How to Make a Good First Impression in a Job Interview - Ft. Sarah Johnston

Hey, everyone.

This is Self Made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann, and today you'll learn the top tips for how to make a good first impression in a job interview. You'll learn some things about your appearance, how you dress that you'll be judged on big time, and how to overcome it. And the key to making that initial small talk impactful. I am so lucky to be not doing this alone. Sarah Johnston joins me. If you don't know Sarah, she is a big deal. She is a former corporate recruiter who went rogue and she took her insider knowledge and started briefcase coach to partner with job seekers to coach them to success. And do stay to the end because Sarah flips the interview on me and I end up sharing some of the things that I did in a recent job interview to make that first impression that made a big difference. Let's go. Hey, Sarah. So great to have you on Self Made Millennial today.

I'm so excited to be here. I've been a big fan, so I'm honored to be asked.

Yes, yes. And this topic is one we haven't covered yet, which is how to make a good first impression in a job interview, which is so crucial. And I know that there are lots of, you know, there's lots of talk about how important first impression is, but what have you seen out there in, you know, interviews or in the research that really confirms that?

Yeah, so there's a really interesting stat. Psychological science tells us that people form decisions about others in one tenth of a second. One tenth of a second. I know, it's crazy. And so you've got to consider that when you are approaching an interview. Additionally, there was some research done by Monster UK and they interviewed hiring managers across the board and found that one third of hiring managers at all levels decided whether or not they were going to hire a candidate based on the first five minutes of an interview.

And so then what are some of the ways we can make that really amazing impression in the first five minutes or 30 seconds or all of that?

First is how you come across. You have to be really aware of the way that you look and the way that you're presenting yourself. And it has to be catered towards the different office settings. So I've got on some fun long earrings. I probably wouldn't wear these to a bank interview. I probably dress pretty conservatively in a suit, maybe some little pearl earrings, and I might have my hair pulled back or in a very traditional style. You would maybe dress differently if you were interviewing for a startup position. And so just Being aware of your audience doing research on the environment that they're in can be really helpful for making a first impression.

You'll it almost seem like you're in the in crowd or in the out crowd if you're dressed very differently from everyone else in the office. And I, and I don't even think that there's some sort of rule of like, you must be very formal, you must be very casual. Because, you know, I've seen the startup environments. Someone walks in a suit, they think, oh, is that a lawyer or an accountant? They don't think, oh, are they, you know, coming to interview for our marketing role? And so, and it's not them trying to, you know, be super biased. It's just something that happens in the back of their head.

You are so right. When you are different than other people, you stand out in a way that sometimes isn't the way that you want to stand out. It's totally acceptable to email the recruiter and say, I'm really looking forward to this interview. What's the attire like at the office? Or what will the hiring manager, what's the day to day attire like? And they'll give you some clues. They'll say, you know, we're pretty business casual here. That being said, I think you should always dress just a nudge above, just a little bit above what other people in the office are wearing just so that you're putting your best foot forward.

Yeah, I totally hear that. And so we have like our perfect interview outfit set up. And so then how do we then walk into the interview and then when we start to talk, what are some of the ways we can really make a big impact?

I always start with research. And I'm an extrovert. I can make small talk with a wall. But before I go into a job interview or an important meeting, I always do research on the other person just to know what they're about so that I can make meaningful, targeted small talk with that person and build rapport. So I'll go online and I'll google them. I'll see if they've written any articles, if they've been in any blogs lately. I'll look at where they went to college. Maybe we have that in common. So I think it's always great to look for commonalities. I know that you recently went through a job search yourself. Tell me about how you prepared for that process.

Yeah, so I, you know, LinkedIn is a beautiful thing. Usually companies would give me the list of people who I was interviewing with, but sometimes I would ask and they would be like, absolutely. Hear their names. And so I would look them up. And I think for every position, every person, I would, like, write down their title. I'd write down how long they'd been at the company. That one was such an easy, oh, you just started three months ago, or, oh, you've been here for four years. How have things changed? Like, that has been, like a very, very easy one to just show that. I did a bit of research, but not really have to come up with a very complicated question. I noticed if they had lived, like, if one of their jobs was in the city that I'd lived in, I brought that up. So I would kind of just pick out these little things. And they weren't that, like, deep of. I didn't have to really research very deeply, but there was just a little tiny connection between each of them, and it made so much easier to start a conversation.

Yeah. So you look for common ground, you look for commonalities. And if you're not able to find anything online, I think looking around their office is a simple way to do that. So you get in their office and maybe you notice that they've got a skyline of a city that's not the city that you're in. So that's a great conversation piece. Oh, I see that you have the St. Louis Arch in your background. Did you live in St. Louis for a while? I did too. You know, talking about that. Or you could see that they've got plants in their office and you could say, you've got to tell me the secret to keeping plants alive. I such a green thumb. And that gets people talking about something they're passionate about.

I love that. Actually notice that people just appreciate you just striking up conversation. Like, they almost are grateful for it because those first few moments are so kind of awkward and vulnerable that if you're someone who's just willing to kind of just jump in and just. And make observations and make small talk, people are so grateful that they don't.

Have to do that heavy lifting, 100%. When I was recruiting, you know, there were days where I had eight interviews back to back, and it felt exhausting. And for someone just to say, hey, Sarah, thanks so much for meeting with me. How's your day going? You look busy. That was so refreshing.

Well, this has been so amazing, Sarah, thank you so much for all these tips. And so I know you have a ton of amazing materials to help all kinds of people, job seekers and professionals. So where can we find you?

Thanks for asking I'm on LinkedIn and I post a job search tip almost every day so you can find me there. But also really good tips. Thank you. Also on my website. My website is www.briefcasecoach.com and you can sign up for my newsletter. It's a complete labor of love for me. It's once a month and it's a lot of great free job search tips and resources out there. So thanks again for the opportunity to be on your show.

Yes, thank you so much and Wi Fi High five.

Woo.