Snap Judgment!

How much time does it take for an interviewer to judge the appropriateness of a candidate in an Interview?

Just read this incredible book “BLINK” by Melcolm Gladwell. And what he claims is that it takes less than the first 2 seconds for you to get selected or rejected in an interview. The rest of the time is spent on reinforcing the decision already taken. It seems hard to believe this. What he says is even your conscious mind may not be aware of the decision already taken by unconscious mind. He comes up with pulsating arguments about the decisions that we take in real life in a blink of an eye. There are two kinds of decision we normally have to take in our daily life. The simple mundane decisions of daily life, that gives us enough time to work out the pros and cons of our decision. For these kinds of decisions we should use the analytical skills of the conscious mind to reach our decisions. The other types of decision we may have to take are very complicated decisions which have too many variables in it accompanied by the lack of time. For such decisions we should let our unconscious mind make the choice. That is, let your instincts take you to your decisions.

But, this is against conventional wisdom which says, more complicated the problem, more deliberation and critical analysis is required to come to the correct decision. In real life you may not have the time for such deliberations. You have to decide on the spot, in reflex action. This is extensively used by the people in the military or by traders in a stock exchange or even by a batsman while batting on a cricket field. All of them have to take decisions under extreme pressure and lack of time. What they are trained for is through rigorous practice they have imbibed the nuances to their unconscious level. When a situation demands quick split-second decision they let their instinct take over. Our unconscious can process information very quickly without the realization of our conscious mind.

The End Game is: Train your unconscious mind through rigorous practice (day in and day out practice) in the field of your choice and believe in your instincts, it will never let you down!