Handling Hidden Social Advantage in the Job Process

The Stanford Graduate School of Business reports that we respond to the (over) confidence of upper-class workers, even when they’re wrong. The result is “we may be reinforcing an already unfair social hierarchy” since rich confident people have an immediate advantage when walking into the room. “We can’t help but fall for their bravado, endowing them with greater talent and skills than they in fact possess.”

The take-aways to counteract this bias, especially in the job process:

1. Interviewers should first understand their bias of overvaluing upper-class and confident interviewees, and should consciously give quieter candidates a chance. 
2. Another way to counteract interviewer bias is to give interviewees work exercises to assess their competence. Many of my clients in fact give short assignments to candidates as part of the evaluation to ensure fairness.
3. Interviewees should amplify their confidence. If you don’t act like you believe in yourself, how do you expect your prospective employer or client to? Knowing what you are up against is half the battle. Now prepare to present with confidence. See my previous posts on painless self-promotion and executive presence.