Applicant’s Self Confidence Influence in Employment Interview Process According to Recruiters Perceptions. An Exploratory Study in Greece

Self confidence, self esteem and self efficacy are widely common terms in job search effectiveness according to literature. There is a consensus in a large extent that candidates’ self confidence during interview process has significant influence and affects recruiters’ decisions and respectively hiring results. This study aims to search the significance of employee candidates’ self confidence and its relative impact in recruiters, employers, hiring decisions during employment interview. For this purpose, an empirical research has been conducted in order to explore the importance and relative impact of candidates’ self-confidence in a sample of two hundred and sixty recruiters’, personnel managers’ and employers in Greece about the impact of candidates’ self confidence, might have in their hiring decisions, during interview selection process. The significance of candidates self confidence was measured according to three specific dimensions of the recruiters decisions, which were in particular, the possibility of hiring them, the possibility of consider them as suitable for the position they applied for, and thirdly for the possibility of giving them a chance for a second interview. The three measures were analysed each one individually, and then unified in one, with the term hireability- sellectability. The new index has been tested for cronbach’s alpha measure of reliability, taking high acceptant value. Results show that employee candidates’ self confidence has significant influence and affect recruiters’ decisions and selection outcomes regarding this index. There is also significant impact of candidate’s self confidence, in all three of interviewers’ decisions options as in particular, to hire the candidates, to consider them suitable for the position and to invite them in a second interview.