Warmth and assertiveness at interviews
Warmth and assertiveness are key elements in creating a good impression during a job interview, a study suggests.
Those going to an interview carrying and displaying an anxious stance hardly get the job, researchers found.
The study revealed that organisations most likely reject potential candidates that are jittery during the interview even though otherwise they are quite capable of doing the job.
Amanda Feiler and Deborah Powell from the University of Guelph, Canada, set out to establish why anxious job candidates receive lower performance ratings during an interview.
To prepare their research, they videotaped and transcribed the mock job interviews of 125 undergraduates from a Canadian university. Interviews were rated by 18 interviewers that estimated the levels of anxiety and performance.
Feiler and Powell found that the speed at which someone talks is the only cue that both interviewers and interviewees rate as a sign of nervousness or not.
Also, anxious prospective job candidates are often rated as being less assertive and exuding less interpersonal warmth.
This often leads to a rejection from interviewers.
“Overall, the results indicated that interviewees should focus less on their nervous tics and more on the broader impressions that they convey,” said Feiler.
ACMA creates successful career paths through detailed individual assessment, research and job market analysis, combined with expert personalised coaching.
Note: A Career Development Association of Australia research paper found that when professional career guidance occurred that the participant was 2.67 times more likely to secure a job.
All program services can be delivered via our interactive online cloud-based career management "Career Talk" system and/or "one-on-one" in our Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Cairns or Auckland offices.
RING 1800 245 380 now to book a FREE consultation
