“Interviewers also need to be aware of The Primacy Effect, the first impression of another person that occurs within the first seven seconds of their meeting…These impressions may either be very insightful or very misleading, however, and most people are poor interpreters of them. It is something we do instinctively, and clothing and grooming play a large role…Our appearance will start the conversation long before any words are spoken.”
The Big Number
According to the Wall Street Journal, The Big Number is 6%. “The share of job seekers who said they’d participated in interview fraud, either posing as someone else or having someone stand in for them, according to a survey by Gartner. The research group predicts that by 2028, one in four job-candidate profiles worldwide will be fake. Some companies are combating the challenges of virtual job-hiring by resorting to in-person interviews.”
A short couple of years ago, I had a conversation with a very experienced and respected HR leader about the (then) dawn of AI and how it might impact interviews and hiring (see STC blog post “How to Navigate the Dawn of AI and HR?” dated 4.18.2023). I believed strongly then and now that AI-related platforms are having an unexpected but healthy inverse impact. That is, the misuse of those platforms will create the much greater need for genuine in-person conversations and greater interviewing skill for hiring professionals. Inviting people to be a part of a company’s trusted team is too important to be left to technology alone.