Category: IPG

The interview perception, formed at the interview start, creates that all important ‘first impression’ which acts as a ‘selection filter.’ The  interviewer’s involuntary opinion is filled with errors, prejudices and stereotypes. This automatic thinking comes from assumptions based on the interviewers own experiences, values and beliefs.

If, for example, you believe that an interviewee who is late for an interview will be a terrible worker, you will act from this viewpoint rather than challenge the status quo. 

In psychology they refer to an involuntary opinion based on experience as a ‘schema.’

Once you have created a mental structure (schema) even if the concept is incorrect (not all late applicants will be terrible workers – their car may have broken down) the schema creates an effortless pathway from a cause to effect (lateness = bad worker).

In life these schema’s or short-cuts are very useful, as they help to organise and interpret vast amounts of information, but when making expensive hiring decisions based on projected job performance, an instantaneous snap-judgment formed by intuition, not facts, is rarely helpful. 

Any schema, positive or negative, can affect the interviewers judgement of the interviewee. This is because schemas influence what information is noticed and remembered; if the interviewer believes that a late candidate = poor performance, the interviewer, subconsciously, will search for evidence to reinforce this belief. 

Imagine in a job interview where a candidate, who has been judged for being late, is asked a question. Before answering they hesitate, and then detail a story relating to the criteria referenced in the interview question. The answer highlights several key strengths and skills but also highlights one weakness or area of development. The schema, in this example: late candidate = poor performance, creates a funnel where the interviewer, without conscious awareness, filters the ‘hesitation’ as a sign of a lack of industry knowledge and focuses on the one weakness/area of development, instead of their strengths.

Now, imagine the same scenario but this time the same interviewee had arrived early (their car didn’t break down) activating a different schema (early arrival = high work ethic) this time the same interviewer positively filters the ‘hesitation’ as a sign that the applicant considers questions before replying, and focuses on the interviewees strengths and skills, not their one weakness/area of development. 

A single trait, such as lateness or being obese, is enough to become the main emphasis for the judgment of an applicant.

Interview impression formation is a process where different pieces of information are combined, instantaneously, to create a summary impression, even when the information is irrelevant to the job role.

Several experiments show how stereotypes affect the recruitment process. In one example, two identical application forms were sent to organisations recruiting administrators. The only difference was the attached photograph sent with each application; one displayed a ‘average’ weight individual and the second, an ‘overweight’ applicant. The research showed how an ‘overweight’ applicant was less likely to receive an interview offer than an ‘average’ weight candidate even when both applicants had the same experience, skill set and qualifications (the experiment used the same CVs for both the average and overweight applicants) 

Job Interview Advice

The structured interview process is the principal intervention to make a decision on which applicant to offer an advertised position to. It is the asking of standardised questions of job-relevant criteria and a numerical scoring mechanism of the interviewees answers that results in the assumption that the best candidate is offered the advertised role. 

The structured interviews ‘fair’ scoring system does not take into account bias. Evidence shows how perception disorders affect judgement. Two people seeing the same stimuli can attach different meanings to it.

A common ‘unconscious bias’ in the job interview is the ‘affinity’ bias – we gravitate towards people if we believe they are similar to us. When recruiting a new team member, interviewers will often have a natural stronger preference for an applicant who they feel is the ‘right fit’ for the organisation.

The ‘right fit,’ when the ‘affinity’ bias is in operation, is the interviewer having a stronger desire to recruit an applicant who they see as having a similar personality, attitude, value(s) and belief(s) as themselves. Not to be confused with an interviewee evidencing that they meet the organisational values, the ‘affinity bias’ perception disorder is an intuitive ‘feeling’ that influences the interviewers decision making process; they remind me of me.

The subconscious association here is; Interviewer has a strong understanding of self: Interviewer identifies similar attributes between themselves and the interviewee: Interviewer associates their character with the applicant: Interviewer increases likability of interviewee. 

This whole process happens instantaneously at the subconscious level. A second interviewer, who does not find any common ground with the same applicant, is likely to score the candidate lower then the first interviewer because the ‘affinity’ bias isn’t in effect. In fact, an interviewer may take a dislike to the applicant if they don’t bond due to a lack of similarities. This ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ is emotional, not logical, and created so rapidly that the interviewer does not question the prejudice.

Similarities can be as basic as having attended the same university, sharing a forename or supporting the same sports team. It can also be something deeper; a belief or attitude. Many attributes can increase or decrease likability; an interviewees weight, ethnicity, sex, age or how a person communicates, dresses and even a candidates handshake all create an interview perception disorder. 

The interview perception, formed at the interview start, creates that all important ‘first impression’ which acts as a ‘selection filter.’ The  interviewer’s involuntary opinion is filled with errors, prejudices and stereotypes. This automatic thinking comes from assumptions based on the interviewers own experiences, values and beliefs.

The brain is designed to create short-cuts to reduce the time it takes to complete each task. It is this fast-thinking part of the mind that uses generalisations to make rapid decisions. If, for example, you believe that an interviewee who is late for an interview will be a terrible worker, you will act from this viewpoint rather than challenge the status quo. 

It is important to understand the mind’s cognitive processing system: Simplifying the complexity of the brain, humans use two operating systems; system 1 and system 2.

System 1 is the fast-thinking mind, creating opinions quickly and intuitively. The brain is always operating using system 1, making decisions that you are not consciously aware of – an interviewer judging an applicant as they arrive for a job interview.

System 2 is a slower analytical mind that requires mental effort to solve complex computations. It requires concentration to make a conscious choice – an interviewer referencing a stated answer against the scoring criteria.

Each of us use both (conceptual) systems but due to system 2 requiring effort (the brain prefers to use less effort)  it will use system 1s shortcuts as a starting point, such as having a bias based on an unconscious opinion or belief. 

Job Interview Advice

The structured interview process is the principal intervention to make a decision on which applicant to offer an advertised position to. It is the asking of standardised questions of job-relevant criteria and a numerical scoring mechanism of the interviewees answers that results in the assumption that the best candidate is offered the advertised role. 

The structured interview is seen as ‘fair’ as candidates are individually scored on each interview question, which is asked by the same interviewer(s) in the same order. The scores allocated for each answer is rated, as an example, between 1-4; 1 = negative, 2 = good, 3 = effective, 4 = expert, with each employer having their own numerical scoring system. 

The rationale for the structured job interview is that interviewees will answer questions by giving information relevant to the advertised job role. This relies on the applicant being able to identify the job criteria. Being able to identify criteria and embedding the stated criteria into the job interview answer should, in most cases, result in either a 3 = effective or 4 = expert scoring, spending on your level of knowledge/experience. Research has shown that the ability to predict job criteria, therefore having a high level of sector knowledge/experience, accurately predicts job performance (the objective of the job interview process), compared to when the criteria is explicit prior to the job interview.  

‘Giving too much away’ prior to the job interview, in terms of explicitly explaining the job criteria, allows an interviewee to prepare an ‘expert’ answer even if their industry knowledge/experience is low.  Evidence shows that sharing job criteria prior to the interview start makes it more difficult for interviewers to accurately predict a potential employees job performance during a job interview, as the ‘expert’ interview answers are in contrast with their actual level of knowledge/experience. 

It has been argued that in the job interview, the interviewee presents the ‘best’ version of themselves. This distinction between the ‘best’ version of an applicant and actual performance once employed has an impact on the organisation’s output. As an example, job interviews often test people’s potential ability (knowledge/expertise not their characteristics IE work ethic, time keeping, etc). The structured interview, therefore, is asking candidates what they are ‘likely’ to do, not what they will ‘actually’ do once employed. 

What employees ‘actual’ do in the workplace comes down to their level of motivation. In ‘real-life,’ rather than the fictional scenario discussed in a job interview, the employee makes choices which affects output. Choice could include effort, acting on distractions, responding to external forces IE the characteristic or mood of a manager. In the job interview though, the applicants answers are based on their competencies, framed as ‘typical’ day to day approaches but answers are often examples of the candidate performing at their best. 

To counter the distortion created by interviewees presenting a high performing examples, some recruitment campaigns hold all-day interviews which include structured interviews, assessments (to test knowledge/experience) group work activities and informal discussions (to view temperament), with the idea that an applicant, due to the duration of the day, will show their ‘real’ selves and therefore the interviewers can see the candidate as they would act/perform once employed. 

Here we see another problem when searching for the ‘best’ applicant. All day interviews often include a ‘teamwork’ or ‘problem-solving’ activity to view characteristics. In a job interview, applicants are highly motivated to act outside their ‘typical’ working style as the ‘activity’ will be for a short duration allowing the interviewee to put in a high amount of ‘energy’ and ‘effort’ which, in a typical working day, wouldn’t be sustainable. In this sense interviewers view applicants at their best, not their norm. 

The applicant’s job interview level of confidence can also alter reality. Some ‘high level of confidence’ candidates will use the interview activity to showcase their abilities – actively promoting themselves, whereas a ‘low level of confidence’ interviewee, with the same level of knowledge/expertise will unconsciously self-disclose weaknesses and conform with other, more confident, applicants in team tasks.  

Temperament also affects the employers perception of the interviewee, especially the extrovertism and introvertism trait. These two characteristics have nothing to do with confidence, rather it’s about being ‘expressive’ or ‘reserved.’  In team tasks, the expressive individual feels at home as they gain ‘energy’ from interacting with others and thus appear confident, which can help them to stand out in the interview activity. Reserved individuals will think before talking and can be viewed, by some, as being less confident than their extrovert counterpart. This ‘thinking’ before speaking can benefit the introvert in the structured interview as they way-up their answer before replying, ensuring that each answer is relevant to the job criteria. Extroverts, who will often ‘speak’ before they ‘think’ and can, at the worst, interrupt an interviewer or answer without truly understanding the meaning of the question.

All interview formats create a stressful environment making it difficult to see the interviewee as they would ‘typically’ act in the workplace. Some applicants respond well to the ‘challenge’ of a job interview, whereas others act uncharacteristically, due to the stress of the situation. The only way to view an employees typical workplace behaviour is to evaluate an employee when they don’t realise they are being observed. For a recruitment campaign this is an impossible scenario. 

It is clear then that the more a confident applicant understands the job criteria  and therefore gives high scoring answers, the more successful they will be in a job interview, but not always in the job itself. It is for the interviewer, not the interviewee, to create an interview process that uncovers the applicants work ethic, motivation level, knowledge/expertise as well as to understand which interview answer is based on their maximum performance, and to question the interviewee to understand the applicants ‘typical’ work based behaviour.

The interviewee has one goal; to be seen as an authentic and strong applicant. With a subgoal if deciding if the organization is one they want to work for. As you will learn, to be seen as authentic and strong, the candidate needs to show high levels of knowledge/experience and high levels of confidence.

Job Interview Advice

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Job Interview Advice