Enhancing Your Interviewing Skills
Recruiting a candidate for employment into an organization – the so-called “pre-entry period” – is a process involving the application and recruiting of candidates, and the subsequent selection of the candidate who appears to most closely match the criteria these companies have outlined in response to a need within their organizational structure. A candidate’s immersion into a company model begins with the first impression they leave their hiring manager, which in turn leads to interviewing and hopefully onboarding. At almost any time during pre-entry the applicant can do something to jeopardize their chances of landing the position they’re looking to obtain.[1] Impressions that can jeopardize a candidate’s path to success can be as simple as minor resume errors or as flagrant as showing up to an interview late and unprepared. If a candidate wins an interview with the hiring staff of the company they’re looking to work for, their next hurdle is to win over the hiring manager, vice president, or owner in the interview stage of the pre-entry period.
It should go without saying that showing up 15 minutes early to an interview, turning off your phone as you walk in, and bringing an extra copy of your resume on interview day are essential to your success. The goal of this paper is to draw on recent (and not so recent) empirical findings to “enhance” your interviewing skills, which here means building on what is already common knowledge to us about interviewing by supporting our assumptions and intuitions about it with empirical data. The goal is for you to become a better interviewer so that you can win the positions with the companies that you actually want to work for.
1. Present yourself as professional and appealing
Like most other human activities, the interviewing stage of the pre-entry period can best be described as a social interaction, with participants that have their own roles, skills, biases, strategies for success in the pursuit of their interests, and aversions. Although it is the responsibility of the hiring manager to bring in candidates who match the qualifications required for success in the role, as well as who possess the necessary soft skills to adapt to a company’s culture, hiring managers are themselves human, which means they have biases to overcome too. There is no question that first impressions are essential to a candidate’s success at this stage.[2] Some studies go so far as to suggest that the final evaluation is determined in large part by the first impression a hiring manager makes of you the candidate.[3] The goal now becomes managing the impressions a candidate has on a hiring manager so as to produce a desirable end-result (i.e. you receiving a job offer!!).
The first step is to ensure that you, the candidate, are producing a favorable first impression is to ensure that you present yourself in a manner that is professional and appealing. This means, quite literally, dressing and conducting yourself in a way that is appealing to your hiring manager. As research has shown,[4] attractive people typically do better in the interview process than their less attractive counterparts. In addition, attractive people are more likely to be offered a job after the interview process,[5] and once they are offered jobs, they are more likely to be recommended for higher starting salaries.[6] The key to understanding this social phenomenon is to understand the connection between attractiveness and perceived interpersonal attributes (see chart below). The idea is that in social interactions when a participant is perceived as attractive the perceiver transitively imputes functional characteristics that are superior as well, meaning that attractiveness, at a very low-level, is one manner of demonstrating COMPETENCE to a hiring manager. Does this mean you should run out before your interview and get a spray tan? Not necessarily. It does mean, however, that for your interview you should dress well, shave, cut your hair to a length that is appealing, get rest, and otherwise be an attractive person when you speak with your hiring manager. This is the surest way to begin an interview with a favorable first impression.
2. Speak well about what you know
Hiring managers are very interested in your skillsets, your experience, your tenure with reputable companies, and your technical expertise; but given that hiring is still a human activity, and that hiring managers are still straddled with their own biases to overcome, what you know may not always take precedence over how you convey it. A number of studies support the idea that non-verbal communication is AS important, or potentially even MORE important, than demonstrating competence by speaking accurately.[7] Some suggest that adults generally place more reliance on nonverbal cues in determining social meaning in every social situation.[8] The reliance that adults place on non-verbal communication in social situations is derived from contextual cues that aid in the interpretation of verbal messages. In order to enhance your interviewing skills the goal here is for your verbal messages and your non-verbal messages to coalesce to convince your hiring manger that you have the skills they are searching for. Non-verbal communication causes the interviewer to conclude a message’s validity by deciphering the candidate’s emotional state to determine if there is a discrepancy between what is verbally expressed and what is conveyed non-verbally. Your goal should be, then, to say the right things and to support what you say with corresponding non-verbal cues. Did you work on a project that you’re particularly proud of? Speak about it with confidence! Do you have a particular skillset that is relatively uncommon that your employer might find a value in? Speak about it with confidence!
So what should you say and how should you support it? Based on survey done in 2014 by CareerBuilder, what employers are commonly looking for in the candidates they interview and hire are some combination of the following attributes: self-motivation, team-oriented mindset, confidence, flexibility, and effective communication. The key to ensuring that your hiring manager develops this impression of you is to convey to them that you have these attributes using language (“I’d describe myself as a team player who prides myself in my ability to troubleshoot any problem” or “I’m a very effective communicator, and I really enjoy working with the people around me to accomplish a task”) and to support this language with non-verbal cues. The main areas of study in non-verbal communication are:
A. Kinesics (Body Movements, Gestures, Facial Expressions, Trunk/Limb Movements, Posture, Gaze, etc.)
B. Physical Appearance (Clothing, Hairstyle, Makeup, and Adornments)
C. Haptics (Use of Touch)
D. Proxemics (Use of Distance)
E. Chronemics (Use of Time as a message system)
F. Artifacts (Manipulable Objects, Environmental Features, etc.)
G. Vocalics / Paralanguage (Vocal Cues that assist in the interpretation of linguistic signs)
3. Convey that you are a trustworthy person
Recent studies have shown that during the interview process both parties – candidate and interviewer – put their faith, to varying degrees, in the notion that they are each receiving accurate, honest, and complete information from the other party.[9] Given that we’ve seen that at almost any time during pre-entry the applicant can do something to jeopardize this initial trusting impression,[10] it is up to you, the candidate, to distort this initial impression with discrepancies in your work history or other signals that you’re not being entirely honest with your interviewer.
As Heidi Grant claims in her article “How to Show Trustworthiness in a Job Interview,” demonstrating trust requires that you, the applicant, convey to your hiring manager two qualities: WARMTH and COMPETENCE. Demonstrating warmth – using verbal or non-verbal cues – entails giving the impression that you have good intentions toward the perceiver. This concept of giving the impression that you have good intentions has both a dispositional element and a structural element. The perception of having good intentions is dispositional in that the perceiver qualifies a person as warm or not warm, trustworthy or not trustworthy, based on their impression of them as a trustworthy person. The perception of having good intentions is structural in that the perceiver qualifies a candidate as warm or not warm, trustworthy or not trustworthy, in terms of how well they think this candidate will perform in the company model itself. Demonstrating competence entails giving the impression that you can carry out those good intentions; that you have the cognitive skills and the internal drive to complete the tasks you’ve been given, and that these tasks are themselves in the best interest of the organization that you’re entering.
Perceived trustworthiness is based on (3) characteristics: benevolence, integrity, and ability.[11] Benevolence is based on the belief – derived from the impression – that the trustee will act in my best interest. Integrity is the alignment of principles of interaction, such that a perceiver perceives you as someone who is willing and capable to align their behavior with the best interests of the team you’re entering. Ability is the perception a trustee has of you, the candidate, to fulfill those obligations on a continuous basis so that the team you’re entering can perform at its highest level for the longest duration possible. In order to ensure that you’re giving your hiring manager the impression that you’re trustworthy, USE KEYWORDS that signal this disposition. Speak to your hiring manager modestly and with gratitude about the roles you’ve vacated and the guidance you’ve received from past employers. Speak about how fortunate you’ve been to work with such great companies and on such great projects in the past. Express loyalty and responsibility with phrases like “It’s unfortunate that I’m leaving” or “I’d like to stay on long enough to see the project through to completion.” In essence, your hiring manager wants to see that you have the capabilities for the role they’re speaking to you about, with the experience to support these capabilities, and they want to know that you’ll be on their side by having intentions that are in the best interest of the people around you.
[1] Searle, R.H., & Billsberry, J. (2011). The Development and Destruction of Organizational Trust During Recruitment and Selection. In R. Searle, R.H., & D. Skinner (Eds.) Trust and Human Resource Management (pp.67-86). Northhampton, MA: Edward Elger Publishing.
[2] Cortez, Renee; Marshall, David; Yang, Cydi; and Luong, Loc (2017) "First Impressions, Cultural Assimilation, and Hireability in Job Interviews: Examining Body Language and Facial Expressions' Impact on Employer's Perceptions of Applicants," Concordia Journal of Communication Research: Vol. 4 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/comjournal/vol4/iss1/4. Finnerty, A., et. al. (2016) “Stressful First Impressions in Job Interviews,” International Customer Management Institute: Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference of Multimodal Interaction. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/2993148.2993198. Gioaba I and Krings F (2017) Impression Management in the Job Interview: An Effective Way of Mitigating Discrimination against Older Applicants? Front. Psychol. 8:770. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00770.
[3] Stewart, C.J. & Cash W.B. Jr. (1988) Interviewing: Principles and Practices. Dubuque, IA: W.C. Brown.
[4] Heilman, M.E. & M.H. Stopeck (1985) “Attractiveness and Corporate Success: Different Casual Attributions for Males and Females. J. App. Psych: 70: 379-388. Dickey-Bryant, L. et. al. (1986) “Facial Attractiveness and its Relation to Occupational Success. J. App. Psych: 71: 16-19.
[5] Cash, T.F. et. al. (1977) “Sexism and “Beautyism” in Personnel Consultant Decision-Making,” J. App. Psych. 62: 301-310.
[6] Dipboye, R.L. et. al. (1977) “Sex and Physical Attractiveness of Raters and Applicants as Determinants of Resume Credentials,” J. App. Soc. Psych.: 62: 288-294. Jackson, L.A. (1983) Gender, Physical Attractiveness, and Sex Roles in Occupational Treatment Discrimination: The Influence of Trait and Role Assumptions,” J. App. Soc. Psych.: 13: 443-458
[7] Stewart, C.J. & Cash W.B. Jr. (1988) Interviewing: Principles and Practices. Dubuque, IA: W.C. Brown.
[8] Burgoon, J.K. (1985) “Nonverbal Signals,” in Handbook of Interpersonal Communication (pp. 344-392) Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE Publications.
[9] Breaugh, J.A., Macan, T.H., & Grambow, D. H. (2008) “Employee Recruitment: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research. In G.P. Hodgkinson & J.K. Ford (Eds.), International Review of Industrial & Organizational Psychology, Vol. 23 (pp. 45-82). New York: John Wiley. Cable, D.M. & Yu, K. Y. T. (2006) “Managing Job Applicants’ Organizational Image Beliefs: The Role of Media Richness and Media Credibility,” in J. App. Psych., 91, 828-840.
[10] Searle, R.H. & Billsberry, J. (2011) “The Development and Destruction of Organizational Trust During Recruitment and Selection,” in R. Searle, R.H. & D. Skinner (eds.) Trust and Human Resource Management (pp. 67-86). Northhampton, MA: Edward Elger Publishing.
[11] Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H., & Schoorman, F.D. (1995) “An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust,” in Academy of Management Review, 20, 709-734. Enhacing