We all know that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Yet we are all guilty of judging people by the way they talk, walk, look and behave. We all form opinions about people the first time that we see or hear them. We even form opinions about people that we have never met. Every other contact that we have with these people will either support or, very rarely, conflict with that first impression.
It is very hard to undo the initial impression that you make upon any interviewer. Create a good impression on the first meeting and your relationship with an interviewer will grow positively. Create a bad first impression, then selling yourself to that person will be an uphill battle. It is therefore in your interest to have everything that you say and do reinforce that first impression. There for your first impression needs to be as favourable as possible.
You want to come across as being the right person for the role without any doubt in any interviewer's mind. You can have no way of knowing what the perfect fit is in the mind of each and every interviewer. You now already know that your skills and experience are not the only factors at play during an appointment decision. If your skills and experience were not adequate on paper at least, you would not have been called in for an interview.
The lasting impression that you want to create is one of genuine positiveness. You don't want to come across as a negative person wallowing in self-doubt and self-pity. You also don't want to be on the other extreme of coming across as being positive (and cheesy about it) no matter what is happening. Displaying a positive disposition has many benefits to it. People will find you pleasant to be around, be comfortable in your company, be attracted to you, are more ready to trust you and find you more memorable.
You should also cultivate a slight air of confidence about you. People will pick up on this and wonder why you are as confident as you are. This makes you a little intriguing and therefore much more memorable. Over the course of the interview, through the answers that you will give, you can then show them what your confidence is based on. If you are highly experienced and have great skills, then you have every right to be confident about yourself as a candidate for this job opportunity. Often confidence is the only distinguishing value between evenly matched applicants. A prospective employer will always be more willing to take a chance (if they have to choose) on the person that seems more confident.
You also want to show the interviewers that you are "one of them". This gives them a feeling of security. You want them to identify with you and you should make the effort to do likewise. This, once again, is when your research of the employer will pay off. If they are a quality-oriented company, you should emphasise your appreciation of quality as a concept and give examples of how you achieve this. If the company culture seems to be an aggressive one, don't be aggressive in your personal delivery, but rather cite examples of where your aggression has achieved positive results in the past. If you want to avoid coming across as dishonest, as having a communication problem, being somewhat arrogant and at the same time hint at lack of confidence, then there is only one thing that you can do. If you really want to avoid these four negative impressions, then you must MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT. Do this simple thing properly and you will notice of a vast improvement in your own interview conduct and, more importantly, the feedback that you will garner.