Linguistic gatekeeping in job interviews

Abstract

According to Pierre Bourdieu, the privileged speak in a way that is preferentially assessed, and “intuitively grasp the rules that are immanent in a situation” (Bourdieu, 1993). In the new economy, Heller says, language is “both a means of production and … a product itself.” (Heller 2005) This results in job seekers’ “'communication skills' [being used] as a gatekeeping device in recruitment” (Cameron 2000). Previous research on interviewing in intercultural contexts has focused largely on the role of language at the lower end of pay, English proficiency and education scale (Gumperz 1992, Roberts 1992). My research looks at the very high end: international consulting and finance. Six Hong Kong university students’ mock job interview videos were shown to and evaluated by industry hiring decision makers. While feedback collection is ongoing, preliminary findings suggest that students’ failure in elite job interviews is attributed to two interrelated factors: their lack of knowledge of the interview “rules” and their inability to communicate in the way preferred by the decision makers.