Review of A handbook of employment interviewing

Abstract

Reviews the book, "A handbook of employment interviewing," by J. M. Fraser (1950). This book regards (a) Physique (health and strength, outward appearance and manner, physical energy); (b) Attainments (general education, specialized training, work experience); (c) General intelligence (the capacity for complex and intricate mental work); (d) Special aptitudes (the pre-dispositon to acquire certain types of skill); (e) Interests (liking for social, intellectual, practical-constructive or physically-active work); (f) Disposition (the ability to undertake a role which involves steadiness or reliability, acceptability to, or influence over others); and (g) Circumstances (or the levels of expectation which the job will satisfy) as important in the evaluation of the qualifications of an applicant for a particular opening. The greatest difference (and limitation) between his procedure and those most commonly used in this country is that he presents no systematic and organized set of interpretive concepts to be used in analyzing the applicant and determining his suitability for a particular opening. To summarize, the book is simply and interestingly written. The principles it enunciates are sound. For a beginner in the field it will have much value because its approach is strictly "common sense." Its greatest limitation is that it offers little that is new, i.e., it contributes no strikingly great advances in concept or technology. Probably its greatest contribution is the picture which it provides of the current state of personnel thinking in Great Britain where it is apparent that there is still considerable resistance to the assembly of facts about an applicant prior to his employment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)