I’ve been curious about a phenomenon we’re seeing when we interview candidates these days. Their first impressions suck. Not everyone, but I’d venture to say 90 percent of them.Why do they suck? Because they’re not doing any research on Arment Dietrich nor are they reading Spin Sucks before they interview with us.

Maybe it’s because we’ve been using Twitter as our recruiting playground and people have gotten lazy because they feel like they know me, and I know them, so they just have to go through the process before they’re offered a job. But I’m here to tell you, that perception is wrong. It’s actually MORE disappointing to me if we interview someone I feel like I know pretty well online, just to have my team say, “Yeah, Gin. They sucked. They didn’t ask any questions and didn’t know who we work with every day. They’ve never even read the blog.”

I hear that AT LEAST once a week. I hear it so much we’re restructuring the way we interview. When you don’t do your research, you’re wasting my team’s time, you’re wasting your time, and you’re greatly disappointing me. Those first impressions you leave with my team? They’re lasting and nothing you can do will change their perception of what it would be like to work with you. And it doesn’t matter how much I like you online. If someone on my team got a really bad first impression from you, you won’t get a job here.

I’m here to help, though. Following are eight ways you can avoid a bad first impression and make it through the process to interview with the top decision maker (and hopefully get yourself a job). (more…)