Victor Cheng is an interesting personality in business pop culture.  He is a highly successful consultant-turned-entrepreneur and can often be found soapboxing somewhere on television or writing for and/or contributing to myriad publications.  The guy works hard and is very good at what he does, but one thing Mr. Cheng knows is that hard, quality work is just not good enough.  He knows that in order to be given the opportunity to show a company like McKinsey what you can do, you’re going to have to convince them that you can do it.

In an article about making a good impression during an interview with a top consulting firm, Victor lays out seven questions that every interviewer (including himself) is asking themselves for the duration of the meeting either explicitly or implicitly:

1. The personality question: “Do I like this kid?”
2. The professionalism question: “Can I put this guy in front of a client?” [dress, manners, language].
3. The organization question: “Can she put forth a clear plan?”
4. The analytical question: “Does he understand how to use numbers?”
5. The insight question: “Does he get the main point?”
6. The synthesis question: “Can she tie it all together?”
7. The enjoyment question: “Will he burn out?”

While it is true that Victor Cheng lists these questions with something specific in mind (interviewing for a job at a major consulting firm), the list can be easily and safely generalized to any professional interview.  In fact, the individual smiling and/or scowling at you across the table at your business school admissions interview will hold a list of questions in their mind closely derivative of the one above.  Furthermore, many readers will be attending the Road to Business School events in the coming weeks. Admissions officers at these events will remember or forget you based on first impressions.

One thing human resource professionals know is that data beats intuition when it comes to making a hiring decision.  However, they also know that a lot of the hiring process relies on intuition, data be damned.  We all do it: we rely on heuristics to make sense of the onslaught of information coming at us so we can make quick decisions that allow us to navigate the chaos.  We think a nice smile conveys a pleasant, trustworthy individual while a facial scar reveals something innately sinister.  Of course, this makes no logical sense and the sooner we shelf such absurdly presumptive, stereotypical behavior the better off we’ll be.  Yet doing so… Well, that’s an entirely different story.

First impressions matter.  There is an identified decision-making bias known as selective recall, which is born from a known heuristic called the contrast effect.  Anchoring, framing, and halo/horns are other major players in one’s perception of you.  Since the case can be made that perception is reality, it will serve you well to understand how perceptions are formed in order to ensure it is the right one.

• Contrast Effect: Heuristic.  Never follow an act with animals or kids in it.  Why?  Because animals and kids are easy to love and you’ll look like a lumbering oaf in comparison.  When would you prefer to interview: after the guy that blows it or after the lady that nails it?
• Selective Recall: Decision-making bias.  Surprising, confirmatory, or recent information will be more easily recalled.  Thus, the last performance/behavior observed tends to carry the most weight, good or bad.
• Framing: Decision-making bias.  “Now that you put it that way…”  I had a professor in grad school that said those seven words were the most important in business.  One no after the next will not be borne from a bad conclusion/recommendation, but rather a bad pitch.  Frame the information you deliver in the right way.
• Halo/horns: Heuristic.  We draw general impressions of others based on a single characteristic.  So, make all your single characteristics as presentable as possible.
• Anchoring.  Decision-making bias.  This is perhaps what a “first impression” is in a nutshell.  Anchoring is most often spoken about with regard to negotiations.  In essence, the first number offered will influence all subsequent numbers.  Therefore, as a general rule, the savvy negotiator will anchor first.  Anchoring, however, is not relegated solely to the negotiating table.  Anchoring happens in career tracks, starting salaries, and, of course, first impressions.

Your business school application is what gets you in the door.  The qualitative (essays, letters of recommendation, type of work experience) and quantitative (GMAT score, undergraduate GPA, years of work experience) information contained therein will speak for you.  But it is up to you to bring it home in the interview.  Kaplan’s Road to Business School events will put our students in from of admissions officers from top universities.  This is your chance to make a great first impression!