AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine the psychological processes for the effects of recruitment source and organization information on newcomers' job survival. Formal sources of recruitment were compared to informal sources, and a model based on the realism and met expectations hypotheses for the effects of information accuracy received from one's recruitment source and the organization on job survival was tested. Employees recruited through informal sources of recruitment (employee referrals, rehires, and self‐initiated walk‐ins) were found to have greater job survival in comparison to employees recruited through formal sources of recruitment (newspaper and radio advertisement, and posters), and reported receiving more accurate job information from their recruitment source, greater met expectations, and ability to cope. The results of a path analysis indicated that the accuracy of information received from one's recruitment source and the organization was significantly related to several of the hypothesized process variables of the realism hypothesis that are related to subsequent job survival. Further, the results support the met expectations hypothesis as one of the key psychological processes underlying the relationship between information accuracy and job survival. The implications for future research and practice are discussed from an information acquisition perspective that integrates the literature on recruitment sources and socialization.