Professionalism

One of my biggest pet peeves is a lack of professionalism.  When you are in a setting where you are to act professional, JUST DO IT.  When you act like an idiot, people notice.  Dress appropriately, don't make stupid jokes, don't be loud and obnoxious.  When you go into an interview and shake hands with the panel interviewing you, shake hands with them all.

As I was doing interviews for an FFA thing, this kid who graduated last year came into the room and shook hands with the 4 adult judges on the panel.  When he comes to me, he nods and says, hey there.  "Hey there." Really, kid?  Is that the best you can do?  But then he sits down and gives his interview.  Does pretty well.  When he goes to leave, he does the same thing, except he says, "See Ya" this time.  And he runs into a chair on the way out.

Granted, he may have felt he was above me because he was a year older than me.  But that still isn't a reason to not act like a professional.

Wherever you are, someone is watching you.  They see your actions and, if they have any other interactions with you, they're not going to have a favorable image of you.  And that person could be the one that could have given you a fantastic job or something.

You never know when a professional opportunity is going to come up so you should always act in a professional manner when you're with people you don't know.