Wednesday, October 23, 2013

To Fear Job Interviews Or Not to Fear?


The purpose of the article92% of U.S. Adults Fear Something About Job Interviews, Survey Finds, is to reveal how U.S. adults feel about job interviews. According to the article, the job interview is a stressful ordeal for most American adults as over 90% employed adults said they fear something about the experience.  

The data used in this article is from the 2013 Job Interview Anxiety Survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Everest College. The data was analyzed in various subgroups comparisons: (1) Sex: women vs. men (2) Geographic: South, Midwest, etc. (3) Education level: high school diploma vs. college degree (4) Household income: less than $50,000, greater than $100,000, etc. However, we don't know what the sample coverage is. For example, did the survey interview enough women to represent the American women population that the biggest fear for women is "being too nervous" in a job interview? What is the ratio of women and men interviewed in the survey? Does the ratio make sense as the author makes a conclusion that the biggest fear for women is different from that of men? Also, we don't know if the women and men interviewed have similar background, such as location, education, income, etc. It would make more sense if the data analysis is conducted with only one variable. For instance, if the author wants to compare women and men, s/he should choose the women and men in the same region, with similar education background and income level.  

As Everest College wants to make an impression that their core training equips graduates with "the necessary tools to handle the interview process with poise and confidence", "being nervous" and "being unable to answer questions" are emphasized in the author's data analysis. While other source of analysis on job interview fear discovered different reasons. For instance, according to the Successful Interview Strategies by Keuka College [1], some examples of the top 10 fears behind job interviews are "lacking the skills", "having work-disrupting character flaw", and etc. 

The data analysis also helps emphasizing Everest College's impact on job interviews. For example, as shown below, people would have an impression that getting a degree in college will help in job interviews as data shows that the biggest fear for college graduates in job interviews is "being overqualified"; and college graduates are less nervous about job interviews than high school graduates.  

As stated in the article, "Everest College's 2013 Job Interview Anxiety Survey was conducted by telephone within the United States by Harris Interactive between July 11-21, 2013 among 1,002 employed U.S. adults ages 18+. Results were weighted for age, sex, geographic region, and race when necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population." The sample size is 1,002 employed U.S. adults. The data sampling approach can be categorized as several various sampling methods: (1) if the data was collected nonrandomly, the method may be quota sampling. (2) if the data was collected randomly, the method may be proportionate stratified random sampling or cluster/area sampling.

There are some questions about the statistic method and data analysis in this case. First, we don't know how many of the 1,002 adults have valuable responses. What is the response rate? Was the sample coverage big enough to be representative? Second, does the data differentiate interview types? Different interview types, such as phone interview vs. onsite interview, give people various experience. For example, one of the fears that people chose is "being late for interviews", but this option would not be often chosen if the interviewees have telephone interviews. Also, job industries can impact how intense the interviews are. Behavioral interview is usually easier to prepare than technical interviews. Thus, for some industries where only behavioral interviews are conducted, employees would feel less pressure.
 
I chose this article because the data analysis covered a huge frame - American adults. Demography is a complicated topic. There are too many factors involving, such as age, industry, sex, location, education, etc.. It would not be easy to analyze something from such a big frame. Statistics method must be used with extreme care if the conclusion needs to be objective. From this article analysis, I learnt that statistics is a very convincing method to present an idea. With all the data and numbers, people would be more likely to believe what the authors try to convey. However, if the data is not analyzed carefully, the knowledge drawn from the data can be misleading. Further more, statistics can also be manipulated. Without knowing how the data is analyzed, people won't discover the misuse and manipulation, and resulting in believing a false.  
Link to Original Article: 

92% of U.S. Adults Fear Something About Job Interviews, Survey Finds

Reference: 

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