I have sat on both sides of the interview table for over two decades, first as the QS being assessed, then as the person building the shortlist and sitting in on the panel. The thing that took me the longest to admit is this: most hiring decisions are made in the first five minutes, and everything after that is the panel building a case for a verdict it already reached.

It is not laziness and it is not unfairness in any deliberate sense. It is just how attention works under time pressure. A panel meets a candidate, forms an instant read from the handshake, the opening answer, the way they carry the first bit of small talk, and from that point on they are listening selectively. Answers that fit the early impression get remembered. Answers that contradict it get explained away or simply forgotten by the debrief.

I have sat in enough debriefs to see the pattern clearly. Three panellists will disagree completely on how a candidate handled a specific technical question, quoting different bits of the same answer back at each other. Put the same three people in a room and ask how the candidate felt when they walked in, and you get instant agreement. Nobody argues about the vibe. That should worry hiring panels more than it does.

If you are the one running the process, the fix is not complicated but it is uncomfortable, because it means slowing down a habit that feels efficient. Score against the brief before anyone in the room says a word out loud. Write down your first impression separately from your final mark, so you can see the gap between them, if there is one. And be honest with yourself about how much of a strong hour of answers actually moved your first four minutes, because usually the answer is not much.

If you are the one being interviewed, the practical version of this is blunt. Do not save your best material for the end, and do not treat the opening minutes as throat clearing before the real interview starts. The real interview is those minutes, whether anyone admits it or not. Whatever specific, concrete evidence you have of the work you are proudest of, the number you moved, the programme you rescued, get it into the conversation early and plainly. You are not being judged on a fair sample of the full hour. You are being judged on whether the rest of the hour agrees with the first five minutes.

Next time you prepare for a panel, on either side of the table, ask yourself what you want to be true about the room before anyone has said a serious word. That is the question that actually decides the outcome.