On Expressions and Impressions

Facebook App groups are due today~ Over the past few days, we've all seen our coursemates pitching themselves in order to get themselves groups, in various different ways. Some were successful, some... not so. What went right / wrong? Why did some people take longer to find their groups?

Impressions count for a lot, regardless of how accurate they are. According to a course held by consultants from McKinsey, impressions can be, and are, made within the first 10 seconds of meeting someone new. What were these 10 seconds? How many of us have actually greeted our new coursemates, let alone sat down and talked to all of them? For most, the contact we've made has been limited to CS3216 Superheroes, Show & Tell, and the recruiting / recruit-me emails that we've seen and / or sent. Of these three, I think the greatest impressions would be left by emails. An email, in fact any written word, has to convey its intended meaning without the aid of gestures, pitch, volume, and body language. It is therefore important to realise how one's words might and will be interpreted. Some emails that I've seen come across as willing to learn and experience new ideas, new people, and new working styles, whereas some came off as arrogant and narcissistic. The actual details vary, but the arrogant-sounding ones generally seem to imply the sender's intellectual and / or social superiority... and whether intentional or not, that's probably not a good foot to start on.


That being said, I think prof's restriction for all our project groups to be distinct is a good one, for it forces us to know other students and work with them, circumventing our original impressions of these people and discovering their true talents within. Hopefully our initial impressions of them would be wrong, and they turn out to be really fun and supportive people to work with~