Case Study: Finding out more about candidates for interview

Proctor (2014) has stated some assumptions that might be made by the short-listers and/or the interviewers about the applications by candidates for different jobs. I have incorporated the assumptions and some more to answer the questions towards the end of the case study in the following.

1. List the various assumptions that short-listers might make about candidates for jobs when the latter are completing application forms.

There are many assumptions that could be made by the short-listers about a candidate when they are completing application forms. Some of them are as follows.

1. One of the assumptions that is made by the short-listers is to be doubtful about the experience of a candidate. The short-listers may not be satisfied about the stated experience in the application form as they might assume that it is fake.
2. The short-listers may assume that the references provided are fake. I think before making any such assumption, the short-listers may approach the referees and verify them.
3. Short-listers are humans and may have personal prejudice against people from specific religious or ethnic backgrounds. Based on this prejudice, they might assume the personality of a certain applicant to be of a certain type.
4. Writing style could impact the behavior of the readers (Northey & Aderkas, 2015).The short-listers may be influenced by influenced by the writing styles of certain candidates in making assumptions about the candidates.
   

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   Do the same for assumptions made about interviewees by interviewers.

The interviewers also make assumptions about the applicants when they read their applications and also during the interview. Some of these assumptions are discussed in the following.

1. Interview is a short time assessment of a candidate. The effective communication skills of the candidate might influence the interviewee and he/she might assume that the set of skills written in the application or the resume are true which might not be true in reality.
2. The interviewee may also develop a bias due to the specific ethnical or religious background of the candidate. The candidate might be rejected based on this bias. In contrast, some candidates might be selected because they belong to a privileged race or religion. So the race and religion could either go against or in favor of the candidate during the interview.
3. After the resume is read by the interviewee, he/she might decide whether to accept the candidate for the job or reject. The interview would then only be a formality.
4. The verbal and/or non-verbal cues depicted by the candidate might make the interviewee wrong assumptions about the actual behavior of the candidate. Like they might assume that the candidate is disrespectful which he/she might be not.
   

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   How would you proceed to use this information to gain further insights into the problem? Illustrate your answer.

In my opinion, all these assumptions are a product of a non-critical, simplistic thinking on the part of the short-listers or the interviewee. To rectify these problems and assumptions, there is a need to think unbiasedly and based on facts. If there is any doubt about the candidate that arise from the filling of the application form, a proper procedure must be followed to rectify that doubt instead of simply assuming that the candidate has provided wrong information. Assumption reversal and assumptions smashing could also be utilized.