How Engineers Can Correct a Bad First Impression
The truth about first impressions is that we only have one in each experience with other people. When we get hired as engineers, people in the engineering workplace have their fair share of first impressions depending on how we move and interact with them initially. It can either be a bad or good first impression that cements us of their perspective towards the newbies.
While a good first impression put us in a position that we were liked in the company at the start, a bad first impression – an incident of pressure, nervousness, wrong approach and distraction – already left a mark among others. So how do we correct that?
Realize that first impressions… are just first impressions. Think as well of how your bad impressions about others might change over the course of time.
Interact with the others in any way you could. A study from Harvard tells that it usually takes eight subsequent positive encounters for another person to change his or her negative opinion about you. To have more chances in having that eight straight incidents, all you have to do is interact with them more and do your best not to mess it up.
Try the honest route by making it up them with an invite. While this takes a lot of balls to do, this confrontational approach may just work. Simply asking for a lunch together or watching a movie in the theater will yield a better response that you are better than your bad first impression. Talk it out with them if you can.
Ask them for advice – on anything. Adam Grant, a Wharton School professor, says that asking for advice is a smart way to be influential. He said, “Asking for advice encouraged greater cooperation and information sharing, turning a potentially contentious negotiation into a win-win deal.”
