Job Search / Help (and a friend) wanted

Chances are, you’ll never see a job listing like this:  Help (and friend) wanted — Must share common interests and be fun to spend time with.

But a research paper released Thursday finds that when it comes to choosing job candidates, employers place a heavy emphasis on finding people who are similar to them, and whose company they enjoy.

Lauren Rivera, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University, spent two years interviewing people who were hiring entry-level candidates for several elite law, investment and consulting firms.

She found that the companies did give considerable weight to whether the candidates were qualified for the job, including looking at things like which university they graduated from, what grades they earned and their knowledge of the field.

But she was surprised to find how much importance they placed on finding candidates who were a good “cultural fit” for the company. That often meant things like sharing a common interest in certain sports or extracurricular activities, or just being the type of person you’d be content to go on a business trip with…

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Employers tend to hire people they’d like to hang out with – Life Inc..