Competitiveness and Employability

We investigate the impact on perceived and actual employability when job candidates signal different personal tastes for competitions. Using three experiments, with over 2000 participants in total, we show that candidates who are not willing to compete at all risk being perceived as less productive, while those who signal a willingness to compete with others may be perceived as less socially skilled. Displaying a willingness to self-compete, i.e. to challenge oneself to improve over time, does, however, increase the likelihood as being perceived as both productive and socially skilled. These findings hold for both female and male candidates