{"id":958,"date":"2012-11-15T17:52:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T17:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/career-advice\/?p=958"},"modified":"2012-11-15T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T17:52:20","slug":"ace-your-first-impression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/ace-your-first-impression\/","title":{"rendered":"Ace Your First Impression"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-961 alignnone\" title=\"Ace Your First Impression\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Ace-Your-First-Impression.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"380\" \/><\/p>\n<p>An effective self-marketing twosome \u2014 cover letter and resume\u2014will undoubtedly land more interviews. To substantiate the image you\u2019ve created for yourself, and to land that coveted job offer, you must keep the momentum going and ace the interview too.<\/p>\n<p>Before you begin answering questions, you have to make a great first impression. Behaviour, grooming, appearance \u2026 multiple factors impact the impression you generate. If you are late you may be seen as unreliable, if you wear an overabundance of scents you may be seen as insensitive to others, and if your outfit is outrageous you may be considered too much of a maverick. Being ignorant of what it takes can cost you a job offer.<\/p>\n<p>So what does it take? Let\u2019s retrace an interviewee\u2019s steps from entering the employer\u2019s office to the point of sitting down to begin the interview.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dress on the conservative side, unless you are applying for a creative role. Rule of thumb is to dress one step up from, or in a manner that fits the everyday dress code.<\/li>\n<li>Arrive a little early, maybe 10 minutes or so. This establishes your credibility as a punctual employee, and also gives you a few minutes to relax, turn off your cell phone, and ask the receptionist for the interview team\u2019s business cards (to send a thank you note).<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Greet the receptionist warmly. Don\u2019t doubt the receptionist\u2019s influence on his boss\u2019s decisions. Occasionally even managers may cover reception, and you certainly wouldn\u2019t want to mismanage this simple opportunity to create a positive impression.<\/li>\n<li>Pay attention to your surroundings. Consider this true story. A candidate for a divisional director position with one of Canada\u2019s leading employers (read: <em>Dream Job<\/em>), eliminated herself because she ignored everyone as she sat waiting to be called in to the interview (and one of these was a Vice President, she later found out). Engrossed in her messages, she demonstrated a lack of \u201cbeing present.\u201d Had she conducted her research, she would have discovered that this firm \u201cwalks the talk\u201d and hires with emphasis on a good corporate fit, which her actions confirmed that she was not!<\/li>\n<li>Pay attention to your body language when seated in the interview. Don\u2019t slouch, don\u2019t cross your arms in front of you, and do lean subtly forward. Nod in agreement, and maintain appropriate eye contact (about 75% of the time, and do make contact with each and every member of the team).<\/li>\n<li>Relax, and that means don\u2019t jiggle or fidget.<\/li>\n<li>Do not bring your caf\u00e9 latte with you, and don\u2019t chew gum.<\/li>\n<li>Arrive well groomed\u2014hair neat, fingernails manicured, deodorant applied, and breath fresh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Interviewers evaluate each candidate, ticking off many categories, in order to eliminate all but one. Give the interviewers no reason, no matter how small, to give you less than perfect marks for first impressions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An effective self-marketing twosome \u2014 cover letter and resume\u2014will undoubtedly land more interviews. To substantiate the image you\u2019ve created for yourself, and to land that coveted job offer, you must keep the momentum going and ace the interview too. Before you begin answering questions, you have to make a great first impression. Behaviour, grooming, appearance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcjobs.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}