A Second Chance Can Erase the Doubts

FIRST IMPRESSION Can first impressions be misleading? Give an example. How can you make a positive first impression in a new environment? Why do negative first impressions tend to stick longer than positive ones?

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First impression can be defined as a perception of someone or something. It may be positive or negative. This perception will decide how that person or thing is accepted and treated. It can open or close doors for the person or thing being considered.

At a certain recruitment function, I supervised sourcing a graphic designer. At the final stage, three candidates emerged. They were sent invitations and scheduled for the final assessment. While the first and second candidates were on time, the third candidate was an hour behind schedule.

However, before then, I pleaded with my team to allow some time before ruling on the attendance schedule, but they wouldn’t oblige, claiming that first impressions matter. Within that hour, I also checked my phone and saw his messages indicating that the driver was struggling with locating our office. With this, I reached out to my team and requested that we give him more time, but they insisted that we start the interview.

As the coordinator for that recruitment duty, I requested that they prepare the two candidates and allow them to enter the boardroom on a first-come, first-served basis. So, we started with the first candidate. Along the line, the third candidate arrived and waited at the reception hall. When the first two candidates were through, I requested that the third candidate be ushered into the boardroom for his interview.
When he entered, my team seemed not interested in the interview; hence, while one backed us, the other was reading a book. The posture also suggested they were not interested in the person.

However, the unexpected happened; the candidate was prepared for the interview; he came with his Apple laptop and MiFi. As we proceeded, his feedback drew my team's attention. One adjusted his chair forward, and the other turned around, unconsciously nodding and feeling more interested in the candidates' feedback. He also backed his feedback with demo presentations, and before I knew it, they were rooting for him.

At the end of the interview, the team unanimously rated the candidate's performance excellent and asked me to present him to the board as our successful candidate for the role. Afterwards, the candidate received an employment offer and was onboarded.

Since then, he has been adding value through innovative and creative ideas. He has made bespoke suggestions that have increased the factory's profit margin.

Sitting back today and watching him, I can confidently say that he is a product of a negative first impression that turned excellent.
I think the bottom line of a positive first impression is time; some people can fake a positive first impression, only for time to reveal that they were sugarcoating themselves. To make a positive first impression, I need to be real and practice what I preach.

Finally, Negative first impressions stick longer if the person continues to exhibit that negative character, so each time it happens, it draws a pointer to the first one, except it was not an intentional act to deceive, just like the story I narrated above. Further engagement erodes that first negative first impression

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