Recruiters’ Perceptions and Use of Applicant Résumé Information: Screening the Recent Graduate

Despite resumes being evaluated as an initial step in most employment decisions for professional-level job openings, researchers have not adequately examined the influence that applicants’ resume qualifications may have on recruiters’ initial impressions of applicants’ employability. Based on prior research, we hypothesised that recruiters’ perceptions of job applicant employability will be associated with varying levels of job applicants’ academic qualifications, work experience, and extracurricular activities as reported on applicants’ resumes. Experienced recruiters (N= 244) evaluated 122 actual applicant resumes of recent or soon-to-be college graduates. Results supported our hypotheses, indicating that recruiters’ perceptions of applicants’ academic qualifications, work experience, and extracurricular activities interacted to predict recruiters’ perceptions of applicants’ employability. Alors que les curriculum vitae sont evalues lors de l’etape initiale de la plupart des procedures de recrutement pour pourvoir des nouveaux emplois d’un niveau professionnel eleve, les chercheurs n’ont pas suffisamment etudie l’influence des qualifications inscrites dans le curriculum vitae sur les premieres impressions des recruteurs quant a l’employabilite des candidats. Basee sur une recherche anterieure, notre hypothese pose que les perceptions des recruteurs de l’employabilite des candidats a un emploi varieraient selon les qualifications academiques du candidat, l’experience professionnelle et les activites extra-professionnelles telles qu’elles sont presentees dans le curriculum vitae. Des recruteurs experimentes (N= 244) ont evalue 122 curriculum vitae de candidats reels recemment ou sur le point d’etre diplomes de l’universite. Les resultats confirment nos hypotheses. Les perceptions des recruteurs quant aux qualifications universitaires des candidats, leur experience professionnelle et leurs autres activites interagissent et permettent de predire les perceptions que les recruteurs ont de l’employabilite des candidats.

[1]  Winfred Arthur,et al.  Hunter and Hunter (1984) revisited: Interview validity for entry-level jobs. , 1994 .

[2]  J. Sinacore.  Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions , 1993 .

[3]  Michael A. Campion,et al.  Biodata phenomenology: Recruiters' perceptions and use of biographical information in resume screening. , 1994 .

[4]  M. D. Dunnette,et al.  Relative importance of three content dimensions in overall suitability ratings of job applicants' resumes. , 1970 .

[5]  C. W. Anderson,et al.  Decision making in the employment interview , 1964 .

[6]  Marc Orlitzky,et al.  EXPERIENCED HIRING VERSUS COLLEGE RECRUITING: PRACTICES AND EMERGING TRENDS , 1997 .

[7]  J. Silvester.  Spoken attributions and candidate success in graduate recruitment interviews , 1997 .

[8]  M. Schmit,et al.  Frame-of-reference effects on personality scale scores and criterion-related validity. , 1995 .

[9]  R. L. Dipboye,et al.  Effects of previewing the application on interview process and outcomes , 1984 .

[10]  Lawrence R. James,et al.  Personality, affect, and behavior in groups revisited: Comment on aggregation, levels of analysis, and a recent application of within and between analysis. , 1993 .

[11]  Scott Highhouse,et al.  Missing information in selection: An application of the Einhorn-Hogarth Ambiguity Model , 1995 .

[12]  Allen I. Huffcutt,et al.  Identification and meta-analytic assessment of psychological constructs measured in employment interviews. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[13]  J. Bright,et al.  The Impact of Competency Statements on Résumés for Short‐listing Decisions , 2000 .

[14]  S. Rynes,et al.  Behavioral Coursework in Business Education: Growing Evidence of a Legitimacy Crisis , 2003 .

[15]  Neal Schmitt,et al.  Situational influences on linear and nonlinear use of information , 1979 .

[16]  Elmore R. Alexander,et al.  REACTIONS TO RESUMES AS A FUNCTION OF RESUME DETERMINATENESS, APPLICANT CHARACTERISTICS, AND SEX OF RATERS , 1982 .

[17]  J. Salgado,et al.  Fairness Reactions to Personnel Selection Techniques in Spain and Portugal , 2004 .

[18]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Social cognition, 2nd ed. , 1991 .

[19]  Filip Lievens,et al.  Future Perspectives on Employee Selection: Key Directions for Future Research and Practice , 2004 .

[20]  Gerard P. Hodgkinson,et al.  The interface of cognitive and industrial, work and organizational psychology , 2003 .

[21]  Angelo J. Kinicki,et al.  The interview process: An examination of factors recruiters use in evaluating job applicants. , 1985 .

[22]  Steven D. Maurer,et al.  The validity of employment interviews: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis. , 1994 .

[23]  Frank L Schmidt,et al.  A counterintuitive hypothesis about employment interview validity and some supporting evidence. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[24]  P. Bobko,et al.  College grade point average as a personnel selection device: ethnic group differences and potential adverse impact. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[25]  A. Kristof-brown,et al.  PERCEIVED APPLICANT FIT: DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN RECRUITERS' PERCEPTIONS OF PERSON-JOB AND PERSON-ORGANIZATION FIT , 2000 .

[26]  L. James,et al.  rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. , 1993 .

[27]  M. Campion.  Identification of Variables Most Influential in Determining Interviewers' Evaluations of Applicants in a College Placement Center , 1978 .

[28]  F. Heider.  The psychology of interpersonal relations , 1958 .

[29]  Stephen B. Knouse,et al.  Impressions of the resume: The effects of applicant education, experience, and impression management , 1994 .

[30]  Steve H. Barr,et al.  Managerial selection decision models: examination of configural cue processing , 1989 .

[31]  Laura M. Graves,et al.  THE EFFECT OF SEX SIMILARITY ON RECRUITERS' EVALUATIONS OF ACTUAL APPLICANTS: A TEST OF THE SIMILARITY‐ATTRACTION PARADIGM , 1995 .

[32]  S. Rynes,et al.  A FIELD SURVEY OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION AND PERCEIVED SUCCESS OF DIVERSITY TRAINING , 1995 .

[33]  Donald P. Schwab,et al.  The impact of applicant gender compared to qualifications on hiring recommendations: A meta-analysis of experimental studies☆ , 1988 .

[34]  Michael S. Cole,et al.  Using Recruiter Assessments of Applicants' Resume Content to Predict Applicant Mental Ability and Big Five Personality Dimensions , 2003 .

[35]  T. Mullins.  Interviewer Decisions as a Function of Applicant Race, Applicant Quality and Interviewer Prejudice. , 1982 .

[36]  E. Clark,et al.  The Differential Effects of Extracurricular Activities on Attributions in Resume Evaluation , 2002 .

[37]  Michael S. Cole,et al.  Interaction of Recruiter and Applicant Gender in Resume Evaluation: A Field Study , 2004 .

[38]  L. Ross.  The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process1 , 1977 .

[39]  S. Knouse.  THE LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION: SPECIFICITY AND FAVORABILITY OF INFORMATION , 1983 .

[40]  Dirk D. Steiner,et al.  Common comparison standards : An approach to improving agreement between self and supervisory performance ratings , 1996 .

[41]  Scott D. Johnson,et al.  Personality as a Predictor of College Performance , 1995 .

[42]  D. W. Drewes.  Beyond the Spearman-Brown: a structural approach to maximal reliability. , 2000, Psychological methods.

[43]  D. Cable,et al.  Looked over or overlooked? Prescreening decisions and postinterview evaluations. , 1998 .

[44]  D. W. Drewes,et al.  Beyond the Spearman-Brown: a structural approach to maximal reliability. , 2000, Psychological methods.

[45]  M. Singer,et al.  Relative effect of applicant work experience and academic qualification on selection interview decisions : a study of between-sample generalizability , 1991 .

[46]  K. Murphy,et al.  Psychological Testing: Principles and Applications , 1988 .

[47]  J. Salgado,et al.  Some Landmarks of 100 Years of Scientific Personnel Selection at the Beginning of the New Century , 2001 .

[48]  Timothy T. Baldwin,et al.  Extracurricular activity as an indicator of interpersonal skill: Prudent evaluation or recruiting malpractice? , 2002 .

[49]  Teva J. Scheer.  Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures , 2007 .

[50]  Bernd Marcus.  Attitudes Towards Personnel Selection Methods: A Partial Replication and Extension in a German Sample , 2003 .

[51]  Dianna L. Stone,et al.  Effects of missing application-blank information on personnel selection decisions: Do privacy protection strategies bias the outcome? , 1987 .

[52]  Robert L. Dipboye,et al.  Understanding Industrial and Organizational Psychology: An Integrated Approach , 1993 .

[53]  Daniel M. Cable,et al.  APPLICANT PERSONALITY, ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, AND ORGANIZATION ATTRACTION , 1997 .

[54]  S. Gilliland,et al.  Fairness reactions to personnel selection techniques in France and the United States , 1996 .

[55]  Peg Thoms,et al.  Resume Characteristics as Predictors of an Invitation to Interview , 1999 .

[56]  M. Evans.  A Monte Carlo study of the effects of correlated method variance in moderated multiple regression analysis , 1985 .

[57]  Leaetta M. Hough,et al.  Development and evaluation of the «accomplishment record» method of selecting and promoting professionals , 1984 .

[58]  S. Knouse.  The Role of Attribution Theory in Personnel Employment Selection: A Review of the Recent Literature , 1989 .

[59]  T. Judge,et al.  Interviewers' perceptions of persons-organization fit and organizational selection decisions. , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.