How to Nail Your First Impression, with Merryn Roberts-Huntley
Share
It is critical to make a great first impression when job hunting. As soon as you walk in the door, you are being judged on your looks, speech, and behavior. However, being on your best behavior is only one aspect of making a great first impression. You also have to be aware of anything that may come up in a Google search of your name. Our guest this week on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Merryn Roberts-Huntley, says that you need to pay attention to how others see you online. She also shares tips on body language, clothing, grooming, and the one place that all headhunters and hiring managers visit when checking out candidates online.
About Our Guest: Merryn Roberts-Huntley
Merryn Roberts-Huntley knows how to help you land your dream career. With 17 years of business experience and 10 years of career coaching, many companies and young professionals call Merryn their secret weapon. Merryn founded Made To Hire to help people reach their career goals faster. Her first book, Made to Hire; Market Yourself for the Career You Want, will be out later this year.
Resources in this Episode:
- For tips on how to create and manage your brand, make fantastic first impressions, succeed in interviews and negotiate offers, look for Merryn’s brand new book, Made to Hire; Market Yourself for the Career You Want, later this year.
- Visit Merryn’s website, Made To Hire, to sign up for her email list and while you’re there, check out all the valuable resources she has for job seekers.
- We want to hear from you! Please share your feedback about our show in a short listener survey and you’ll be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. Visit macslist.org/findyourdreamjobsurvey and complete by November 20, 2018.
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Episode 163:
How to Nail Your First Impression, with Merryn Roberts-Huntley
Airdate: October 31, 2018
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the publisher of Mac’s List, an online community that connects talented professionals with meaningful work.
I believe everyone can find a job they love. But to do that, you need to learn the skills to build a successful career. From professional networking to personal branding, you’ve got to get good at job hunting.
This show helps you do that. Every week on Find Your Dream Job, I talk to a different career expert. We discuss the tools and tactics you need to find your dream job.
Before we get started this week, I want to ask a favor.
I want to give you, our listeners, the most valuable job search advice I can. To help do this, we’re doing a short listener survey.
We want to know what you like and don’t like about the show. We want to hear your ideas for career and job search topics you think we should cover in future episodes. We also want to get to know you better.
It’s a quick poll with just a handful of questions. I’d be grateful if you filled it out. You’ll eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift card, too. Go to macslist.org/findyourdreamjobsurvey. Let us hear from you by November 20, 2018.
Now, let’s get back to the show!
Our guest this week is Merryn Roberts-Huntley. She’s an expert in helping people get the careers they want. Merryn teaches the skills and tools you need to successfully land your dream job.
Merryn says you’ve got to nail your first impression when job hunting. Like it or not, employers make judgements based on how you look, talk, and behave.
In our conversation this week, Merryn says you should start by paying attention to how others see you online. She has great advice about how to handle getting tagged in photos while job searching. She reveals the one place online that headhunters and hiring managers always visit when checking out candidates.
Merryn and I also talk in this interview about how to impress employers in person. We discuss how to enter a room when meeting a hiring manager. She offers terrific tips about body language, clothing, and grooming.
Want to learn more? Listen in now at the Mac’s List studio as I interview Merryn Roberts-Huntley about how to nail your first impression in a job search.
Now, let’s turn to this week’s guest expert, Merryn Roberts-Huntley.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley started Made To Hire to help people reach career goals faster.
With 17 years of business experience and 10 years of career coaching, Merryn knows how to help you land your dream job. Companies and young professionals call her their secret weapon.
She joins us today in person in the Mac’s List studio in Portland, Oregon.
Merryn, thanks for coming downtown.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Hi Mac, it’s great to be here.
Mac Prichard:
Yeah, it’s great to have you.
We’re talking about a topic that matters a lot in job hunting but also for people in their careers, which is, making a really good first impression. Why is it important to do this, Merryn?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Absolutely. Well, if we’re talking about interviews, for example, we know that the decision for who’s going to be hired is more often than not made in those first few minutes during the interview. If you think about it, when you walk into the room and introduce yourself to the person interviewing you, they’re already getting an impression of who you are, how you come across, and likely what’s going to happen in the interview.
First impressions are incredibly important as they make a statement for not only who you are, but who you are perceived to be.
Mac Prichard:
Can you recover from a bad first impression, Merryn?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I think you can but it’s difficult because someone is always going to have that image in their mind of, perhaps a mistake you made, or not making eye contact, or having a bad handshake. I tend to encourage people to really think through the things that make a great first impression. Try to do those out of the gate, rather than trying to have to recover and dig yourself out of a little bit of a hole.
Mac Prichard:
Let’s talk about the ways that people can make first impressions and I know, from reading your articles, that you’re a big believer in paying attention to our presence online. Tell us more about that, those virtual first impressions.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
It’s really interesting Mac, if you think about how things have changed in the past 10 or 15 years…15 years ago, most first impressions were made in person but if you look at the past decade or so, more often than not, someone is going to get an impression of you by doing a Google search or by looking at your LinkedIn profile. They are going to not only make a judgement about you but probably also make a decision about whether or not they want to learn more about you. Whether or not they want to interview you for example. How you come across online is incredibly important.
Mac Prichard:
How can people make a good first impression virtually? What are some basic tips that you share with the people you work with?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
That’s a great question. I think about virtual first impressions in three categories. I think about how you come across in a Google search, number one. Number two, what your LinkedIn looks like, and number three, what I call your casual social media, looks like. We can dig deeper into any of those that interest you or you think any of your listeners might be interested in.
Mac Prichard:
Well, here’s one question that comes to mind. How far down do recruiters go when they Google you? Are they actually going to the fifth, the sixth, or the tenth page?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I think that anything that’s on that first page is absolutely fair game and you want that to be as favorable as possible. People won’t necessarily go past the first page but certainly, what’s on that first page, expect that someone’s going to click on everything on that page if they’re really trying to dig into considering you for a job, for example.
Mac Prichard:
People don’t have to be search engine optimization, SEO experts, to get good at this, do they?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
No, they don’t. A couple of things to think about: first off, do the exercise yourself. Google yourself and see what comes up. Hopefully, there’s some positive content out there; for example, your LinkedIn profile should rank pretty highly in a Google search. Your Facebook profile, any social media you have, should rank pretty highly in a Google search. That’s a win because the good news is you manage that content. That’s one thing to think about.
The other thing to think about when you Google yourself is if there is any negative content that comes up, you actually do have some control over changing that. People will often get nervous if they Google themselves and they see something that might not be favorable. You can contact whoever has posted that information about you and ask them to remove it. They may be agreeable to removing it. If they are not, what should you do? I’ve been asked this question a number of times and my best advice is to try and push that content lower down in the search results by actually being the author of more positive content about yourself.
That again can happen through social media accounts like LinkedIn or Facebook. That can happen through commenting on certain news articles for example or commenting on other people’s social media posts. Those are some ways that you can push that unfavorable content lower down in the search results.
Mac Prichard:
How often, Merryn, do you recommend that people check their digital footprint? Is that something you do once a year, only when you’re job hunting?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
That’s a great question, Mac. I think it depends on where you are at in your career. If you are job hunting, I would do a Google search once a month to see what’s coming up against your name. Don’t just look at the content pages; look at the images, look at the videos, do a really comprehensive check once a month if your job hunting. If you’re not job hunting, I still think it’s a good thing to do every six months just to be aware of how you’re managing your brand.
Mac Prichard:
How much time should this take?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Just a couple of minutes. If there’s nothing negative there, it’s just a quick exercise, “Hey, what’s out there about me?” If there is something negative, well then you know what? I’m glad you found it because hopefully you found it before a recruiter or a hiring manager finds it and you can actually try to do something about it.
Mac Prichard:
There’s one question I have to ask because you touched on this in one of your blog posts. What is the one place that recruiters and hiring managers always check?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
LinkedIn, absolutely. LinkedIn is your virtual resume. It is your chance to show your professional self to every recruiter, to every hiring manager. It is your place to shine and you own that page. You can make it what you want it to be.
Mac Prichard:
I want to move on to impressions in person but what does a bad LinkedIn page look like? How can you make a bad impression? Because you’re in charge.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Yes, and I do a lot of work in the LinkedIn space and it really surprises me how many people are not taking charge of that space. A bad LinkedIn profile, for example, has a poor profile picture. It has a person doing something unprofessional for example. Like running around, like sitting and laughing in an unprofessional environment, versus a professional headshot. I don’t mean professional as in taken by a photographer but I mean professional as in a nice headshot in which you’re dressed professionally. Having a poor profile picture is one miss.
Another miss that honestly I see about 50% of the time, Mac, is someone not having a background picture behind their profile picture. A lot of people don’t realize that that’s real estate that they can own. I’d say probably 50% of the LinkedIn profiles that I look at have that blue LinkedIn background on it. People can change it. To me, that just shows a lack of attention to detail and a lack of a desire to tell your story.
A couple other things, if I may?
Mac Prichard:
Please.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Another important one is that real estate that you own right under your picture where you can write your description. For example, “Five years of experience managing projects for startups”, let’s say. People often have something super short there; they don’t have something engaging, they don’t have something that’s going to make a recruiter or a hiring manager say, “Oh wow, that’s the sort of experience that I’m looking for.” I encourage people to really think through that description. Think about it in terms of years of experience, in terms of functional skills, and in terms of what you’re looking for.
Below that is where you can tell the story of your work experience. Often people don’t have their current job on there. Until they start looking for a job, they forget that they are actually doing a role right now that should be marketed as part of building their career and as part of their online presence. Making sure that you round out all the opportunities on that profile from work experience to education, to volunteer work, to languages.
Another big miss I see often is people not having endorsements. If you’re job hunting, and you don’t have any former co-workers or managers saying something positive about you on LinkedIn, I really think you’re leaving something on the table.
Mac Prichard:
I agree with all the points you’re making. I think often either because people don’t know how to do it or they think it’s going to take a lot of time, they build an incomplete LinkedIn page, or even worse, they don’t have one at all.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
That’s a great point, Mac. I actually was searching a group of people recently and there were fifty people in the group I was searching and ten of them did not have a LinkedIn page. I was really surprised, so yeah, totally agree with you.
Mac Prichard:
But if you do have an incomplete LinkedIn page, know this… And I’d love to have your perspective on this too, Merryn. With a little bit of work, you can fill out that profile and it’s not something that’s going to take you hours and hours to do.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I absolutely agree with you, Mac. Just putting in the time to make sure that you’ve got a great overview statement, two great pictures, professional pictures up there. Have your work experience relevant. Another thing you can do that’s kind of neat and really simple that people don’t know, is you can customize your LinkedIn URL. LinkedIn gives you a generic URL that is, I shouldn’t say generic but it is auto-generated with the different numbers and letters and it’s extremely long. You can change that, if you go into your contact information on LinkedIn, you can change that to actually be your name. If that’s something you want to put on your resume, for example, it’ll actually make sense to people how to find you.
Mac Prichard:
Let’s talk about a very tactical question that often comes up on Thursdays because as you know, there’s something called Throwback Thursday. We’ve all got college chums or old high school friends who post those photos, and sometimes they’re not so flattering from perhaps a spring break trip, or that long weekend in Mexico. If you’re tagged in a photo like that, Merryn, what can you do?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Yeah, that’s a great question, Mac. That does happen to people often. The good news is, you know that person. You manage your own brand. Ask that person, if it’s an unfavorable picture, ask that person ideally to remove that picture. That would be the first ask. The second ask, if they say no for whatever reason, ask them politely if they can at least untag you. Tell them why, tell them that you’re working towards an interview, or towards the next job that you’re trying to get. You’re really trying to be careful with the sort of images and content that’s out there about yourself.
Mac Prichard:
Terrific. Well, we’re going to pause now, for a moment. When we come back, I want to talk more about first impressions but especially how we do this in person. We’ve covered a lot of good ground here about the online world but I know there are other events, whether it’s a job interview or going to a networking event, where again, as you said that the beginning, people make conclusions quickly and we’ve got to be prepared for that.
Stay with us, we’ll be back in just a moment with Merryn Roberts-Huntley.
Have you Googled yourself recently? If not, do it now.
Seriously. Pick up your phone, hit the Google app, and type in your name. I’ll wait.
Okay, are you back? What pops up? What will a hiring manager say after looking at the page?
As Merryn tells us today, first impressions matter. A lot. So what kind of impression do you make online?
We’ve got a free three-part video course at Mac’s List that can help you put your best foot forward. It’s called How to Wow and Woo Employers Online. You can get it today at maclist.org/wow.
We show you what to do about those spring break photos from Mexico, how you can use LinkedIn to recognized as an expert in your industry, and what recruiters look for when checking you out online.
See for yourself. Go to macslist.org/wow.
Don’t let that faded Polaroid from that long-ago night in Acapulco get between you and your next job offer. Get How to Wow and Woo Employers Online. Go to macslist.org/wow.
Now, let’s get back to the show!
We’re back in the Mac’s List studio here in Portland, Oregon with Merryn Roberts-Huntley, who is the founder and president of Made to Hire.
We’re talking about how to nail first impressions. In the first half of our interview, Merryn, we had a great conversation about virtual first impressions and the importance of paying attention to what recruiters and hiring managers are going to find when they Google us and look elsewhere online.
Now, let’s talk about what happens when we see people in person, especially for job interviews. I know, again, from reading your blog posts that you’re a big believer in paying attention to that first impression when you enter a room. Tell our listeners more about that, what that is, and why it matters.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Mac, I love this question because there are so many things that you can own and change yourself. Actually, what I did for your listeners is I made a top ten list. The ten things that I think they should think about in making a first impression in a job setting. We can cover as many of them as you like.
Mac Prichard:
Are we going to go through them quickly?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I can tell you the ten and then you can ask me about whichever ones interest you. Does that sound good?
Mac Prichard:
Yeah, let’s go through the list and we can probably dig into a couple. I’m really excited about this. Rattle off the list.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Sounds good.
Clothing and accessories. That’s a no-brainer.
Grooming and makeup.
Posture.
Energy.
Eye contact.
Handshake.
Questions.
Manners.
Being present.
Being on time.
Those are probably not in any particular order because they’re all so important, but those ten things, if you can actually really think through them, make a huge difference in the first impressions that you make.
Mac Prichard:
Okay. I certainly had some favorites as you rattled off the list. Being present, I think was number nine, to me that just drives me crazy when people take out their phones or a book.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Yeah, I think often about the role that electronics play in first impressions. Think about it, when we met today, I could have walked in here with my face buried in a phone, with my head down, or I could have walked in here ready to engage with you, my phone was out of the equation. I actually think that says a lot about how present someone is going to be in the interview or meeting, whatever it is. Their phone should not be part of it.
Mac Prichard:
I think most listeners say, “Well, duh. I’m not going to take my phone out during a job interview,” but are you talking about walking into the lobby and there’s the applicant buried in their iPhone?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Absolutely. Honestly, Mac, I’m talking about any situation in which you enter a room. Think about it, if someone enters a room and they’re holding their phone with their head down looking at their phone, are they ready to engage with people? Do they want to actively be a part of what’s happening in the room? No, they’re hiding. They are actually telling everyone there, “I don’t want to talk to you, leave me alone.” Not a good first impression to make.
Mac Prichard:
Okay, well that’s the one that jumps out at me. What about you, Merryn? I know you are probably not supposed to have any favorites but what are some of the top things on the list?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Eye contact for me is a really big one. Eye contact indicates a level of confidence and just belief in yourself about what you have to offer. If you can meet somebody or walk into a room and actively make eye contact with the people in the room, it shows a level of confidence in yourself and it shows an interest in actually engaging with people versus essentially avoiding them.
Mac Prichard:
What are your best tips about, perhaps if you’re a little shy or maybe uncomfortable looking at people directly in the eye…how can people get good at that?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Yeah, it’s something that definitely takes time to work on. For me, the root of eye contact is confidence. It’s not something you can change in a day but it’s something you’re going to need to work on over time. Put yourself in situations that are a little bit uncomfortable and when you have a win, for example, if you’re at a networking event and you go up to somebody and you introduce yourself, have a goal where you have a short conversation with them where you actually truly look them in the eyes, then consider that a win. It doesn’t have to be a one-hour long, intense conversation with someone in order for you to be really making progress with eye contact.
Again, I go back to the topic of confidence and challenging yourself, whether it’s in networking situations, just in everyday work situations, just to push yourself a little bit outside of your comfort zone so that you get a little bit more comfortable with yourself, a little bit more confident with what you have to offer. Eye contact, then, is going to come more naturally.
Mac Prichard:
Let’s talk about clothing because we live in a business casual world, especially here on the West coast. But when you go to bigger cities there is a formality in dress that you don’t find in Portland, but there are differences that job seekers need to pay attention to even in business casual meccas like Portland, Oregon, aren’t there?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I always suggest to people, err on the side of being a little dressier than you think. You can certainly ask for feedback if you’re going into an interview. You can certainly ask whoever has scheduled the interview on what the attire is at the company but you need to step it up from what the normal attire is there. If the person scheduling the interview says, “Oh we’re very casual here, we wear jeans and sneakers”, that does not mean you wear jeans and sneakers to that interview. But what that does mean is you don’t wear a suit and tie.
To me, that says business casual, so if you were a man, you’d be wearing nice slacks with a dress shirt, belt, and shoes. If you were a woman, you’d be wearing a dress shirt or a nice sweater, with a skirt of appropriate length or dress pants.
Mac Prichard:
Do you see any differences by age group when you think about those suggestions? Are older people expected to be more formal or should they avoid doing that because it might reflect that candidly, they’re older?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I don’t think so, Mac. If you follow the philosophy of, “Dress slightly better than the norm”, in any situation, you’re always going to look good.
Mac Prichard:
Let’s talk about grooming, hair, and makeup.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Important topics.
Mac Prichard:
They are, aren’t they?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Yes, so I’d love to give your listeners some advice on grooming, hair, and makeup. Do you want to start with men or women?
Mac Prichard:
Let’s start with women.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Women, okay. Women in professional situations, I feel strongly that women should have their hair down and that it should be done. By done, I mean that it should look like they washed and dried their hair. I have been in many professional situations where women have their up in a ponytail as if they’ve just gone for a run or they come into a meeting with their hair wet. That is just not making the right first impression. You actually want it look like you really care how you present yourself and you took some time to get ready. That’s hair on the women’s side.
Hair on the men’s side, I feel the same way. Men should have tidy, well-groomed, hair. Facial hair is another interesting topic for men. Some men feel strongly about wanting to have facial hair. That’s great, I don’t have a problem with that but I do think that men with facial hair need to be careful that it’s well-groomed. If they have a beard, let’s say, it’s not taking over their face. I’ve had to have some interesting conversations with people who I’ve been coaching around, “You really need to trim your beard. You really need to scale it back because it is overbearing and it’s taking over our exchange. All I can look at is your beard”, for example. So, that’s grooming.
I would say makeup is another interesting topic for women to think about. I’ve never been a huge makeup wearer myself but I do think that at least light makeup is appropriate for professional situations. What do I mean by light makeup? I mean at least lip gloss and mascara. I also think if you’re thirty-five or older, under eye concealer is one of the best things ever invented and I can say that from experience. It just really evens out what most of us have, which is some dark circles under our eyes. You’re tired, life is busy. I think that light makeup, for most women, should be a baseline for a professional situation.
Mac Prichard:
Good. Again, the goal here is to not let impressions get in the way of what you have to offer, so you can focus on what you have to offer, isn’t it?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Absolutely. But some things can really be distracting from showing what you have to offer. Like you mentioned, Mac, if somebody is a little bit more shy and has a hard time with eye contact, someone could actually take that the wrong way. How does that shy person enter a room but still have a smile on their face, still have a warm energy around them that makes people feel like they’re open to a conversation? You don’t have to be the center of attention and you don’t have to go up and introduce yourself to everyone, but can you have a warm energy about you that draws people in, as a reserved person? Absolutely.
Mac Prichard:
I think we might have covered six out of the ten. What’s left on your list, Merryn?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Posture is another important one.
Mac Prichard:
Oh, yeah.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
We touched on this a little bit when we talked about how you enter a room but think about if you’re in a professional situation and you’re slouched over, versus if you’ve got your head held high, your shoulders back, that shows a level of confidence and what seems to be a can-do attitude. You seem like somebody who actively wants to be there and is going to get things done. I actually think having an upright, confident posture is really important with first impressions.
Handshakes Mac, we should talk about that for a minute.
Mac Prichard:
Yes, I recently met with someone, a lady who grew up in the South, and she asked me about handshakes. She said that in the Pacific Northwest it didn’t seem as common to her that people would shake hands here as they do in the American South. There are some regional differences there, aren’t there?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I just think we’re more casual here in Portland than perhaps in larger cities. I feel the same way, whether you’re in New York, L.A., Portland, Chicago, or a small town, I think that when you meet someone, you should shake their hand, introduce yourself, find out what their name is. Your handshake should be firm and confident. Not gripping and hard, but also not loose and floppy. It is a statement of how you carry yourself, how you see yourself, how actively you want to engage with that person.
Mac Prichard:
The person that I’m thinking of, she worried that her handshake was too strong. It is something we need to pay attention to, isn’t it?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
It’s an interesting one too because I actually think it’s something good to get feedback on. With that woman for example, if she was worried that it was too strong, I would ask people for feedback and take that feedback, and soften a little. You certainly don’t want to hurt someone’s hand right when you’re trying to get to know them.
Mac Prichard:
Okay, so you’re walking into the room, you’re shaking hands, you’re making good eye contact, and you’re paying attention to the pressure you’re exerting when you make that handshake.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Exactly.
Then a couple other ones that I guess we didn’t cover yet. One is being on time.
Mac Prichard:
This drives me crazy.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Talk about making a bad first impression if you’re late. For me, if someone is late, it’s over. There is actually no recovering from being late because that shows a disrespect for the other person’s time.
Mac Prichard:
What about traffic jams, congestion, the bridge is open?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
You should know before that person gets there that they are going to be late. Just showing up late for me is a deal breaker. If you’re running late and there’s something like traffic, call. Call and say, “Running late, traffic, really apologize. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Mac Prichard:
Okay.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
That’s okay. It’s not ideal but it’s acceptable versus just showing up late. Especially if it’s an interview.
Mac Prichard:
Yeah, that’s hard to recover from.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
It’s really, really bad. That’s a good one to mention.
Then the two others I don’t think we’ve touched on yet are manners and asking questions.
With manners, simple things like please and thank you when you meet someone in that first exchange with them. If someone gives you a compliment, say thank you. If you’re asking for something from someone, say please. Just those subtle things actually make a difference in the impression that you make.
The other point that I made was around questions. Be curious, actually treat the person as if you really want to learn about them. Ask them more than just their name. Ask them how their day is going, ask them what they do for work. Just simple questions that show you want to engage with them makes a really good impression about who you are.
Mac Prichard:
Agreed. Not only in job interviews, you should always walk into the room with a list of questions about the position, but at networking events, I think questions help because they allow you to learn, but they also put everybody at ease, because often people don’t know what to say. When you ask them basic questions about themselves, I think people are flattered by the interest, but it also kickstarts the conversation and engages everyone.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Absolutely. That’s a great point.
Mac Prichard:
That was a terrific top ten list.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
That sounds good.
Mac Prichard:
We are coming to the end of our conversation so tell me, what’s coming up next for you?
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
I am excited that I am working on my first book called, Made to Hire; Market Yourself for the Career You Want. That’s actually coming out later this year and it’s full of some of the things we talked about, first impressions, managing and creating your own brand, but it also full of tips around networking, how to actually get the interview, how to succeed in an interview, how to negotiate an offer. Then I also talk in the book about what to do after you’re hired, how to get rated as a high-potential employee, how to work on different skills. I’m just really excited to actually be able to share this information with a larger audience.
Mac Prichard:
Congratulations. I know people can sign up to get an email from you when the book is published later this year. They can do that by visiting your website, madetohire.com. In addition to information about your book, you’ve got a blog, and other valuable resources for job seekers. We encourage people to visit the site.
Well, Merryn, thanks for being on the show today.
Merryn Roberts-Huntley:
Thanks for having me, Mac.
Mac Prichard:
It’s been a pleasure, take care.
That was a great conversation with Merryn Roberts-Huntley. I especially liked her Top 10 list and she didn’t tell me she was going to do that. I thought for a moment, “Oh, we won’t be able to get through all this”, but we did and there were so many valuable nuggets in there.
My favorite, of course, was the one about being present but I also identified strongly with her tips about eye contact. I think her main point that I took away from this conversation is, not only do first impressions matter, but there’s so much that we can do to manage that. You want to do it so that you don’t take yourself out of the running if you’re an applicant for the job, or if you’re trying to build a relationship with someone in your industry. Again, it’s something that you can do.
Another thing you can do is pay attention to how you present yourself online. Again, Merryn had terrific tips there, but if you’re looking for more advice, you’ll find a lot of good suggestions in our new course which is called, How to Wow and Woo Employers Online.
It’s free and it’s three videos. They’re short, but like today’s conversation, they’re full of practical, actionable ideas that you can use to put your best foot forward online. Don’t wait, go to macslist.org/wow, and download your free copy of How to Wow and Woo Employers Online.
Thank you for listening to today’s episode of Find Your Dream Job.
Join us next Wednesday when our special guest will be Louise Kursmark. She’ll explain how to customize your resume for every application without making yourself crazy.
Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job!