Applicants’ Faith in Recruiters’ Intuition Predicts Process Favorability for the Unstructured Employment Interview

Abstract

The unstructured employment interview is one of the most popular selection tools among employers and applicants alike. Although past research has shed light on some explanations for practitioners’ preferences for unstructured methods, less is known about the reasons for their popularity among applicants. One reason might be that applicants overestimate recruiters’ intuitive abilities to make judgments about applicant characteristics based on resumes and interviews. The results of this study (N = 345) suggest that recruiters are perceived as much better than laypeople at making judgments about applicants based on resume screening and interviews, and that faith in recruiters’ intuition predicts process favorability for unstructured employment interviews. Moreover, this association remained significant when accounting for attitudes to structured interviews, perceived recruiter expertise, and attitudes to holistic versus mechanic methods in general. The results suggest that overestimation of recruiters’ intuitive expertise may help explain why many people prefer unstructured selection methods.