Anche chi si candida ha BIAS!

How to effectively face an interview

Cognitive Biases are distortions of reality that people implement unconsciously due to their experiences and pre-existing concepts, which prevent them from reading the context correctly, often leading to errors of evaluation and lack of objectivity of judgement.

But why are we talking about it?

We often talk about Biases in the Personnel Selection process, since recruiters could risk making the mistake of being influenced by their own preconceptions during the interview and evaluation of applications. This is why training is on-going in the HR world.

But did you know that candidates, during an interview, can also be influenced by their own biases? Learning to recognise them is the first step to working on them and presenting yourself even more effectively!

Let's take some examples…

The company isn't seriously interested in my profile and after the interview they will disappear like all recruiters always do.

Recruiters come into contact with a large number of applications and CVs on a daily basis. If they chose to contact you, it's because something on your CV caught their attention. It's easy to safeguard ourselves so as not to be disappointed. Try instead to counteract the Negativity Bias with a bit of healthy optimism and confidence in your abilities, play your opportunity well and don't fall into the Bandwagon Bias, which leads many to believe clichés (also towards the HR world and recruiters) only because they are supported by a relative majority.

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” “What are your secret dreams?”
They will surely want to hear that my dream is to work for their company. I'll tell them what they expect so I have a better chance of making a good impression...

The Clustering Illusion is a bias according to which we tend to see patterns or models everywhere, we take information, connect the dots (according to our preconceptions) and hastily come to summary conclusions. Remember: in job interviews there are no right or wrong answers, there are no "obligatory" answers, there is no "pattern" and there are no "model" candidates. The interview is about getting to know each other, so when recruiters ask you a question, it's because they want to get to know you, your answer and your story. Be sincere and highlight your strengths.

I'm the perfect person for that role, but they rejected me because I'm too young/I'm a woman/I'm a man/I want a family (and so on...)

The first rule for a successful job interview is the ability to self-criticise. When we convince ourselves of a result but do not achieve the expected success, we could risk running into the Confirmatory Bias, which leads us to interpreting the information in a completely subjective way and exclusively to prove our theses, or the Self-serving Bias, i.e. the typically human tendency to blame external forces when things don't work out. Every interview is an experience and we can learn a lot from it to improve in the future, even when things didn't go as we had hoped!