Selection Processes for Three Types of Academic Jobs. An Experiment among Dutch Employers of Social Sciences Graduates

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of an experiment designed to study the selection behaviour of employers. The aim of the study is to find out whether and to what extent selection processes differ between different types of jobs. In the experiment, we asked employers to select and rank vignettes, each one representing a hypothetical graduate, for different types of jobs. The study is restricted to Dutch employers of academic graduates in social sciences and we study selection processes for three prototypical jobs: management trainee, policy‐maker in health issues, and scientific researcher. We expect systematic differences in selection criteria between the three jobs due to differences in the role of specific competence in the selection processes. The results show that the value of screening criteria indeed greatly depends on the vacancy for which the selection is made. Furthermore, the results largely support our hypotheses that specific competences are most important in selection processes for scientific researchers and that general competences are most important in selection processes for management trainees.