[MUSIC] Hey, mom. Yeah, I'm pretty nervous for
this interview. I spent all weekend knowing my contacts,
I'm ready to crush an interview. No, I don't know who
I'm interviewing with. I just know her name is Tammie, she's a
part of the firm but don't know much else. Sorry, I gotta run and
walk into the waiting room now. >> Hi, Brett. >> Hey Tammie. How's it going? >> Good.
How are you doing? >> I'm doing good. It's a beautiful day in Palo Alto. It's weather always this nice November? >> Yes it is. It is your first time here? >> Yeah, yeah, I'm from the Midwest,
and it's snowing already there. >> Got it, well, welcome here. So I'm looking at your resume-
>> Guys, how many of you think this is
going well so far, show of hands? How many of you think
it's too early to tell? >> [LAUGH]
>> Let's see what our participants think. Brad, how do you think it's been so far? >> What's you guys said? I feel think things are going pretty well. I complimented the weather,
talked about the city, and I'm ready to crush this entity. >> Interesting, Tammie,
what's your opinion? >> I've had ten interviews today, I don't
feel a special connection with this guy. He doesn't stand out. >> Wow. Did you just see it. >> [LAUGH]
>> Did you just see how in the first ten seconds itself, there are such different opinions of
how it's gone among the two people. First impressions in
an interview are critical. Well they say don't judge
a book by its cover, that's actually what we
do most of the time. First impressions are usually found within
the first 17 seconds of meeting someone, and then they're only reinforced
to a time with high correlation. Research from Amy Cuddy
shows that 80% of your first impression is based on two traits. Strength, how capable and
competent is this person? And want, do I trust them? >> The thing is,
it actually starts before it starts. Your preparation can key you up for
success for the rest of the interview. Ultimately, it can also put
you on your back foot so that you are always kind of
struggling to catch up. So let's take a look at a couple things
we can do to enforce good habit building to set you up for your best success. First, let's check our online presence. Brett, if you wouldn't mind. >> Thank you. >> When was it you thought you first
saw Tammie and she first sight you? >> When Tammy walked down the steps, open
the imaginary door and saw me sitting. >> [LAUGH]
>> I think that maybe true. But more likely probably is that she
did her research and she saw this. This is a beautiful picture of you,
I think. It's a good looking guy, good looking. Nothing we can do to improve upon this but
please, let's think a little bit about the production
value that we're putting into this. The lighting is a little bit off. You can't necessarily do any better than
this when it comes to light smile, but there is more you can do for
high resolution camera. Let's see we can do,
let's put you into the breath you can be. >> [APPLAUSE]
>> You're looking good. >> Thank you for that. All right, now the thing you might want to
think about is dressing appropriately. I was hoping you'd like to kind of
walk me through some of your thinking when you got dressed. >> I know that Tammie is for
almost business casual, so I thought it could be good to match
business casual and be a part of the team. >> I can see that, anyone? Yeah, all right. I might suggest one other thing. May be consider that,
if they're going to be business casual, let's dress you up just a little bit. One step above, how do you feel? >> I feel a lot more
confident right there. >> Yeah,
I like to hide behind the blazer too. >> [LAUGH]
>> And the next thing you remember, you're already on stage from
the second that you come in. Can I borrow your phone for one momnet. I like this,
I'm going to give this back to you. As soon as you are done
with the interview, you can use this to call
Uber when you're done. When they see you using the phone,
it looks like you're not there, you're not ready. Let's set you up for the best success. You are here, you are present here, okay? So think about all of these
things before you go in. Remember that there's going to be
some habit building that happens and we want to make sure
that you're set up for your best success because
it starts before it starts. >> And now that's prepare you for
what is like in the waiting room, Brett, would you please act
like what you did before? I have three quick tips for you to help you to differentiate yourself
professionally in the waiting room. First, try to plan to stand up. Standing up, based on author Peggy Wallace,
gives you more power and confidence. Standing up gives you more
energy because it's so much better than if you would
have slouch in the couch. We are nervous in an interview,
your default will be to take refuge in sinking in that comfortable
couch in the waiting room. Instead of sitting there, you can
look out the view out of the window, read about the art on the wall or read
about a magazine while you're standing. Standing up has one other benefit,
when someone you meet comes in, standing up gives you a more fluid
transition into greeting them because you stand out as their equal rather than
from below them from a sitting position. The second tip we have for
you is to make small conversations. They can be with people
in the receptionist or they can be other candidates in the room. This helps you stretch out your vocal
cords so you can deliver a more clear and resonant voice. And hopefully, the admins will see
that you are a friendly person and you're a better fit for the company's
culture, convert them into your allies. The third tip we have for
you is to master the meet and greet. You won't be able to immediately
have this high energy as soon as you see someone
in that first millisecond. Therefore prepare the mentality for
solid first impression. Think about what you
want to do to be confident, to show enthusiasm and
show that you are polished. Greet them with an open gesture, a firm
handshake, and a direct eye contact. Let's practise this. >> Hey Tammie. >> Much better, isn't it? So as you can see,
there are three quick tips for you to prepare in the waiting room. As we said,
it really starts before it starts. >> Now let's talk about preparing
Brett for the interview room. Brett, come on in, have a seat. >> I have three tips for you. First, have engaging conversation for
your interviewer and prepare for that. Do your homework beforehand. Look up what they work on, where they went to school or
college, what their hobbies are. See if you have any
commonalities with them or shared experiences,
talk about those to build connections. Second, let's talk about posture. Brett, when you sit with your
leg up against your knee, and slouching back, you convey a casual
attitude and a bit of arrogance. Let's fix that. Why don't you sit straight and
try to project confidence. It's important to maintain eye
contact with your interviewer so that it builds trust. When you look away from
your interviewer and talk, they might think you
are not being genuine. Third, it is important to
mirror the energy in the room. Practice this beforehand. If your interviewer is low energy or
tired, don't be too peppy, if your interview is
high energy, try to match their level. You want the interviewer to be comfortable
with your energy level and not be awkward. So to summarize three tips,
do your homework on content, have engaging conversations,
have a confident body posture and mirror the energy level in the room. Remember, it starts before it starts. Now let's see if Brett has
learned through this process. >> Wow, I walk into the waiting room,
I don't have my phone out. I'm so prepared. >> [LAUGH]
>> Hi Brett. >> Hey Tammie, I'm so
excited to be interviewing with you today. >> Well, welcome here. >> I noticed by looking at your LinkedIn
that we have a common connection. How do you know RJ Miller? >> My God, we went to GSP together. >> [LAUGH]
>> He's my neighbor. Do you have any good stories
about him at the time at the GSP? >> Totally, totally and
let's talk about it. >> Okay. Wasn't that so much better? Let's ask our participants how that felt. Tammie, how did that land on you? >> I've had ten interview yesterday,
I won't forget which one Brett is. >> Brett, how did that feel? >> I felt that went a lot better. I came in focused,
I wasn't distracted on my cell phone, and we made a common connection. I got my nerves down and
ready to go with it. >> So I know as we go through this, most
of you think these are just to replace. Sadly, month and
a half ago that first role play you saw, that was me,
minus the whole LinkedIn photo. >> [LAUGH]
>> I walked into the interview wearing this, but
all the other candidates had ties on. I thought I wanted to match
the people I was interviewing with. I did talk about the weather, because
I spent all my time researching and preparing for my content, my interview. All the other candidates, they had these
crazy connections with their interviewers and they did their homework. I walked into that interview room,
I was nervous. I did put my leg up, it hid my nerves,
I thought it portrayed confidence. But when I got the feedback
after the interview, they told me that I crushed interviews. I was the most qualified candidate for
the job. But I didn't get the job because they
felt I didn't take it seriously. That really hurt me, because I
really focused on this interview. But like mentioned,
the first 17 seconds are super important. And I think that would set
me behind on the back foot. Fortunately, this story is happy ending
because I learned from this mistakes, didn't make this error twice,
got a job that was better for me two weeks later, downside. And-
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Thank you, and our hope for you going forward when you go into that interview,
do focus on dressing up, do focus on doing your research on your interviewer,
practice that posture before you walk in. Because when you walk in, if you do that, you're going to start from the right
foot when you go into that content. And I learned the hard way that
it truly does start before. Thank you. >> I want to thank you very much for
sharing personal failure little mistakes. And with that,
we'd love to open up to some questions. [MUSIC]
