Beating Bias at the Interview Table
On how to stack the odds in your favor for an unbiased and objective hiring process
[Source: Dima Ghawi, LinkedIn (2021)]
I’ve recently been conducting interviews for an open role on my team. Like the rest of the hiring team, I understand the gravity of not only selecting the right candidate for the role and team, but also doing this in an inclusive and equitable manner.
In order to minimize conscious bias during the interview process, we have worked hard to build a diverse pipeline of candidates and require that multiple people interview each candidate with a structured guide to navigate the conversation during the actual interview.
However, despite our best efforts to mitigate conscious bias, bias can creep into the hiring process - unexpectedly and unconsciously. Interviewers may have a preconceived notion of what an “ideal” candidate for a position would look like. If an interviewee doesn’t fit readily into that archetype, the interview and subsequent decision might not work out in the interviewee’s favor despite a solid performance on the actual “how-well-can-you-do-the-job” portion of the interview. On the other side of the spectrum, interviews can get off to the right start and ultimately pan out favorably when the hiring manager feels that the candidate reminds them of themselves when they were younger and/or has a background similar to others in the organization.
Some degree of unconscious bias is inherent to being human. Human beings gravitate towards quickly organizing and categorizing information to neatly fit within their predefined schemas and archetypes in order to avoid unfamiliar situations. But the onus to match the right person to a job shouldn’t rest solely on a hiring team. Through my personal experience, I think the following rules of thumb can help interviewees mitigate some of this unconscious interviewer bias during the hiring process:
1. The time that you choose to interview at can diminish the degree of contrast effect bias.
In our daily lives, we use comparison to highlight differences and make decisions all the time. Desserts taste sweeter after a savory snack, a Kate Spade dress seems reasonably priced compared to a Chanel one in the same department store. The things that stand out when we compare and contrast multiple options can end up being the things used to make final decisions on what to eat, what to wear, and sometimes, who to hire.
If given a choice, I typically try to take an early, if not the first, interview slot in a day. Arguably, one could benefit from being the last candidate on a day of average interviews. But it is more likely than not that the interviewer is tired, which heightens the odds of contrast effect bias kicking in. If the candidates who went before you were incredibly strong, your interviewer might have already unconsciously picked a favorite and you are working hard to stand out over and above them.
2. The art of “letting the other side have your way” helps counter the ‘similar-to-me’ bias.
People like people who are like themselves. Hiring managers and teams are no different.
While being a graduate of a certain university or being connected via past work experience is one way to demonstrate biographical similarity to the hiring team, demonstrating that you are someone who the team can relate to, who shares certain values, and who the interviewers are comfortable around also counts for a lot. Taking the time before an interview to research not just the role, but also the interviewer, can be invaluable preparation towards kicking off an interview with some established common ground.
Sometimes, however, you might struggle to find any immediate common ground with the interviewer. In those cases, mirroring might serve as an effective strategy to build a rapport with the hiring team. Former FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss suggests that mirroring is a neurobehavior that humans and other animals use to “copy each other to comfort each other.” “It’s generally an unconscious behavior—we are rarely aware of it when it’s happening—but it’s a sign that people are bonding, in sync, and establishing the kind of rapport that leads to trust. It’s a phenomenon (and now technique) that follows a very basic but profound biological principle: We fear what’s different and are drawn to what’s similar.”
Voss states that to mirror effectively, one should simply repeat back the last three words that the other person has said, or one to three of the most important words. During a job interview, this translates into active listening. A mix of verbal cues such as affirming words, paraphrasing, or summarizing what the interviewer is saying and non-verbal cues such as nodding, maintaining eye contact, and having attentive body language shows that you are interested in the role, respectful of the interviewer’s time and perspective, and engaged in the ongoing dialogue. This perceived engagement results in the interviewer sharing more of themselves and the role, and allows you to build off what they share in your responses.
3. Polish the halo and diminish the horns with a strong first impression.
American psychologist Edward Thorndike coined the term ‘halo effect’ when he observed how military officers tended to assume that conventionally attractive subordinates would be more competent and successful. Building on Thorndike’s findings, psychologist Solomon Asch later determined that first impressions have a significant effect on how we form a more durable opinion of someone. In contrast, a single ‘horn’ or potentially negative trait in early interactions can unfairly color an otherwise very positive perception.
During the hiring process, you want the hiring manager to zero in on that halo and allow it to guide their overarching opinion of you. In several cases, the halo can even result in hiring managers ignoring what would otherwise be deemed a red flag. For example, a hiring manager might reject a stellar candidate for a data scientist position if there were grammatical errors (a ‘horn’) in the upfront cover letter when they applied. The hiring manager could believe that the grammatical errors signaled a lack of attention to detail. However, let’s play out the same interviewer-candidate interaction in a slightly different context. If the candidate’s first brush with the manager were a phone interview where they were blown away by the candidate’s analytical abilities (the ‘halo’), they might have been much more charitably disposed to the evaluation of the candidate’s grammar (a non-critical skill for this particular job) and put down the errors to the candidate not being a native speaker of English.
When coupled with the similar-to-me bias, an applicant could be favored due to sharing certain characteristics or experiences with their interviewer, and sharing them sooner rather than later in the interview process. Polish the halo by finding common ground early on in the interview to build rapport and trust with the interviewer.
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At the end of the day, a good hiring team and interview process will allow you to showcase whether your experience and skills are a good fit with the job and the team. But trying to keep the process focused on the signal (your skills) requires some effort and creativity from both the interviewer and interviewee to minimize the noise (unconscious bias).
(Hustle Fuel represents my own personal views. I am speaking for myself and not on behalf of my employer, Microsoft Corporation.)