Do recruiters prefer applicants with similar skills? Evidence from a randomized natural experiment

Bagues, Manuel; Villadóniga, María José Pérez

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2011.12.004

Cited by 34 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This could indicate a less than systematic, somewhat ambiguous evaluation of résumés by recruiters in the sample. Furthermore, the “similar‐to‐me effect” (Bagues & Perez‐Villadoniga, ) was found in the recruiter interview responses; both personal experiences and experiences from people in their close social circle (e.g., board membership of a student association) seemed to influence opinions on certain types of ECAs. Overall, this indicates that the organizations included in the present study would benefit from a more rigorous approach to selecting their candidates in order to improve the reliability of their selection instruments in predicting candidate performances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…This could indicate a less than systematic, somewhat ambiguous evaluation of r esum es by recruiters in the sample. Furthermore, the "similar-to-me effect" (Bagues & Perez-Villadoniga, 2012) was found in the recruiter interview responses; both personal experiences and experiences from people in their close social circle (e.g., board membership of a student association) seemed to influence opinions on certain types of ECAs.…”

Section: Selection Processmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…For example, Bagues and Perez-Villadoniga (2012) found that applicants that excel in the same skills as recruiters are significantly more likely to be hired. This evidence is based on entry exams for Spanish judges and prosecutors.…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Added Value Of Ecas By Recruitersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

Nuijten

Alfes

2017

Int J Selection Assessment

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Research on biographical data suggests that recruiters draw inferences about candidates' abilities and attributes based on résumé information. However, few studies have explored students' attributions with regard to the experiences that are relevant in enhancing employment opportunities. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by analyzing the effect of university students' extracurricular activities (ECAs) on their perceived employment opportunities. Specifically, we combine a large sample of students with recruiters from a wide range of sectors in the Netherlands. Students completed a questionnaire, while recruiters participated in an experiment and semi‐structured interviews. Students' expectations about the value of ECAs for their employment opportunities were found to be misaligned with recruiters' viewpoints. Students expected academic performance to be more relevant for employment opportunities than ECAs, whereas recruiters stated the opposite. Students expected an internship to be the most valued ECA, whereas most recruiters prioritized a board year and emphasized students' motivation and ability to demonstrate the learning gained from ECAs in general. Implications for further biodata research are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Selection Processmentioning

confidence: 84%

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Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

Nuijten

Alfes

2017

Int J Selection Assessment

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“…The degree to which a test user tends to value the importance of certain attributes they themselves possess in others (i.e., similar to me effect) may have relevance, for example. Although it is unlikely that many users are generally looking for a 'copycat' clone of themselves, they may be attracted to candidates that share some similarities to their own profile of scores or share attributes in com-mon such as similar education or skills (Bagues & Perez-Villadoniga, 2012). Counter-intuitively, the effect of this in certain circumstances could be argued to enhance the validity of interpretation rather than reduce it (Sears & Rowe, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validity of Interpretation: A user validity perspective beyond the test score

MacIver

Anderson

Costa

et al. 2014

Int J Selection Assessment

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This paper introduces the concept of user validity and provides a new perspective on the validity of interpretations from tests. Test interpretation is based on outputs such as test scores, profiles, reports, spread-sheets of multiple candidates' scores, etc. The user validity perspective focuses on the interpretations a test user makes given the purpose of the test and the information provided in the test output. This innovative perspective focuses on how user validity can be extended to content, criterion and to some extent construct-related validity. It provides a basis for researching the validity of interpretations and an improved understanding of the appropriateness of different approaches to score interpretation, as well as how to design test outputs and assessments which are pragmatic and optimal. Education, 1999;Kane, 2009;Messick, 1989). Yet to what extent are the current conceptions of validity and the practice of validation concerned with the validity of interpretation? Criterion-related validity, for example, and the practice of validating occupational assessments (including meta-analyses) is still to a large extent focused on establishing relationships between test scores and criteria.Test scores rather than actual interpretations are the focus of validation. There is a need to further develop and articulate a validity of interpretation to better address the shift in the definition of validity towards interpretation and the decisions individual test users are actually making based on test scores.The test user for the purposes of this article is the interpreter of the test output: a manager reading a psychometric multi-trait narrative report summary on a candidate prior to interview; a trained test user interpreting a personality profile to aid the test taker's development; a test taker being given direct online feedback to aid their self-selection as to whether to apply for a particular role; an I/O Psychologist deciding what rules or equations to apply in a selection system for a particular role, etc. and what latitude (if any) to give other test users in influencing selection decisions. A broader definition of a test user might include an applicant who has not received feedback, however, for the purposes of this article such an individual would be regarded as a test taker rather than a test user.Although evidence from different aspects of validity such as content and criterion-related validity provide a basis to support potential test interpretations, they generally do not focus on the validity of interpretation from the users' perspective itself. In their stead, they tend to A User Validity Perspective Beyond the Test Score 4 focus on providing general support for a particular proposed interpretation that a test user could make. This support for an interpretation may be achieved, for example, by demonstrating that there is a relationship between a test score and criterion. While establishing the relationship between a predictor test score and a criterion can be an important consideratio...

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“…This literature has mainly focused on readily detectable demographic dimensions, such as race (e.g., Prewett‐Livingston et al, 1996) or gender (e.g., Bagues and Esteve‐Volart, 2010), rather than on less visible functional dimensions that are more job‐related, such as the research‐related attributes in academia. Two exceptions are Hamermesh and Schmidt (2003) and Bagues and Pérez‐Villadoniga (2012), who examine the election of Fellows of the Econometric Society based on the research area and the entry to the Spanish Judiciary based on the area of expertise, respectively 1 . We show that similar‐to‐me effects can be equally or more important for functional dimensions than for demographic characteristics using, for the first time, the grant application process as context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similar‐to‐me effects in the grant application process: Applicants, panellists, and the likelihood of obtaining funds

et al. 2023

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We analyse if and how the characteristics of grant research panels affect the applicants' likelihood of obtaining funding and, especially, if particular types of panels favour particular types of applicants. We use the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) award decisions to test the similar‐to‐me hypothesis for the first time in the grant context. Our main results indicate that panel members tend to favour more (or penalise less) applicants with similar characteristics to them, as the similar‐to‐me hypothesis suggests. We show, for instance, that the quality of the applicants is more critical for panels of high quality than for panels of relatively lower quality, that basic‐oriented panels tend to penalise applied‐oriented applicants, and that panels with fewer female members tend to penalise teams with more female applicants. As a whole, we show that similar‐to‐me effects are simultaneously at work for a wide variety of functional, job‐related research characteristics as well as for more well‐known demographic attributes.

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Do recruiters prefer applicants with similar skills? Evidence from a randomized natural experiment

Cited by 34 publications

References 22 publications

Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

Validity of Interpretation: A user validity perspective beyond the test score

Similar‐to‐me effects in the grant application process: Applicants, panellists, and the likelihood of obtaining funds

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