Job Search: Making great first impressions

If someone sold you a product with torn packaging would you buy it? Definitely not. Maybe yes, if you were getting a good deal. When you are searching for a job you are selling your services in return for a salary. Then why would you sell yourself with bad packaging. Unless of course you intend to discount yourself. Read on to learn simple tactics from someone who has conducted  1000+ interviews across decades to make great impressions with no effort which would help you differentiate from 90% of the crowd and present yourself successfully.

Let’s start with the easiest stuff

• Be well groomed
• You should look as if you have bathed; hair in order; should not be smelling of smoke

• Dress professionally
• Dress formally 
• applicable for 90% of the professions
• For females - You can choose between western and Indian outfits. Be professional. 
• For males - Full sleeved collared clean and ironed shirts (solid colors - blue, white), formal trousers (blue, black, dark grey) and black leather shoes and black leather belt

• Be on time

• If you are doing a virtual interview
• above rules still rules apply
• please do some homework and ensure that you have the right audio and video infrastructure to successfully run the interview.
• try to find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. 

The intermediate complexity stuffs

• Don’t give excuses
• If you are delayed apologize profusely explain briefly (most explain profusely and never apologize)
• If you cannot keep your appointment for the day
• Explain briefly
• Apologize profusely but swiftly
• Quickly move the conversation to offering 3 alternate options for another appointment. 
• Be flexible and don't miss the appointment again. 

The complex stuff ... it requires lot of practice and homework

• The start
• The start of the interview is generally awkward, the interviewer is going through your CV and searching for a question to ask
• first round = start with a 2-3 sentence long script describing the events which took place before the first round of this interview and that you are grateful for the opportunity and excited to start the interview. This is small talk but will show you as a confident person. (The catch is that it has to be 2-3 precise sentences, you cannot start rambling which will make you look bad. It has to be a precise script, delivered perfectly)
• Second third round etc. .... Again, we start the interview by summarizing the past rounds of interviews through a crisp script which has been practiced at home

• Introducing yourself 
• in all interviews we have the standard question "tell me something about yourself" 
• most end up rambling stuff ... whatever comes to their mind at that moment. 
• Have a scripted introduction. 
• Practice saying your introduction while taking a video. 9 times out of 10 you will not like what you see. 
• Practice and improve. Once you start liking what you see and hear show it some of your trusted friends and family. Get their feedback and correct. 
• Think of yourself like an actor giving a shot. Give a perfect shot even if it requires 100 takes. 
• Interview introductions are made sitting, so focus on your posture (stiff vs comfortable and professional), facial expressions (nervous vs confident), energy in your voice (low energy vs good energy), volume of your voice(so low vs not shouting), the fluency with which you deliver your content, quality of content ( it has to be interesting not a read out of your CV)

These are some very obvious things to easily fix. It is not a comprehensive guide on making good first impressions while interviewing for a job, yet it is a good starting point to differentiate yourself from 90% of the crowd. Since it’s not a comprehensive guide on making great first expressions please feel free to ask me specific questions and i would love to share my experiences from the 1000+ interviews I have conducted.