Celebrating Success – Dr Tom Lane

Congratulations to Dr Tom Lane, how article “Why being like your boss still matters – especially if you share political views” has been published by The Conversation.

How would you try to make a good impression at a job interview? Beyond the obvious (making eye contact, smiling, and attempting to appear knowledgeable and competent), what other tactics might you deploy?

One subtle approach some jobseekers might take involves the use of social identity. Humans are notoriously cliquey – establishing some shared sense of belonging with a new acquaintance can establish feelings of closeness and trust, and might result in favourable treatment.

Perhaps you have in mind an interviewee with blond hair and blue eyes, who notices the interviewer shares similar features. Is the interviewee recommended to casually suggest that the two can therefore look forward to an effective working relationship?

Of course not. These days such a strategy thankfully seems improbable, not only because of its moral repugnance, but also because it is hardly likely to work. (It feels less improbable that it might have been used in previous centuries, possibly with success, at job interviews in the world of colonial bureaucracy, for example.) Read more