How quick do they decide to hire/not hire you?

DDI survey of 1,910 hiring managers and interviewers and more than 3,500 candidates from the USA, AU, CAN, FRN, DEU, UK 2009 reported the following:

• 44% rely on their gut instinct to make a decision
• 47% took < 30 minutes to make a hiring decision

What's the best way to describe yourself in a few seconds to fit in the hiring manager's attention span?  LinkedIn groups have posted these challenges to focus our personal brand message for the decision maker:

• Describe yourself in 3 words that all begin with the same letter.
• Describe yourself in 7 words, no more or less.
• Describe yourself in 140 characters or less.

We often practice our 30-second elevator speech, but I don't think we have that much time to make a best first impression.

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