Thanks to the Internet and social media, the candidate and the recruiter already know each other prior to the job interview.


Is there a greater temptation to recruit those who look like us? This is a taboo question in a recruitment system where the norm is - and must remain - the supremacy of skills. "Any HR manager or recruiter will argue that he or she will only hire a candidate on the basis of their skills. Not all external factors have to be taken into account," explains Claire Vizzolini, a human resources consultant at Kurt Salmon. "Some 15 years ago, in the United States, recruiters were even strictly forbidden to ask questions about private life, such as age, origin, marital status, university education, etc. All of this was private, and was intended to remain private."

But the time when the private remained private is now over. Today, while employees have never been so close - or potentially close - to their employees, in the same way, the recruiter has never been so close to the candidate, and vice versa. "We try to protect ourselves from this overexposure and keep our distance so as not to mix things up, but it has become almost impossible," concedes Claire Vizzolini. Today, on both sides, the norm is to search the web to access different parts of the life of the person you are about to meet. The apprehension that one used to feel when going to an interview where one knew neither the premises nor the recruiter has thus been largely minimised.

A company's codes are now visible on the web. "Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts are dedicated to the recruitment of the different companies, which publish viral videos, photos, which reveal what is happening internally", explains Jacques Froissant, CEO of the recruitment firm 2.0 Altaïde. For many companies, social networks are also an opportunity to unveil their premises, so that candidates can discover the place where they will be received.

"Today, when they arrive at the interview, the candidates already know, if they have prepared well, the typical outfit they will have to wear and what kind of person they will be facing. They have in mind all the personal details of the recruiter's life that can hit the nail on the head: common interests, identical town of birth, etc.", continues Jacques Froissant. In this way, skills are now just an indispensable basis for sorting out candidates. Then, as soon as there is a choice to be made, it is external factors that will make the difference.

Recently, three researchers in psyschology, Kristin Laurin, from Stanford University, David Kille and Richard Eibach, from the University of Waterloo, have shown that we tend to evangelise our way of life, our tastes, which seem to us to be the norm. "Recently, I interviewed someone who had the same interest as me in an area I am particularly fond of. It was hard to remain insensitive! So, yes, affinities do count," continues Jacques Froissant before concluding: "It's important to remember that a company manager recruits someone who will be working with him every day! So with equal skills, it's legitimate that affinities come into play... They simply must not be allowed to take precedence over the rest".