I’ve been reading this book on behavioral psychology since the author was interviewed on the Freakonomics podcast and it would certainly support the notion that a candidate being better dressed would improve how she’s received, even when interviewers are convinced it didn’t
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I would be surprised if it didn’t make a difference, on some level. Depending on what your team does, it might be valuable to have an employee with a different perspective, which probably translates in part to “not as good a fit” but it’s hard to over-ride your prejudices in favor of “someone like me”.
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Well I can’t say exactly what affects my subconscious because it’s… subconscious, but clothes could potentially enter into it.
As far as what makes a good fit: a combination of skills and personality. I can give you an example of someone who was not a good fit. This person denigrated every single college and university within a 100 mile radius of the employer. Unsurprisingly, a significant number of employees were graduates of the colleges this person denigrated. This person further made the comment that actuarial science degrees were “worthless”. Even more unsurprisingly, a lot of employees had actuarial science degrees. That person didn’t last long. Technically this person quit but I can pretty much guarantee that it was a huge relief to everyone, and I have to think that the person was aware of the poor fit.
There were other performance issues too, but the above were examples of “not a good fit”.
Oh, and the college thing: this was in the context of looking for an intern to work part-time throughout the academic year on an ongoing project. So we were geographically restricted to students from colleges and universities within driving distance.
I think I would describe that as “overly negative”, rather than as a “poor fit”.
It’s hard for me to imagine the team that WOULD be a good fit for that person.
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Fair enough. I guess this person would be a good fit on a team of snobby actuaries exclusively from top-ranked schools with degrees in something more pure than ActSci, such as mathematics or statistics???
I thought the ao was all in favor of trashing act sci degrees
Only anonymously online.
Not directly IRL to act sci majors’ faces.
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“Fit” here was intended to mean who would do well in the position, interact well with the team, etc.
I doubt that clothes will be brought up in the decision making conversation.
As team leader, one of the things I liked about my favorite candidate was that they possess some qualities that the rest of my team doesn’t. But I also felt they would get along with the team and the team would like them. The sort of “works well with others” feeling. That is subjective. Some things about hiring are subjective. At the end of the day I’m making a decision based on a few facts and a gut feeling. That’s part of the reason I have others involved.
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