An Exploration of Key-Attributes Among Successful Interviewees

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY TERM PAPER

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TERM-VI

-Pradyun Rame Mehrotra (IPM2014063)

-Shubham Bhawsar (IPM2014091)

-Taanya Dayal (IPM2014099)

Plagiarism Checker Report

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An Exploration of Key-Attributes among Successful Interviewees

Introduction:

Throughout the 20th century, our perspective of people we meet and interact has drastically changed. Different theories and researches prove that the attributes embedded in a person play a crucial role in exhibiting their personality. Further, people are perceived differently in the way they carry themselves around, the kind of personal traits they have and according to the certain key attributes that they bring to the table.

 Our goal in this study is to illustrate a qualitative methodology with the hope of fostering research in interviews which can explicitly address symbolic, linguistic and other key elements embedding and surrounding the process of being successful in an interview. The methodology incorporated in the current study, thematic analysis of qualitative data, encompasses both qualitative and quantitative analysis, giving us certain distinctive features in the results that other research methods may be incapable of. The subjects of the study were ten students who were participating in a Student Activity Council (SAC) interview in an undergraduate program in a B-School. Narratives of the interviewees, interviewers and observers were collected and analyzed so as to draw a list of empirically grounded attributes and traits associated with successful interviewees. A thorough literature review was done before conducting the analysis of narratives conducted for the purpose of the study. Accordingly, the finding of the study resulted in the advancement of the conceptual model that was constructed with regards to the attributes of a successful interview in helping us find three key attributes from the originally short-listed six attributes that we thought were important for a successful interview. The three key attributes were: Positive hand gestures at the time of interview, level of confidence, interviewees knowing of what they were speaking about.

The study proceeds in the following manner. First, a review of literature on attributes of successful interviewees is conducted so as to short-list a few traits that play an essential role to being them successful. Second, a thematic analysis (qualitative data analysis) is presented, including a detailed discussion on the methodology involved, sample taken. Finally, a conclusion is provided along with the future scope of research on similar lines.

Literature Review

First impressions are said to have a strong effect on the interviewer’s mind. According to a study conducted by Mailonline, in the first seven minutes of the interview the interviewer has already made up his mind whether or not he is going to accept the person.  A famous organizational behavior psychologist, Corinne Sweet says that we judge and form opinions and assumptions about others based on factors like skin color, accent, tattoos and physical appearances. She says that these assumptions might be right or wrong however the most important part is that the person being judged should know that he is being judged based on his first impression. She said, “Of course first impressions need to be backed up by performance, but getting your foot in the door and succeeding during the interview - or even just getting one - is the main challenge these days.”  As per the definition, first impression is an event where one person meets the other person the first time and forms a mental image of the same person. It depends on various factors like culture, age, physical appearance, dressing sense, etc.