My first paycheck ever came from American Eagle back when that’s where the cool kids shopped. Everyone in my high school wore clothes from there. Well, everyone but me. There was no world in which my mother would consider paying that kind of money for a t-shirt or jeans. So, I was strategic. 

My strategy? I applied for a job. 50% off made all that clothing seem reasonably priced, and I wanted to make money anyway. When I told a friend about my big plan to get an interview, I was excited to find out that her mom worked at the store next door and knew the manager. I got the interview. 

I distinctly remember everyone else in the group interview while we waited for it to start. We were in the middle of the mall at one of those silver tables I feel like every mall has. Square. Grated. 7 candidates and 1 manager. All girls. All dressed head to toe in American Eagle. I didn’t realize who the manager was at first because she looked so similar to the other folks interviewing. Well, except me. I was taller, thicker, and made none of the same style choices they did. 

Chronic Hiring Manager Interview Mistakes

Somehow, I got the job anyway. I guess, technically, that’s the first time I networked my way to a job. But I stood out like a sore thumb. Every person I worked with was another flavor of the same style. Most of the time, they even had the same haircut. 

Knowing what I know now about hiring managers and interviewing, I’m not so surprised that a 20-something manager with 0 interview training hired a bunch of people just like her. Similarity bias is the most common outcome of hiring managers who aren’t trained to interview because they feel more comfortable and connected with people like them. Of course they want to work with those people. But that doesn’t mean the person can do the job. 

The reaction of most teams I work with is to assign different questions to the managers so they focus more on skill. Which, in my opinion, gets you halfway to the result you want. The questions we ask are only half the problem when you want to remove similarity bias in interviewing. The other missing piece? Hiring managers need to be trained that knowing a good answer makes you better at interviewing.  

Beat Similarity Bias: Define Good Answers

If you don’t know what a good answer is for an interview question, you have to use bias to judge if it’s a good answer or not. It’s like following rural roads when you have no map or signal. You have to follow your gut. When it comes to interviewing, gut choices are how we end up with similarity bias. 

In this case, a “map” is the list of questions you’ll ask every candidate with a list of what makes a good answer. To do this, just work backwards from the job post into an interview question, then spell out what a good answer includes. 

Here’s an example: 

• Job requirement: You have led a recruiting team with 5 or more employees and a req load of 20 or more roles at a time. 
• Interview Question: Tell me about your leadership experience with recruiting teams. How big were the teams? How many reqs did you have at a time? 
• Good Answer: Team > 5, req load > 20. 

I might even visualize it in a table so it’s easy for the manager to write yes or no at the end to make it a simple scan of “if it says yes here, we move forward.” 

No more vibe hiring.