Avoid Awkward Starts & Nail the First Impression!

Now I'm not saying this to put undue pressure on you because you have nerves and interview performance and everything else to worry about. So I, I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but I do want to give you tools. To help those fairy first moments of your interview. Go a heck of a lot better. And smoother. I can't stop you from being an awkward person or not awkward person. I have my own level of awkwardness that I bring into this world.

But we can plan for the very first part of our interview. What to say during those first moments, I know the right things to say. And the best thing to say, because I've interviewed thousands. I don't know. It was a 10,000, something like that. People, a lot of people. I have been an executive recruiter. I owned my own search firm. So not only was I finding talent myself. Going out and executive recruiting people. I also met with the companies that hired them and understood their process.

I've been the director of talent acquisition at two different companies, one, a large conglomerate that spanned a couple of very different industries and one, a little startup that Went through a watt in a very short amount of time. I'm also an interview coach and I've met with a lot of people via video chat and coach them. On how to improve their interviews and those first moments, even though we're doing a mock interview. Really come out. And one of the first things we do there is show people.

I teach them how to start. The interview with an fantastic presence, all this to say, I've seen a lot of people who are unfortunately very nervous for their job interview and those nerves negatively impact the first moments of their interview. I'm going to give you some templates on exactly what to say. This is something that you just plan out and don't deviate from the plan. So I'm going to give you multiple sentences to say at the very beginning. Of your job interview.

Here's how it normally goes. Hey, Matthew, how are you? Good. Are you good? How's your day going? It's it's great. Real busy. How about you? Oh, it's great. Traffic was hard to get here. That's how they typically go or something like this. Hey Matthew, how are you? Oh, are you the boss or the person? Yes, I'm here to interview you. Oh, great. The artwork on the wall is really cool. And do I need to put money in the meter or should I wait or do I validate this. That's how this typically goes.

This one. Not stop you from getting an offer or not getting an offer. Okay. I want to be clear about that. I, I'm not going to over promise this, but I also. Want to give some clarity and take some pressure off of you. If you're super awkward at the beginning of your interview. There's 99.9% chance. It's not going to eliminate you. However it can set you up for a good or a bad interview. And it's also, it's just the first impression. So they're going to remember.

What you were like, what it was like interviewing you all of that. So you want to get this right? And it also, I think when you confidently start an interview and you have the right words and it's smooth, Everything else goes really well. So whether this a phone interview, a video interview. Or an in-person interview. The first thing you want to write down and keep in mind. Is stillness. You want to practice being still. And not. Doing a hyper. Word vomit. Moment the very first.

Second, the very first time you respond to the person you're meeting with. That's easy to do because you have all of these nerves, all of this tension. That's like building up right. Building up to a boil, the pressure's building and in the second. They say hi, there's. There's this moment of relief. And oftentimes people start just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking like, Hey Matthew, thank you for being here. Oh, it's great to be here.

Like everything you possibly thought you could say during the interview. People start saying, Hey, it's so great to be here. Thanks for inviting me. I was a marketing manager. Now I'm a marketing. Junior director and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like. When someone just walks up The first thing I think you should say. Say the person's first name and it's nice to meet you. Or it's great to me. One of the two. So we'll say I'm your interview? I'm Matthew, you'd say.

So they, they walk up to you, they call you, they it's, we'll say it to video chat screen. And they'll just, we'll just pretend they say, Hey, Becky, if you're going to say. Hey, Matthew, it's nice to meet you. Or, Hey, Matthew, it's great to be here. And just stop. Be still. The next thing you can say. You don't have to say, it's nice to meet you. You can use it. These phrases instead. Hey, Matthew. It's great to be here. Hey, Matthew, I'm excited for our conversation.

Hey, Matthew, I'm excited to talk about the blank role. Hey, Matthew, I'm excited to talk about the marketing manager role. I'm going to do a different tone there. Cause that was weird. Hey, Matthew, I'm excited to talk about the marketing manager role. Hey, Matthew, I've been looking forward to this. Hey, Matthew, I've been looking forward to our conversation. Hey, Matthew, I appreciate the chance to talk to you today. She's one of those. You can listen back through those.

You don't have to say, Hey Matthew, you can say, it's nice to meet you. It's great to meet you. I'm excited for our conversation. I am excited to talk about the blank, blank role. I've been looking forward to this. I've been looking forward to our conversation. I appreciate the chance to talk to you today. You're going to want to choose the one of these and not all of them at once. The one of these. That suits you. That just feels right. I really hope. That you notice something.

There's not the word interview. In any of these. There's not the word job. There's the word role? There's not job. You're not saying I'm excited to talk about the potential of working here. I'm excited for our interview so that you can decide whether or not to hire me. All those things. You're just being positive and saying some of these things out loud puts you in a good spot of confidence. It's great to be here. I'm excited for our conversation.

They see you as an equal, a professional who's walking in. To talk. It's okay. That it's an interview. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. But you don't see it as this big, scary, bad interview. You're excited. Talk. Have a conversation chat. I'm excited to talk about the blank, blank role. I'm excited to talk about the marketing manager role. I've been looking forward to this. I love this one. I've been looking forward to today. I've been looking forward to this.

I love this one because it's so positive. You've probably been crazy nervous. The truth is he probably. I've been looking forward to it being over. But the positivity here, the confidence, I think there's a really strong and powerful. I've been looking forward to this. I've been looking forward to our conversation. That means you've been thinking about it. You don't want to say I've been preparing for it. It's not like the worst thing to say, but obviously.

You don't want to go too far into like your interview prep side. You just want to seem like you're here for a conversation. I appreciate the chance to talk with you today. You could say, I appreciate the chance to speak with you today. That one's good. It's probably not my favorite because I don't want you to come in as like humble. And like lower status. And so you don't want to thank them too much oh, thank you so much for talking to me. Wow. Why would you waste your time on me?

I'm so grateful. You don't want too much of that, but it's just, it's a nice thing to say. Don't overthink it. Plan out the first moments of your interview. Now we have some variations that might happen. The person might say. I might say if I'm the interviewer, Hey Becky, how's your day been? All you're going to do is the simplest answer. And then you're going to still use one of these scripts. Hey, Becky, has you been dating? Speaking of awkward moments. I don't know what I just started to say.

Hey, Becky, how's your day been? You're going to say it's been great. It's nice to meet you. It's been great. It's great to be here. It's been great. I'm excited for our conversation. It's been great. I've been looking forward to this. It's been great. I've been looking forward to our conversation. And be still. Stop. I want you to practice saying these things, choosing your one, you can practice multiple. I would choose just one. And. Practice saying it.

And then stopping the recruiter, the hiring manager, their job is to take the lead. Don't worry about them feeling awkward. Or anything like that? When you stop talking, that's when their jobs starts again, which is a leading the conversation. Just like how you wouldn't answer an interview question and then. Keep doing their job for them and keep asking questions or asking yourself a question in front of them. Right. Let them do their job.

I'm going to copy and pastes these different responses that I typed out. Into this episode description. So that you can go and. Look through these. I don't know if your app will let you copy and paste some or not. But this is a resource for you. Saying the right thing is important. Being still is, most important. That's what I want you to practice. Hey, Becky. Thanks for being here. Did you have any trouble on the train ride or the drive to get here?

No, not at all and excited for our conversation today. Get it. They'll know exactly what to say. So don't overthink it. Be still. Practices practices stillness. Practice. Once you say your sentence, I've been looking, I've been looking forward to our conversation. I was, have I got closed my mouth. So I I'm glad I'm not in an interview right now because the words aren't coming out, right. Have a closed mouth smile, like a confident. I just like smile with your eyes. A little bit with your mouth.

You can smile with your teeth too. I don't care. But don't make this like this big thing, just say it and stop. And just have a, you don't want to have a RBF, but you want to just look pleasant. Like you're waiting for them to continue taking the lead. Recruiters will appreciate that they like being in charge. And we'll have zero issues knowing what to do next. This is going to help a ton. Focus on this. Think it through. Think about what your responses are.

Choose one from the ones that I've listed here, you can go to the episode, subscription and copy and paste them. Write them down. They're really short. So it won't take you very long to write them down. And make this yours. The long answers will come. You will be asked questions that will. Take you a while to respond to will be a lot of words. All of that stuff. You'll have your chance to chat, chat, chat. The best way to navigate these first moments is keeping it. Super duper simple.

Thanks for listening to the job interview experience. I'll be back with more soon.