Introduction
There have been substantial studies examining the role of first impressions in interviews. Most of these literatures suggest that the first impression is not only dominant and lasting but also dependent on the employer’s views on what was acceptable. Some of the appearance cues that have been researched include clothing, grooming, cosmetics, hair length, body piercings and tattoos, and cover letter grammar.
These studies suggest that most applicants who intend to have a successful interview prefer to dress better and impress their potential employers, as opposed to polishing on their skills and training.
Studies on the cues that employers consider when interviewing job applicants are relevant especially due to the high rate of unemployment. Job applicants should ideally be judged on their skills pertaining to the position that needs to be filled, instead of their physical attributes.
Getting a job has increasingly become a challenge to fresh graduates, and employers have continued to outsource their recruiting services to other firms. This is because job openings receive many applications, and the human resource departments for most organizations find it cumbersome to go through all applications.
The problem of getting the right people to fill open positions has led to global innovations for recruiting like Linkedin and JobandTalent in Spain. Linkedin is a global social networking platform for professionals, which helps organizations to hire people based on their work history.
JobandTalent, on the other hand, uses facebook to shortlist the applicants, whereby applicants use their facebook friends to leverage their applications if they work in the organization where they are sending applications. Jobandtalent was identified as one of the best start-ups in Europe in 2011. The website is based on the idea that job seekers make job applications through their contacts in the organization.
With such a trend in the job market, many undergraduates face imminent elimination since they either lack contacts in the organization, or the recruiters use cues to short list candidates for interviews.
The process of short listing prospective employees involves various players including educators, employers, policymakers and researchers in linguistics and sociology; but, the opinions of the applicants are never taken into consideration. This paper looks at the extent to which afore mentioned cues impact the possibilities of an applicant to be hired on a job.
Surface judgements
One of the key cues considered by potential employers is the level of grammar used in the cover letter. While a lot of research shows that the level of work success is dependent on an individual’s personality and intelligence, there are many employees who choose to disregard these two crucial aspects and eliminate candidates for poor grammar, wrong punctuation, spelling mistake, and other grammatical errors in their cover letters.
McWhorter suggests that good grammar skills are essential for all employees due to the need for effective communication within an organization.
He further suggests employees rule out applicants with poor grammar because it portrays sloppiness and low intelligence, which is unfair since some people are less attendant to some grammatical mistakes than others. For instance, eliminating a software developer on the basis of wrong punctuation in several sentences, in their cover letter, does not mean that the applicant is incapable of performing in his duties (Furnham, Rawles and Iqbal 1457).
Eliminating candidates on the basis of their grammar is especially disadvantageous for students who receive their education in schools with poor learning systems. This cue is quite unfair for applicants because it judges them on the basis if their upbringing and access to quality learning facilities, which has no direct impact on their skill and capacity to perform various tasks.
There is no need for a potential employer to discard a resume based on grammar if the job application has nothing to do with writing letters or documents, if the skills of the applicant are relevant (McWhorter 1).
Another appearance cue that is likely to influence the interview process and outcome of candidates is a tattoo. According to Seiter and Hatch, the culture of tattooing is increasingly becoming popular among people of all age and social classes. This conclusion was drawn after a survey listed the tattooing business as one of the fastest growing retail business in the US (Seiter and Hatch 19).
Despite the catchy trend, employers do not seem to hold the idea that professionals should bear permanent markings on their bodies as a fashion statement. This is because tattooing was associated with psychopaths and psychotics in the past.
A survey conducted to determine the opinion of graduate students on women tattoos showed that women with no tattoos were regarded as more intelligent, motivated, honest, attractive and artistic, compared to women with tattoos. Employers against professionals with tattoos were observed to bear the opinion mainly due to the society that they were brought up (Seiter and Hatch 22). It was observed that every society has its own beliefs with regard to mannerisms that are appropriate for each sex.
These beliefs were their source of expectations about the behaviours and appearances that people need to conform to. Employers who eliminated applicants with tattoos argued that they found it challenging to interact with them socially. Some people view tattooed women as being overly masculine, making them less credible and attractive than those without tattoos (Seiter and Hatch 22).
Clothing is also a significant cue when it comes to evaluating job applicants. Research on the significance of clothing and the impression it gives an employer showed that the mode of dressing created a strong initial perception. The first opinion of an employer with regard to the applicant affects consequent ratings on their performance within a work-based scenario (Forsythe, Drake and Cox 375).
According to Forsythe, Drake and Cox, the appearance of a candidate and other non-verbal cues have a substantial impact on the interviewer’s perception of the interviewee. These cues also influence the subsequent hiring decisions of the recruiters. Non-verbal cues like clothing provide the interviewers with inference on the candidate especially in an instance when the information available about the later is ambiguous (Forsythe, Drake and Cox 375).
Researchers have identified appearance as a key source of information on the candidate during an interview. The clothing requirements for men and women are different. While men are judged on either formal or informal dressing, women are governed on a wider scale with no known bias between the various formal attires.
Forsythe, Drake and Cox (376), suggested that interviewers were more likely to employ women who turned up for interviews dressed in a masculine manner. This is because the women portrayed confidence and strength (Forsythe, Drake and Cox 376).
Conclusion
This study identifies that the fate of a person applying for employment is dependent on many cues and starts with the application process. Non-verbal cues play a crucial role in getting hired, since they influence the attitude of the recruiter. Whether it is grammar, clothing or fashion statements, the determinant factor is the attitude of the interviewer, and whether it is regarded as positive or negative.
Research has, for instance, indicated that having tattoos reduces the probability of a candidate to get employment in various occupations. Poorly grammar in cover letters also gives the employer an opportunity to disregard most of the applications and reduce the effort required to hire new employees.
In order for candidates to improve their chances of getting hired, they can manipulate most of the cues to fir the requirements of the potential employers. Cues such as grammar and tattoos can be amended by hiring people to proof read the cover letter and covering visible tattoos respectively.
Clothing for men is not a strong determinant of their employment probability, but it is a crucial factor for women. Women who dress in a masculine manner show authority and are more likely to be hired. These findings are essential for candidates who are applying for work, since they can manipulate their way to a job without showing skill or talent.
Recommendations
Non-verbal cues are different for different people and are mostly linked to an individual’s personality. For instance, a study on grammar mistakes showed that introverts were more likely to make grammatical errors than extroverts; however, introverts were more likely to be highly skilled than extroverts (Furnham, Rawles and Iqbal 1459).
This is an example of how organizations can sacrifice talent for social skills, which may not be the best organizational decision. There is, therefore, a need to develop better ways to determine qualified candidates.
One such initiative is the ‘student profile’ that allows students to link their course subjects to work related skills. Such information is valuable to employers since they can identify the skills that are necessary for various disciplines ad thus, streamline their recruitment requirements.
Works Cited
Forsythe, Sandra, Mary Frances Drake and Charles E. Cox. “Influence of Applicant’s Dress on Interviewer’s Selection Decisions.” Journal of Applied Psychology 70(2), (1985): 374-378. Print.
Furnham, Adrian, Richard Rawles and Sheeraz Iqbal. “Personality, intelligence and proof-reading.” Personality and Individual Differences 41, (2006): 1457–1467. Print.
McWhorter, John. Good Applicants With Bad Grammar. 13 Aug 2012. Web.
Seiter, John and Sarah Hatch. “Effects of tatoos on perceptions of credibility and attractiveness.” Psychological Reports, 96(11) (2005): 13- 1120.