BOTH SIDES OF THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW INTERACTION - PERCEPTIONS OF INTERVIEWERS AND APPLICANTS WITH DISABILITIES

Examined applicants' with disabilities and interviewers' without disab ilities perceptions of the interview process in a correlational field study. In all, 36 interviewers provided ratings of 70 applicants. Sepa rately, the applicants responded to questions about the interviewer an d the interview. Results supported hypotheses contending that the inte rview is a mutual influence process. Interviewers' preinterview impres sions were positively correlated with their postinterview evaluations. However, time spent actively recruiting the applicant was negatively correlated with the applicants' ratings of interviewers. Finally, appl icant disclosure of some types of disability-related information was p ositively related with interviewers' ratings of applicants' interview performances. These findings suggest that applicants may want to discu ss job-related aspects of their disability in the interview.