“Brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” -Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
The first interview at a new company is the only time, as a new (prospective) employee, that you get to make a first impression. But more importantly, it’s the only time the company has an opportunity to make a first impression on you. As a freelancer, I’ve had many “first impression” experiences, and they’ve nearly always served as precursors to my experience with the company itself.
- The company that consistently called 2-3 days later than they said they would was just as thoughtless when employees were sick or needed to schedule a meeting around a doctor’s appointment.
- The company that was ready to start my interview 5 minutes early (leaving me without the extra time I’d been banking on to get a quiet moment!) was shockingly punctual, but also cared more about timeliness than preparedness.
- The team that made a point of asking thoughtful questions and discussing UX design in general during the interview kicked off my first day with productive, interesting meetings that both brought me up to speed on projects and made use of the time by giving the other team members a new set of eyes (mine) to run ideas by.
Food for thought.