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How do you know if an Interviewer likes you?

Job hunters ask ‘how do you know if an interviewer likes me?’ because they are anxious about the recruitment process.

What the applicant is really asking is, ‘how likely is it that I will be offered the position after the job interview?’

But, likeability does effect the job interview outcome. This article will break down the impact of likeability in the job interview and how an interviewee can increase job offers by being liked by an interview panel.

Is the interview a fair process?

The goal of any recruitment process is to predict the job performance of each interviewee.

The predicted job performance is the main factor in the offering of the advertised position to one applicant over another.

The second factor, that influences the ‘main’ factor, the predicting of the job performance, is likeability.

To improve likeability, applicants must understand the psychology behind liking.

Humans like:

Likeability starts before the interview starts.

Unconscious bias is the process of an opinion being made at the subconscious level, instantaneously, about a person (or group) base on any number of stimuli.

In recruitment processes, where the employers task is to make a conscious, logical, opinion on the applicants suitability for the job role, unconscious bias can be created by a persons:

  • Perceived age
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Body mass
  • Accent
  • Body language
  • Any number of things

The truth is, that an interviewer, when meeting the applicant for the first time, will make an opinion about that person prior to asking them an interview question. The opinion, which is an unconscious bias, as the employer doesn’t know the applicant, is made in milliseconds.

This is the initial likeability factor.

You meet someone and you like or dislike them, but you don’t know why. Or your gut feeling makes you cautious or open, or you feel drawn towards someone or you want to get away from them 9running from a potential threat).

The initial likeability is created based on a persons own experiences including the culture they grew up in.

If for example, the environment a person grew up in, generalized that a person/group with X characteristic was lazy, the interviewer with this limiting belief would search for evidence to back up their prejudice.

Research shows, that characteristics on the applicants application form, social media feed or from the opinions of others can create a pre-interview opinion.

Not all opinions are negative.

If an employer read on the candidates application form that they had a degree from a leading university, Oxford or Cambridge, as an example, a positive pre-interview opinion can be created.

In fact, if the candidate attended the same university as the interviewer, the interviewer, due to affinity bias, will have rapport with the applicant.

Having a published industry related book, or having been quoted in sector magazines, or even possessing a social media feed filled with industry updates can create authority prior to the job interview.

Strong eye contact, positive body language and being physically attractive all shape the initial opinion, as the employer meets the applicant for the very first time.

In short, the employer prior to meeting an applicant will make a positive or negative generalization (I like or don’t like this person) at the subconscious level, due to a number of different factors.

“Unconscious bias creates a likeability factor that acts as a filter during the forthcoming job interview”

Chris Delaney Author of What is Your Interview Identity.

Challenging the Initial Impression.

Most interviewers aren’t consciously aware of the reason behind their initial likeability impression.

A racist, sexist or ageist interviewer, as an example, is aware (and doesn’t care) that they dislike a certain group.

In this case it will be hard to challenge the limiting belief. But, in the main, the initial feeling about a stranger is subconscious.

For an employer who has an initial reaction, as an example, to a female applying for a traditionally masculine role, they become aware (and they care that this initial filter wont effect the interview process) making an effort to override the unconscious bias.

For many people, the unconscious bias reaction, isn’t a reflection of the values they hold true to themselves. Imagine, for example, an obese applicant applies for a job in your team.

Is the obese applicant male or female?

It doesn’t matter which gender you choose, what matters is that you automatically choose a gender – this is unconscious bias in play.

The job interview environment is designed to be a logical place, with answers being cross-reference against the job criteria. Employers, apart from the ‘aware and don’t care’ interviewers, want to hire the most suitable applicant no matter what the persons age, gender, ethnicity, etc.

One barrier to a fair interview process is that the duration of the job interview is long for one person to remain totally focused. Again, like with unconcise bias, the mind will create short cuts.

The initial short-cut the brain makes is ‘likeability’ created by the initial impression. The second short-cut, or snap decision, is the applicants ‘interview identity’.

The ‘interview identity’ is created in the first, and possibly second job interview question. Or more specific the applicants answers to each question.

If the interviewee states their sector related competencies confidently, showing added value, worth and skillset (knowledge, experience and unique selling points) the interview identity will be positive.

But, an answer that lacks specifics and filled with self-declared weaknesses and excessive use of filler words is likely to create a negative identity.

The interview identity, to generalize, is the applicant being suitable or unsuitable for the advertised position.

Check your interview identity by taking the interview prediction grid test.

An ‘aware and care’ employer, with an initial negative impression (likeability factor) can easily be swayed if the initial interview answers highlight a high level of industry knowledge and experience (suitability).

Suitability is a logical choice and likeability is emotional. The new filter created by the ‘suability’ factor, the applicants interview identity, becomes the main focus. The mind, then searches for evidence to back up their belief ‘this interviewee is suitable/not suitable for the role’.

***the initial likeability factor can effect the suitability short-cut.

In fact, some high-scoring answers can create a ‘charismatic’ or ‘optimistic’ interview identity.

Evolve the mind book on Amazon

Signs that an Interviewer likes you?

It is easy to spot an interested interviewer.

If an employer doesn’t believe the candidate is suitable for the role, they will want to end the interview process as quickly as possible.

For an interested interviewer, they will show signs of desire by:

  • Asking additional questions to help the applicant mention the required criteria relevant for that job question
  • Positive non-verbal communication to encourage more descriptive answers from the candidate
  • Sharing personal stories to build rapport with the applicant with a view to help them take the offered role
  • Stating their high opinion of the applicant
  • Discussing future projects that the candidate would be suited for
  • Checks competition by asking about the interviewees other job interviews

Remember that just because the interviewer is interested in an applicant, this doesn’t always lead to a job offer, as the next applicant may have a stronger interview identity.

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3 Hidden Forces Affecting Hiring Decisions

Logically, the most suitable applicant will be hired for each advertised position.

This article will look at how an interviewees interview performance is affected directly by the interviewer.

Prior to the job interview, many factors affect which type of candidate will apply for the advertised role; the job advert copy, organisational reputation, the salary on offer, and several other factors.

Factors, simply put, create supply and demand.

A high paid job role would attract a high number of applicants, even those career professionals who are happy in their current position.

Jobs that require a particular skill or a rare qualification will require an HR team to encourage applicants who will feel, due to the level of their expertise, can get a high paid job in a number of companies. This can lead to recruitment managers recruiting less experienced employees than they had planned to.

On the other hand, recruits advertising for common skilled jobs may receive a vast amount of applications, requiring a recruitment process that can quickly reduce the number of applicants the organisation is interested in interviewing.

Without going into too much detail, the popularity of the job role, the employer’s need for a certain skill, and the salary band of the job position, from an applicant’s perspective, increases or decreases competition.

The less competition; the number of applicants applying for the job role, the level of other interviewees’ knowledge and experience, and the interveiw performance of all candidates, increases or decreases the likelihood of an interviewee being successful or not.

Unforeseen forces

In addition to the factors affecting the number, and competency level, of applicants attending a job interview, or even applying for the job role, is the unforeseen forces affecting the applicant’s ability to highlight their level of industry-related skills.

Two types of interviewers

The size of an organisation gives a clue to the skill level of the interviewer. Generally speaking, small businesses, due to the average annual company revenue can’t afford to hire a full-time recruitment team.

Often in start-ups and small sized companies, the owner will interview applicants for the new role. Even medium sizes business often fail to use skilled interviewers for recruitment, relying on team managers to conduct the job interview.

Whereas large organisations often have an HR (human resource) team with staff members dedicated to recruitment, or at the very least offer training on: how to conduct job interviews, the barrier of unconscious bias and how to recruit high-performing teams.

In short, large business, compared to smaller companies, will use trained job interviewers.

How an interviewee’s performance is affected during the job interview.

Prior to the job interview of each applicant, the hiring manager will initially read the candidate’s application to help form an impression of the individual they will be interviewing.

The candidate’s previous education, workplaces and positions held, create an assumption. This opinion, created from the application form, creates the halo or horns effect.

A pre-interview, positive (halo) or negative (horns), impression can be the difference between an applicant being offered the advertised job role or receiving the rejection letter.

This is because humans use once piece of criteria – attractiveness, as an example, to presume another trait without having any evidence. Experiments show, as an example, how people presume an attractive person to be intelligent.

Having worked at a well known company, or attended the same university as the recruiter or stating industry facts, models and theories on the application form can create a positive (Halo) generalisation.

This belief, in this example, is that the applicant is hirable, is taken, unconsciously, into the job interview.

The interviewer, believing the candidate deserves the job role, makes subconscious micro-changes to the way they act within the job interview, which encourages a better performance from the applicant, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is the little, seemingly non-significant, actions that affect an interviewee’s job interview performance; smiling, eye contact and the nodding of the head from an employer can be seen as signs of likeability and encouragement to the applicant.

Pre-learnt judgements

Strongly held beliefs by an interviewer have a direct impact on the outcome of a job interview.

If, as an example, a start up company believe that ‘older’ applicants aren’t creative, this belief will be hard to break even when evidence, that contradicts the opinion, is presented.

Generalisations, stereotypes and prejudices create an unfair job interview process.

Organisations, to counter the interviewer’s perception disorders, put employees and recruitment managers through mandatory unconscious bias and diversity training.

The problem here is that research has shown how unconscious bias training alone isn’t enough to make the required changes needed in the recruitment of a diverse workforce.

One reason for this is that people react negatively to being ‘controlled’. It is the ‘mandatory’ element of training that creates the feeling of being ‘controlled’ meaning that a voluntary option would improve the change process for those who opted to take up the offered courses.

What is needed is a change in workplace culture, where unconscious bias training is part of a wider programme. Evidence over the last 20 years, from implementing health and safety into the workplace and into employees’ conscious awareness, reducing death and injury numbers, has shown how multiple approaches for change can be highly effective.

Common prejudices that affect recruitment processes include:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Ethnicity
  • Disabilities

Perceived competencies

A recruitment programme, and therefore the job interview, is designed to predict the job performance of each applicant.

The ability to predict how a future, potential, employee would act within the culture of the organisation helps employers to build high-performing teams.

The final hidden force affecting the hiring decision of a recruitment team is the interview identity associated, unconsciously, to each applicant.

As the process of asking structured interview questions helps hiring managers cross reference the applicants skill set and experiences – their competencies, against the essential knowledge and experience required for the job role in question.

The process, throughout a full job interview, is taxing. Whenever the brian has to compute a vast amount of data it will use a shortcut.

The shortcut, in a job interview, is the process of creating an ‘interview identity’.

Based on the employers perception of the candidates level of knowledge and experience, and their level of confidence, the interviewer after asking the initial interview questions will, at a basic level , categorise the applicant from incompetent to employable.

Once a generic identity has been associated to an interviewee, the interviewer will use the generalization as a filter. Similar to the ‘halo’ or ‘horns’ effect, but based on job competencies, the interviewer’s behaviour can change, positively or negatively, depending on 1 of 16 ‘interview identities’.

Interestly, highly skilled and experience applicants can miss out on a job offer due to the associated interview identity.

It is the applicants behaviour, during the interveiw start, that creates the generalisation.

Negative identities are created by:

  • Self-disclosing weaknesses
  • Lack of eye contact
  • Not knowing the job criteria
  • High use of filler words
  • Weak answer that are short and lack detail

Whereas the following help to create a positive interview identity:

  • Being a self-promoter
  • Good use of language; varying words, unique words and generally using a large number of words
  • Smiling and being seen as confident
  • Varying projection; volume, emotional voice and use of pauses
  • Using examples

Your own interview identity can be discovered by taking the interview prediction grid test:

Source:

PSU Handbook Psychology

Factors influencing recruitment process

Automated prediction and analysis of job interview performance

Interview prediction grid

Halo effect

Diversity training doesn’t work

Job Interview Advice