For the 15th time we opened up our “Intercultural Lab” to explore a new theme – this time recruitment. Did you know that in some countries like Sweden it’s advisable to call the recruiter to make a connection and humbly promote yourself? Did you also know in other countries including Poland to call the recruiter is out of the question and doing so will make the applicant seen as troublesome? Comparing two CV’s we discovered that in a collectivistic culture as India you present what family you are from in your CV whereas in individualistic Sweden this would be unthinkable. Still, many recruiters and applicants are not aware of such differences. Shalini Singh and Kajsa Svensson held a workshop for an engaging group to explore different perspectives of the recruitment process. Our diverse group of participants from India, Iran, Sweden, US, Spain, Bulgaria, Canada, and Poland consisted of recruiters, applicants and already employed. They engaged in conversations and got to reflect on their values related to different statements.
To what degree do you agree to the following statements?
- A formal CV is more important than a personal cover letter.
- A job interview should also include personal questions, like ones about hobbies and family life.
- In a job interview, it is good to overstate your competence a bit.
As you can see in the picture when the participants were given these statements we found a great variation in their answers. What is seen to be the right way to recruit is not necessarily seen to be right in another setting. An interesting workshop indeed realizing so much more could be done in order to smooth the recruitment process for internationals in Sweden.