Professional personal branding: An Investigation of the Process How Recruiters Judge the Perceived Credibility of Job Applicants Based on Their LinkedIn Profile Picture

Formally, in the process of hiring, employers should only take into consideration objective information and the requirements which are necessary for the vacant position that could be of influence on future performance of an individual. However, in practice there are several other subjective influencing factors (e.g. ethnicity, physical appearance and gender). This research aims to assess how and why recruitment professionals perceive a job candidate as credible when screening LinkedIn profiles for future candidates. This study is conducted by qualitatively exploring the three components of Ohanian’s (1990) perceived credibility: attractiveness, trust and expertise. By means of the think-aloud method in interviews and photo elicitation, that is showing visualisations of seven different visual cues (e.g. smiling, formal attire) eleven recruitment professionals are questioned about their underlying motives and thoughts while judging the job applicants. A nuance in business sector is applied as this study focuses on a marketing consultant. The findings of this study suggest that recruitments professionals make an effort to systematically and rationally judge job applicants, however unconsciously, their online information processing is led by simple judgmental heuristics such as visual cues in a profile picture. Especially the cues of smiling and eye-contact appear to have a positive influence on the perception of perceived credibility. In addition, the findings indicate that the visual cue of attire can be used by job applicants to express the perceived fit with a type of organisation, formal (e.g. corporate organisation) or informal (e.g. start-up). With this knowledge, the likelihood to obtain a job interview for starters or graduates is just a few visual cues away.