Evaluating Self-Presentation: Gatekeeping Recognition Work in Hiring

Abstract

This study investigates how employee gatekeepers decode cultural signals applicants send out during job selection procedures. By focusing on declarative and non-declarative cultural signals such as leisure activities and presentation style, this article examines how recruiters and hiring managers do their gatekeeping recognition work. This is done by in-depth interviewing of 40 HR managers and recruiters, from the cultural and corporate sector in the Netherlands, using a video-elicitation method. The interviews revealed (1) the importance of a fun-factor, (2) that leisure activities not only serve as status markers or indicators for competence but enter as important interactional tools, (3) that gatekeepers look for authentic self-presentation but that this varies between fields and the perceived gender of the candidate. In addition, the comparative design uncovered significant sector variations. Corporate gatekeepers are characterized by the way they decoded sport activities as a signal for a work mentality, valued self-presentation in terms of representativeness and repeatedly relied on competence as an evaluative principle. Cultural gatekeepers, on the other hand, used leisure activities more often as way of cultural matching and were more drawn to a fun-factor while displaying a clear disdain for formal presentation styles.