This statement has run its course throughout human history and even today my mind conjures up pictures of first impressions that altered my own perception of the world around me. In the name of fairness it is unfortunate that most of us don't have a time budget that allows us to dig deeper than first impressions regarding people, places and subjects. So be it that if something or someone wants my attention, it's first impression must be excellent as any HR staffer might tell any potential resumé writing employee.
As a writer of more than one or two resumés, I have often been compelled to change my sales pitch as it were to a simpler and less truthful form of myself, catering to the perceived interests of the reader. The harried Human Resources staff, with their pile of resumés awaiting them every day request something short and sweet. There's no time for details yet. Writing such a resumé reminds me of a loan broker who convinced me that he would get me the money I needed at the lowest interest rate. That got me sitting in his office and working with him only to find that after my own home was sold and I was committed to go forward on the new home, that the task of getting me a loan could now only be accomplished at a much higher rate. Never the less, his original short and slightly untruthful pitch did keep me from straying to another lender in those critical early days. I guess the other more honest lenders I might have seen are still sitting in their offices alone and without customers.
The situation makes me say, "wait a minute!" That statement in itself gives revelation. There are no minutes to spare, especially in the modern personal or professional lives I've recently come in contact with. Are there solutions to this dilemma?
Perhaps these corporations need to look at their own first impressions they give to the potential employee more carefully. Giving only a cursory glance to anyone in the public sector might not be good for business in the long run. Such a short glance cannot be telling the potential employee or customer that they are very important. Can we rely on the fact that people have come to expect to be treated like unimportant numbers. We certainly show them how unimportant they are by using automated phone systems and by offering delayed or expensive technical assistance for errors that are usually caused by some corporate process, unclear instructions or product flaw.
Perhaps analysis here will save them from wondering why he later leaves without notice or sells their secrets to a competitor, or worse takes pencils home with him from the office.
What is the most cost affective approach in the long run? Should we buy hundreds of security cameras and software to watch our staff and the society around us? Should we support a growing Human Resources department with security services including a medical group to accept the beakers of urine for mandatory drug testing. How about the lie detector allowing some men to become voyeurs into other men's personal and/or professional lives?
What kind of employee trades his dignity for a dollar? What kind of employee does he make?
When I apply and the corporation says to me, a forty three year old male, that my resumé is too long, I immediately picture that harried HR staffer shuffling through people like a deck of cards. What is my first impression of such a corporation?
One particularly large electronics company comes to mind as I write this. They haven’t been too successful in the last three years. I recall a few years back when I was potentially to slum as a receptionist for them. As I recall, she hyperactively juggled one hundred lines among other duties receiving visitors and helping other over loaded staff with special projects. She had no time for coffee and was then ready to attempt her first vacation, praying that myself or some other candidate would be trained to take over her balancing act while she was gone. Hopefully, we would accomplish this within a few hours. Though overwhelmed, she had the required personality that tried to give the image that everything was fine to all that were gullible enough to believe it. Yet to say otherwise might have meant her job. Such is the smallest lie in the new societé of lies where one seldom knows why they were hired or fired, advanced or demoted. The truthful answers, were they to be known by the affected parties might lead a corporation down a path of legal entanglements. Those same entanglements are the downside of the same situation that protects them from the little competitors who dare not venture upon such a path for they can ill afford such law suits.
This is not a pleasant picture for employees in the second millenium like myself that strive for more from my 8 to 12 hour work day than a paycheck. Some managers would like to say that a life with meaning starts after 5 pm. Life is short and I like to spend my time and energy with good people and projects that are noble and good for all that are touched by them. I don't see this "sound byte" generation of Paper Tiger Corporations making it in the long run with fast first impression decision making.
The new heroes in business will guide themselves on international standards and global expectations. The days of the politically correct and diligent worker bees who gave the great first impressions and asked not what their companies could do for them, but rather what they could do for thier companies are numbered. Though the world is balancing international income levels demanding the higher paid to justify themselves, the millenium will adjust a more peaceful balance between work and leisure. There will be time for babies and children it it.
What companies will lead the way?
In conclusion, we are amazed at the shallowness of our leaders and coworkers and even in ourselves. Everything gets 3 seconds. TV show scenes, friends on the phone, family, rodeo rides, interviews and resumés. Perhaps this is why so much doesn’t seem to work. Software, Hardware, Tech Support, Human Resource Departments and employees. Ninety percent of our perception of the world around us is coming from the sacriligeous first impression. The pendulum must begin to swing the other way. Who will start the reversal?
Some nay sayers would like to argue my points with their own fingers directing me to the Stock Market successes from what I call "Paper Tigers." Technology and the Internet have more to do with those successes than any other factor since more uneducated players can access the stock market than ever before. These players bank on the first impression or quick summary. To hell with reality as long as the companies can sell the product around the truth.
Though many executives would tend to differ with my opinions, I would expect that I have underscored my point. After all, this has been my perception. Ask yourself. Do others share it? Remember, perception is everything!