also read: Networking for Introverts: 7 Steps to Complete Mastery of Any Social Event

  • The Job Interview

This is your time to shine—so treat it as an opportunity and not a stressor.

Always show up early but not so that the receptionist gets to see how punctual you are. Instead, show up early for yourself: by not rushing into the building, you’ll already be cool and collected when you hit the waiting room, helping you start your interview without appearing harried or frenzied.

Focus on addressing everyone in the room. Even if one of your interviewers is the CEO of the company and everyone else is much lower on the totem pole, convey that you can be trusted and respected by engaging each of them with eye contact. The CEO might have the final say in your hiring but those other employees might be your future coworkers or managers and their opinions will matter. Making sure they see you as competent and able to engage with people on all levels of the corporate hierarchy is vital to building your future working relationship.

Keep in mind, if you have a list of achievements you want to speak about, this is the best time to do it. However, focus on delivering anecdotes that demonstrate moments or actions in which you were able to be reliable and competent as opposed to simply rattling off your best statistics or awards. Bonus points if you can inject some humor into these stories but only if you’re confident about when it’s safe to be funny and when you risk crossing a line.

  • The First Day on the Job

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations—but your job has only just begun. Now comes the challenge of making sure that everyone you meet has a positive impression of you.

Good news is, this isn’t the time to inform everyone of just how incredible you are: remember, people are looking for a manager or colleague they can trust or respect. Your achievements will not communicate that but your ability to be honest, transparent and confident will. Make a real effort to remember names and faces. Try to ask questions that show you are interested in getting to know others and that you are making an effort to relate to them. You may find that they remember your eagerness to learn about them more than they remember anything about you—and that show of warmth is a great way to get off on the right foot in a relationship.

Showing that you’re listening is a key, early way to communicate that you can be trusted and respected before the rubber even meets the road.

Also read: Unwritten Rules You Need to be Aware of While Onboarding

Bottom Line

Trust and respect are at the heart of every good relationship. In the professional context, people need to know that you are reliable and capable but they don’t need to know about a list of your credentials. Focus on actions that demonstrate your ability to be trusted and respected early on: people will remember these encounters much more than any conversation.

R Kress
About the Author
R Kress

R. Kress is an Emmy Award winning journalist whose reporting and writing has appeared in national media from NBC News to the International Herald Tribune. She has covered news from cities around the world including Jerusalem, Krakow, Amman and Mumbai.

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