The job interview is a high stakes interactional space where different expectations meet. Immigrant professionals bring their expertise, skills, education, and experiences with job search from their backgrounds as well as their culturally-informed expectations of how to demonstrate that they are the right candidate for the job. In Canada, HR professionals and hiring managers bring their expectations, explicit and implicit, of their desired candidate for the job.
This NorQuest College project created videos of 4 simulated job interviews demonstrating how diverse expectations and behaviors show up in a job interview with candidates from different cultural backgrounds. Two interview navigation guides were developed; one for immigrants to develop their abilities to navigate a Canadian job interview and one for HR professionals to develop their understanding of perspective of the person sitting across the interview table from themselves and their ability to adapt the interview process. An online assessment activity was also created.
The Project Team believes this project reduces barriers for immigrants in job interviews by helping them understand and navigate the ‘unwritten rules’ of the Canadian job interview. They also believe this project will systematically support HR Professionals and hiring managers to understand their unstated expectations of job candidates and improve their ability to hire qualified candidates from a diverse talent pool.
Sponsored by International Qualification Assessment Services (IQAS), Alberta Enterprise and Advanced Education, the videos and associated resources are available for free use and download from http://www.norquest.ca/navigating-the-interview