Impressions formed in the first two or three minutes of an interview measurably predict its outcome. In a study of real interviews, ratings from the initial rapport-building chat predicted the internship offers candidates actually received, and predicted the scores given later by a different interviewer.
You have been told that interviewers decide in the first seven seconds. I have looked for the source of that claim and there is not one. It is folklore, and it is the kind that does damage, because it tells a nervous twenty-two year old that the outcome was settled before they sat down.
Here is what the research actually supports, which is more interesting and considerably more useful.
Fast, but about faces
The famous speed finding is real. Shown a photograph of a stranger for one tenth of a second, people form judgements about trustworthiness and competence that correlate strongly with the judgements they make given unlimited time. More time increased their confidence, not their verdict.
But that study used still photographs of strangers. It is routinely miscited as evidence about interviews, and it is not. Nobody in it was being interviewed for anything.
The finding that is about interviews
A separate study looked at actual interviews and separated out the rapport-building phase, the two or three minutes of small talk before anyone asks a real question.
That last number is the one worth thinking about. Whatever happened during the small talk was still visible to a different interviewer who never took part in it.
First impressions predict outcomes. They do not determine them. The difference matters, because one of those is worth preparing for.
The same initial competence rating also predicted second-interview invitations from real accounting firms, at a correlation of .23. These were not laboratory judgements about photographs of strangers. They were decisions with actual jobs attached to them.
What this means practically
It means the interview starts in the corridor. It means the part you thought was throat-clearing is doing measurable work, and it is the part almost nobody prepares.
Most candidates rehearse answers to questions. Very few rehearse the ninety seconds where someone asks how the journey in was.
Prepare the small talk, not just the answers
- Have your story ready in sixty seconds. Where you come from, what you do now, where you are going. Most people spend the whole minute on the middle part and leave the listener nothing to hold. That is the Three-Part Story in chapter four, and there is a builder for it in the companion.
- Answer the throwaway question properly. "Fine, thanks" is a closed door. One specific detail turns it into a conversation.
- Arrive early enough to stop being a person who is arriving. Rushed is legible from across a room.
- Ask something you actually want to know. Curiosity is difficult to fake and immediately obvious when it is real.
Why I am giving you the smaller number
A correlation of .22 is not destiny. Roughly speaking, the first impression is one meaningful input among several, which is exactly what you would want to be true.
The seven-second version of this story is more dramatic and it is also disempowering, because if the thing is decided before you speak then preparation is pointless. The measured version says something better: the first two minutes matter, they are only part of it, and they are the part most within your control.
They are also, conveniently, the part you can practise this week.
Build your sixty seconds
The Three-Part Story builder in the companion includes a read-aloud timer, because sixty seconds is shorter than it sounds.
Frequently asked
Do interviewers really decide in seven seconds?
No. That claim has no traceable primary source. The measured finding is that impressions formed during the first two or three minutes of rapport-building predicted real internship offers at a correlation of about .22.
What is the 100-millisecond first impression study?
Willis and Todorov (2006) found that trait judgements from a tenth-of-a-second glimpse of a face matched judgements made with unlimited time. It used photographs of strangers, not interviews, and is frequently miscited as though it did.
What should I prepare besides answers?
The small talk. Have a sixty-second version of your story ready, answer the opening pleasantry with something specific, and arrive early enough not to be visibly rushed.