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Should we judge a book by its cover?

Should we judge a book by its cover?

The new world of recruitment and actually the new world full stop has given us all a chance see a more personal side to everyone. By this I mean in the last 4 months the number of online meetings taking place from peoples homes has grown expediently.

I don’t think I am alone in saying that one of the first things that happens in these meetings is you find yourself casting an eye around the surroundings of the person you are meeting. I don’t mean in a superficial or taste of light fitting etc way. What I am looking at generally is presentation of surroundings and anything that might tell me more about the person I am speaking to.

To give context to this, if for example I am recruiting for a Financial Controller a role that requires a high standard of organisation and attention to detail. Wrongly or rightly I would be wondering about the suitability of a person if the environment they had presented to me consisted of three dirty coffee cups and a big pile of washing / ironing sitting next to them, is this the attention to detail I’m looking for? I don’t think so.

So what is my point? In the new age of digital meeting (they are here to stay) the surroundings you present yourself in can have an impact on the outcome of the meeting. This is also true of those presenting on behalf of a company. With this in mind we all need to make sure that like we would in any face to face business meeting we are being judged for the right reasons and presenting a true but best version of ourselves and our company.