To the Editor:

When it comes to job-hunting, nearly everyone’s heard the mantra “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Nevertheless, too many fail to appreciate how critical and how important the first impression really is.

You can evaluate people and we all do it subconsciously all the time. It’s fundamental to human interaction regardless of who we are or where we come from. Ironically, we couldn’t stop engaging in this even if we wanted to.

The chilling part comes with the realization you could instant value judgments based solely on first impressions that could have significant consequences [positive or negative] on the lives of those you judged and it only took a second!

The misunderstanding of first encounters is a first impression has nothing to do with having to look like a star and everything to do with looking the part.

Few can compete with Britney Spears and Brad Pitt. The important aspect to understand is we must take what genetics has given us, work diligently to ensure we make the best of it and make sure our appearance is convincing.

The Bottom Line: too often the barriers that challenge us for success in anything are fundamental, obvious and avoidable.

In job hunting, we’d do well to observe James Carville’s minimalist approach and remember, “It’s still the First Impression stupid!”

Paul Shearstone