The selection interview: Candidates' reaction and interviewers' judgements

Candidates in 551 initial graduate recruitment interviews provided estimates of the level of their motivation to succeed immediately before and after each interview. Their level of state anxiety was also measured before interviews. At the end of the interview they indicated how much they liked the interviewer personally and estimated both the likelihood of their being successful in the interview and the likelihood that they would accept a job with that company, if eventually offered one. Interviewers were asked to evaluate each candidate and to estimate his chances of being offered a job by their company. When candidates liked interviewers personally, they were more optimistic about their chances of success and were more willing to accept potential job offers. Candidates were also more confident of success at the end of the interview when their pre-interview motivation had been high. However, interviewer evaluations of candidates were most favourable when the level of their pre-interview motivation had been intermediate. Candidate state anxiety was unrelated to the favourability of interviewers' evaluations of them.