Trait Perception in the Employment Interview : A Five-Factor Model Perspective

The aim of this article was to examine interviewers' perceptions of applicant personality and to assess how these personality perceptions were related to employment recommendations. In a field setting, personality adjectives spontaneously written down by eight interviewers and referring to 720 applicants were analyzed. The AB5C model (Hofstee, De Raad and Goldberg, 1992) was used to classify the adjectives and determine the applicants' personality profile scores. The results showed that interviewers used descriptors referring to all five personality dimensions, with a preference for extraversion and agreeableness. Relationships were found between employment recommendations and three dimensions: emotional stability, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. Interviewers, however, differed in judgment standards and in the weights they assigned to trait perceptions when deciding on applicant hirability