“You never get a second chance to make a first impression, but how about first impressions on you?
Whether it’s on a blind date, an interview, or meeting the new significant other’s parents, how do you react if the person isn’t how you imagined? Do you try to find some common ground, simply be polite, or shrug your shoulders?“

I have never been on a blind date, let alone a real date, nor do I have a significant other whose parents I need to meet, I have, however, been to plenty of job interviews. Though I’ve never had an interview where I got to meet or talk to my interviewer beforehand, when I entered the interview room and met my interviewer, his/her first impression told me everything I needed to know and whether I should be nervous or relaxed.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’d know I’ve mentioned plenty of times that I have a knack of reading people, usually by first impression. I call it my 6th sense. It’s the reason why my mother used to bring me along to see prospective tenants when she had rental homes, even though my analysis was ignored most of the times despite being right.

I can often tell if someone is nice, likes to smile or laugh a lot, or strict and mean and nothing would put a smile on his/her face. First impression basically tells me everything I need to know about a person.

I am also pretty good at imagining what a person’s like but I usually need a mean of communication to do that – typically a conversation over the phone but I can sometimes get away with an email.

There have been circumstances when I’d imagine the person incorrectly.

When I attended a work conference last year, I got to meet a lot of people who I’ve communicated over email in the last few years but never met. I was pretty spot-on with guessing their demeanors through our email conversations. I was not spot-on when it came to appearance. In any case, I tried to make conversation with those with a friendly demeanor while steering away from the other ones.