Perceived personality: Noticing interactional conduct in recruitment interviews

Abstract

Assessing personality in recruitment interviews is an interactionally delicate task, especially when applicants’ earlier self-descriptions are in contrast to recruiters’ real-time observations of their conduct. This study examines how such observations—termed meta-interactional personality noticings (MIP noticings)—are used in Finnish job interviews. Drawing on 21 video-recorded interviews and applying tools from conversation analysis and discursive psychology, we show how recruiters use MIP noticings to assess consistency between applicants’ self-descriptions, personality test results, and behavior in the interactional moment. These noticings may be framed as concordances or discrepancies. This prompts applicants to reinforce the consistency of their descriptions or demonstrate their personal development over time, thereby managing the appearance of genuineness and truthfulness in locally situated ways. Our findings demonstrate that MIP noticings serve as a powerful interactional resource for shaping what counts as credible and truthful accounts of personality.