First Impressions Are Everything

The first few moments of your interview can have a decisive impact on how well the rest of it goes. Here’s how to start strong. We have highlighted the five most important things to get right, providing you have got passed screening and CV review. Stats tell us that 33% of interviewers know within 90 seconds if successful, scary but true so it's important to be prepared. The famous saying "fail to plan, plan to fail".

Survey after survey highlights the importance of getting the first few seconds and minutes of your job interview right:

• Six in ten managers say an interviewee’s dress sense has a big impact on their employability (source: monster.co.uk survey)

• 33% of bosses say they know within 90 seconds whether they will hire someone (source: Classes and Careers)

• It can take someone about a 1/10 of a second to form an impression of your trustworthiness – and that impression rarely changes later (source: Psychological Science)

• Looking your interlocutor in the eye can help to raise their perception of your intelligence (source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)

• More conservative colour's such as blue and black are a safer bet in interviews, according to one survey of over 2000 hiring professionals. Orange is the worst! (source: CareerBuilder)