How to Win the First Five Minutes of Your Interview

Hosted by Erin Essex and Alicia Gonzalez

Mon, Aug 31, 2026

4:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

Free to join

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The Hidden Rules of Product Design Interviews
Erin Essex
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What you'll learn

How you're evaluated in the first 5 minutes of the interview

Understand what happens in the first 5 minutes of your interview and how you're evaluated.

Navigating biases

Learn how to leverage positive biases and navigate negative ones to go further in your interview.

Create impressions that stick

Understand the psychology of a lasting impression and the steps you can take to make yourself more memorable.

Why this topic matters

The ability to leave a positive first impression is a valuable skill to have. Whether you’re job hunting, networking, or just working on your soft skills, knowing what happens in those first few seconds can change everything. In this lesson, we’ll dive into how we can influence others’ perceptions of us from the very start — helping you build connections that can open doors.

You'll learn from

Erin Essex

Sr Interaction Designer @Youtube | Former Design Director: MongoDB, Shutterstock

Erin Essex is a versatile, Senior Interaction Designer at Youtube with over 20+ years of design experience. Her work has spanned over web apps, native apps, SaaS tools, data analysis tools, drone collaboration and more across agencies, startups, and big tech. Her diverse skillset complemented by her psychology background enables her to understand user behavior and empathize with user needs over the most complex of products. As a sought after speaker, Erin is also an educator and has been teaching design and theory for over 6+ years. Her ultimate goal is to help people leverage technology to simplify their lives and to foster trust in the advent of developing tech.

Alicia Gonzalez

Sr Learning Specialist & Education Consultant | Host

Alicia Gonzalez is a Senior Learning Specialist with a background in education, consulting, and learner engagement. In this lesson, she will be asking our subject matter expert, Erin Essex, some thought provoking questions on the psychology and tactics behind creating a strong first impression.

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