In sports such as football, soccer, hockey, and so on, athletes utilize training and practice to set themselves apart from the competition and position themselves to win the next game.
Now, it won’t give you a big advantage in the job market if you do 1,000 push-ups before your job interview. But there are some simple techniques that will help you make a better and more lasting impression than will just showing up in a suit with a resume in hand. Techniques that build your personal brand and make you worthy of remark.
One, although often overlooked, is punctuality. Being punctual means something different to everyone: some people are perpetual early birds while there are always those who say 3pm and you know they actually mean 4pm. What does being on time do for you when you are in the job hunting market? It shows that you care about what you are doing. You planned far enough ahead and moved around the rest of your life to make sure that you were there on time. Perhaps this is an over dramatization because you had nothing better to do, but the potential employer never needs to know that.
By showing up early, you have time to get comfortable with your environment – which means you will not feel as pressured and anxious during an interview or a meeting. There is nothing worse than running from the garage to the building, stumbling into the meeting room and having to make excuses for why you are late. Punctuality means that your days are less stressful and your time is more productive.
How can you set yourself up to be early? Here are the three things I always keep in mind:
- If you think something will take a certain amount of time, it will really always take twice that. Plan for it, and the worst that can happen is that you’re pleasantly surprised with all the surplus time.
- Add in travel time. Many times, when booking items back to back, you fail to take into account the time needed to get to or from someplace. If you are walking, you never know who you might bump into that will want to talk; and if you are driving, traffic is inevitable.
- Stay organized. The more you have on your plate, the more you are going to have to stay on top of your life. There are a million and one tools out there that enable you to manage everything: a to do list, a calendar, or whatever you would like. Forgetting an appointment is worse than being late.
There have been countless times in my career where I have met future clients just by being at a meeting early. You never know where opportunity will strike and it is important to not be in a rush when it does. Never forget to do a Pareto Analysis of your time. You will find that 20% of the items on your to do list will take 80% of your time to complete. Prioritizing is essential to make sure you are spending your time appropriately and getting everything done.
