Interview Bias: Overcoming the Silent Forces Working Against You
Your job interview is tomorrow. You know your appearance will matter, so you polish your shoes and brush your hair. You realize your interviewer will have your resume in hand, so you've come prepared to explain every minute detail included on it. You've even done practice interviews and prepared your responses to all the trick questions. Are you ready? Not yet.
There remains a single type of preparation that you should do that can make or break your interview-knowing how to handle the possible biases of an interviewer. You need this knowledge because of a simple reality; interviews are subjective, no matter how many objective indicators are introduced. Interviewers are human, and all carry with them some assumptions about different types of people. Despite what may be valid attempts to leave these assumptions behind in the process, even the most earnest interviewer may be letting some of these biases make their way into the decision-making process. The best candidate for a job has many a time been passed over in the interview process because of bias. You don't want to be one of them.
You're not likely to be able to change the bias itself in the short duration of the interview, and you may not be able to recognize it with so much else going on. You can, however, increase the chances that the interviewer will not apply their biases or assumptions toward you. This means preparing for the possible biases of an interviewer before you encounter him/her. You therefore need to recognize the most likely biases people have toward you and prepare to address these biases in interviews to minimize their impact.
