I’ve talked about it before. First impressions are critical. I mean, meeting the hiring manager
for the first time often within the first couple of minutes that they have already decided whether
you're going to be pursued as a candidate or whether they're going to move on to the
next person. And sometimes it's not even the first couple of minutes,
it could be within the first five seconds. For example, there was a study that was done by
a gentleman. His name was Frank Bernini. He was the Chair of Oregon State University Psychology
Department. This was actually something that was featured on Dateline, where there was a staffing
agency. He was working with back in Ohio. And the individuals back there at the interviewers were
interviewing candidates for technical positions. And these interviews were 20 minutes long and they
were being videotaped. And what Frank Rooney did is he took these video tapes, any edited
them to the first five seconds, essentially the handshake, the introductory handshake at the time.
And he took these five second clips and he gave them to focus groups and he says, take
a look at these five second clips and go through them and select who you think would be selected
as the candidates of choice for moving forward in these interviews. And the results were amazingly
accurate. Individuals in focus groups were looking at the handshake and they were predicting the
success of moving forward in the interview process most of the time. And he also did
some other studies as well, um, where it was not five seconds. It was 20 seconds. And using focus
groups to predict higher ability, confidence, and warmth. Again, all things that I think are
really important with, you know, rapport. And once again, 20 seconds, these focus groups were
successful in predicting with a lot of accuracy who is moving forward. My name is Bill Benoist.
I'm a certified professional career coach here in Silicon Valley. What I want to talk about today
is what happens if there is no face-to-face interview, what if it's happening over
video? Because today in 2021, when I'm making this, uh, this video, there's not a lot of
face-to-face interviews happening anymore, right? I mean, most all of them are happening over video.
And so you have to ask yourself, okay, well, first impressions are so important then how do I know
I'm making a good first impression? So let me give you a couple of pointers here. First off, no more
than 18 to 24 inches away from the actual camera. Okay. And by the way, so, so if I moved back a
Little bit, I'm kind of separating myself from you, but even more important is if I
get a little bit closer, well, that's a kind of a little bit uncomfortable, right? And it's like,
kind of weird, but yet as a career coach, and I've worked with so many people over
zoom video that I've seen this happen before, or I've seen this happen, or I've seen this happen,
you need to be looking at the camera and you want to smile as you're looking at the camera, okay?
You want to show that person a little bit of teeth. You know that you're smiling, but you also
want to be serious as well. So the first thing is 18 to 24 inches eye level, looking at the camera,
don't be looking at the screen. Don't be looking at the person down here. You want to be looking at
the camera because it does show that you're making the eye contact for the individual.
Now there's going to be times that you might look away or might look down,
you know? So you just like re you know, in-person interviewing, you don't want to have that,
that intense stare, um, where you, you know, look at death type of stare, break the eye, contact
every now and that. But remember, you're looking at the camera, not the screen. When you're talking
to the individual, it's going to make them feel a lot more comfortable with you. And you're going to
get yourself into rapport a lot easier. Second thing is, let them see your hands. There is
nothing better than essentially letting a person see your hands, because it shows that you have
nothing to hide. This is so important. You don't want to be sitting here talking like this,
you know, in the interview, open up a little bit, and don't be worried about showing your hands.
It shows that you're open, that you are trustworthy and that you have nothing to hide
Tris. Nice. All right. I mean, God, for God sakes, wear some pants and finally make sure
that you have a clean background. I remember a couple of years ago, I was doing some coaching
calls with an individual. And I swear to God, this was happening. He was lying in bed, lying in bed,
not even sitting up, he was lying in bed. I could see the beadboard behind him as he was
talking to me. And he didn't think that, you know, I could notice what was happening there.
So make this, you know, make this professional. And finally, the other thing that I would do is,
you know, how, when you're first connecting with an individual
on video, you're wondering, can they hear me? Uh, can they see me? You know, what do this just do,
you know, when you, when you connect, do a nice wave, Hey guys, nice to meet you. It really
does bring that comfort level to that and their individual. So just again, smile. Nice way. Hey,
nice to see you. And then just stop for a moment and listen to see if they could hear you. Okay.
You don't have to be sitting there.
Can you see me? Can you hear me? Can you see me? Can you hear me
just a nice wave? Hey, it's great to see you and then let them talk. So I hope you found this video
informative and useful. If you haven't already subscribed to this channel, make sure that you do
so hit that bell notification. As I do upload new career tips every Tuesday, and I'd hate for you to
miss anything. Thanks for stopping by. And I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye-bye.