According to Columbia Business School professor Michael Chad Hoeppner, the popular idea that you have 7 seconds to make a first impression may be a tad too strict.
“I’m not going to give people quite that amount of scarcity, but the beginning really matters a lot,” he says.
During a job interview, Hoeppner says, you have approximately 90 seconds to engage your interviewer’s attention — and how you speak is key.
Clear communication isn’t just about what you say, but how you say it, as Hoeppner attests in his latest book “Don’t Say Um: How to Communicate Effectively to Live a Better Life.”
The way someone delivers information “has a lot to do with how we hear each other, and whose ideas we take seriously or not seriously,” he says.
Here are Hoeppner’s tips to make the best first impression at job interviews.
Start off strong
Hoeppner, who also coaches political candidates, compares the beginning of an interview to the start of a presidential debate. Some debaters make the mistake of treating the first question as a “warm-up,” but Hoeppner cautions that viewers often tune out after the first few minutes.
“People’s attention spans are worse than they’ve ever been. They’ve been hijacked entirely, and so we tend to have less time to actually make an impression,” he says.
The same goes for job interviews: “You may only get one answer at all that anyone actually pays attention to, so you have to make sure that one answer counts.”
Even simple, open-ended prompts like “Tell me about yourself” provide crucial opportunities to make your case as a candidate.
“You have a tremendous amount of latitude with those questions, and you often can take them anywhere that you want to,” he says.
Hoeppner recommends starting your responses with specific, vivid stories and anecdotes so that interviewers “remember what the heck you say and actually understand what you mean.”
Focus on delivery
During interviews, Hoeppner notes that nervous job candidates often alter their natural tone and manner of speaking in an effort to seem professional.
Instead, they end up coming off as a robotic, “less interesting version” of themselves: “They speak in a more monotonous voice, they restrain their hand gestures and they anchor eye contact unblinkingly forward the entire time.”
Hoeppner recommends relaxing your posture and body language, making meaningful (but not constant) eye contact, and speaking clearly and confidently.
These communication skills are crucial in all areas of work, Hoeppner says.
In the office, your communication skills can be just as important as the quality of your work. Even brilliant employees’ careers can end up stagnating because they can’t communicate their ideas in a dynamic way.
“What happens is then they don’t get promotions to be in client-facing roles or in leadership roles,” Hoeppner says.
Practice out loud
The only way to get better at speaking is to practice, Hoeppner says.
To get ready for an interview, Hoeppner recommends a method he calls “loud drafting”: giving yourself an open-ended prompt and repeatedly answering it out loud.
“The first time you do it, it will be bad,” he says. “That’s fine. Do it again, do it again, do it again.”
The point of this exercise is to practice answering questions in a natural way, he says. Some job candidates prepare for interviews by jotting down prepared statements, but they frequently sound stiff and unnatural when said out loud.
“The way in which we speak is different than how we write,” he says. “Often, people open their mouths in interviews and a bunch of polysyllabic pablum comes pouring out of their mouth.”
In general, Hoeppner recommends “flexing your talking muscles” by chatting casually with people you meet and switching your phone calls to FaceTime.
According to Hoeppner, in-person communication skills will become increasingly important with the rise of AI technology. With almost-limitless access to information, Hoeppner asks, “what determines whose ideas get paid more attention?
His answer: “Very likely how you say them.”
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