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October 18, 2007
Mind Your Manners: Why Etiquette Matters to Employers
Are you up to date on your rules of etiquette? If not, you might want to refresh your memory. Believe it or not, more than a few of the employers that the CSO has met with in the past few months have highlighted basic etiquette skills as something they are looking for (and not always finding) when hiring. And they’re not just talking about saying please and sending thank you notes!
Employers want to know that the people they hire are capable of handling client meetings, business lunches, and everyday office interactions. To determine whether you are capable of doing these things professionally, employers consider a number of factors, regardless of whether you’re sitting across the desk at a traditional interview or sitting across the lunch table at a lunch interview. Employers look to see whether you are dressed professionally, whether you’ve been polite to absolutely everyone who you’ve met while on your interview, whether you’ve turned off your cell phone, and, yes, even whether you know which water glass is yours at the business lunch table and which water glass is your neighbor’s. (Hint: bread plate is always on the left; water glass is always on the right.)
So that recruiting cocktail party or call back interview lunch you’ve been invited to? Think of it as the perfect opportunity for a potential employer to evaluate your ability to remain professional in different environments. It is still part of the interview and employers are expecting you to remain polite, respectful, and professional.
If you have questions about etiquette in these or other situations, stop by the CSO to talk with a counselor about the resources you can use to brush up your skills!
Posted by kcc17 at October 18, 2007 11:15 AM