Personal and situational factors in the recruitment interview

Abstract

Investigated the impact of various perceived recruitment interviewer traits, behaviors, and attitudes on job candidate interview evaluations and subjective probabilities of accepting a job. It was based on 112 1st- and 2nd-yr master's degree students at a graduate school of business and public administration. Results show that compared to the worst interviewers, the best ones had an impact such that candidates perceived: interest and concern from the interviewer, confrontation of the candidates' strengths and limitations, a younger successful man interviewing, and the possibility of a high salary. Candidates gave higher probabilities of accepting a job offer to those interviews in which they had an interest in receiving an offer, where the interviewer was seen as showing interest and concern for them, and where the interviewer discussed the careers of other employees with master's degrees in business administration in his company. An interaction among candidates' desires for mutually trusting and respectful interpersonal relations at work, their perception of the interpersonal qualities of their recruitment interviews, and their evaluation of the interviews was found. Candidates with higher interpersonal needs tended to perceive the best interviews as less interpersonally satisfying the worst interviews as more interpersonally satisfying than the candidates with lower interpersonal needs. (18 ref.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)