Sure enough, the interviewers' ratings differed from the outside raters' assessments - and that difference was partly explainable by the candidates' performance during the rapport-building period. So they recorded just the formal questioning part and showed the video to four other human resources grad students, who also rated the candidates' responses to the job-related questions. The researchers were curious whether the candidate's performance during the rapport-building period would affect the interviewer's ratings of their performance during the formal questioning period. And after each question that the candidate answered, the interviewers rated the quality of the candidate's answer.

In between making small talk and asking job-related questions, the interviewers rated the candidates on a number of measures, including whether they appeared to be very qualified. First, they would spend two to three minutes talking about topics unrelated to the job (like the weather) then they would ask 12 job-related questions. The interviewers were 54 graduate students in human resources, and they were instructed to adhere to a specific process. A new study suggests that the impression you make during the first few minutes of seemingly idle chitchat - what researchers call 'rapport building' - has a big influence on your interviewer's overall perception of you.įor the study, cited on the British Psychological Society Research Digest, researchers led by Brian Swider, assistant professor of organizational behavior, examined mock interviews with 163 undergrads who were preparing for real job interviews one week later.

Chit chat or chitchat