Category: Posts by Alyssa Gruber

My Impression of First Impressions

by Alyssa Gruber

School began in July, and I have since completed two classes and almost thirteen days of orientation. (MS Marketing and Finance students were required to attend a separate summer orientation along with the standard two-week session for the MBAs in the fall.)

Much of orientation was run by the CMC (Career Management Center) staff, who provided my classmates and I with a great deal of information and knowledge regarding various career paths as they relate to our individual likes, skills, and personality types. As for as the job search itself, we learned techniques for formatting resumes, drafting cover letters, and communicating during interviews.

The detail and thoroughness of these career classes opened my eyes to the number of factors associated with peoples’ capacity to survive and thrive in the business world. It’s scary to think of how a single grammatical error in an email to a potential employer could cost a person a job opportunity.

A topic that was highly emphasized and particularly caught my attention was on the importance of first impressions. Like it or not, first impressions are real, and they are often used in making assessments about others.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the human brain takes two seconds to form an opinion of someone. He explains, “Snap judgments are, first of all, enormously quick: they rely on the thinnest slices of experience … they are also unconscious.” (p. 50)

That’s a nice little fact, but why bother teaching us about what’s beyond our control? To induce paranoia and self-doubt?

Studies done on the role of first impressions in the work place offer insight for ways to maximize one’s image in order to be attractively perceived.

Be punctual, have a firm handshake, make eye contact, and show interest. But politeness and tact only go so far.

Appearance is probably the largest contributor to the first impression process.

So, I guess all I have to do is dress well for people to like me, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Dressing “well” falls under a broad spectrum, dependent on peoples’ preferences. However, business attire is relatively consistent, and wearing appropriate clothing for formal meetings is not easy to mess up.

I’m left with the assumption that physical features mainly influence first impressions, and since impressionistic judgments are generally subconscious, there’s not a lot that people can do to change them.

While first impressions may sometimes yield accurate judgments, people must realize that they can be misleading and hurtful as well.

Here are my views on how to deal with first impressions:

• Don’t focus on conforming strictly to the norm, and realize that you can’t impress everyone.  Be yourself, and understand that many people who count will like you and accept you for who you are.
• Rejection sucks, but a bad attitude is worse. Understand that people have their reasons for not wanting to establish a relationship with you, whatever those reasons may be. Let it go and move on. You know yourself better than anyone does, and as long as you take pride in your own accomplishments and aptitude, don’t get caught up in what a random stranger thinks of you based on a single encounter.
• Always keep an open mind. Whether you are looking to hire an employee or pick team members, remember to give them the benefit of the doubt. There’s more to a person than what meets the eye, and in some cases, the most amazing qualities of all can only be revealed through patience and time. The biggest treasures may be buried the deepest!
• A first impression is only a brief indicator of one’s personality and virtues. Stuff happens, and bad days are inevitable. A lousy first impression is no excuse for demonstrating second-rate behavior. Treat others as you wish to be treated.