Bridging the Expectation Gap: How Mismatched Interview Perceptions Impact Your Hiring Success

One of the biggest problems you’ll have when hiring is a mismatch in communication. You have to make sure you’re clearly communicating exactly what your needs are. What are your must-haves, and what are the ideal nice-to-haves?

Finding the right talent is more challenging than ever for Australian businesses. One significant hurdle that often goes unaddressed is the mismatch between how candidates and interviewers perceive the same interview. This disconnect can lead to missed opportunities and the loss of potentially valuable team members.

The Interview Perception Problem

“The biggest issue you’re going to have when you’re doing an interview is having a mismatch,” explains Tavis in his recent YouTube video short. “What I mean by that is the candidate thinks one thing, and you think another.”

This perception gap happens more frequently than many hiring managers realise. A candidate might walk away from an interview feeling confident they’ve showcased their skills effectively, while the interviewer may have an entirely different impression. Alternatively, a highly qualified candidate might think they performed poorly when, in fact, the interviewer was impressed.

Professional recruiters serve as the essential link between candidates and employers. “If we have a mismatch, obviously the recruiter’s job is to bring it back into more of a harmonious unity,” Tavis points out.

Experienced recruiters at TRS Resourcing understand both sides of the hiring equation. They can identify when perceptions don’t align and take steps to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Communication: The Foundation of Successful Hiring

According to Tavis, employers need to “have clear communication with the candidate on exactly what you’re looking for in this position, what the outcomes are, what the must-haves the candidate needs to bring, and what your ideals are.”

Moving Beyond the “Carbon Copy” Approach

Traditional hiring often focuses on finding an exact replacement for a departing employee. Tavis challenges this approach: “Gone are the days of a person leaving and you just trying to carbon copy them with someone else straight into the position.”

This rigid thinking can severely limit your talent pool, especially in specialised fields. The reality is that each candidate brings unique skills, experiences, and potential that may add value in ways you hadn’t considered.

“You need to make sure that you’re a little bit flexible with the candidates’ requirements and capabilities versus what you need in the job,” advises Tavis. This flexibility is significant in high-demand sectors where perfect matches are increasingly rare.

Valuing Potential and Learning Ability

One of the most overlooked qualities in candidates is their willingness and ability to learn. Tavis emphasises this: “Maybe this candidate hasn’t got the experience, but they’re willing to learn, which is a big one.”

A candidate with slightly less experience but strong learning capabilities and enthusiasm can quickly close skills gaps. In contrast, candidates with perfect technical qualifications but limited adaptability may struggle as the role changes.

Savvy employers recognise that technical skills can be taught, while qualities like:

• Eagerness to learn
• Adaptability
• Problem-solving ability
• Cultural fit
• Growth mindset

Practical Steps to Reduce Expectation Mismatches

To minimise perception gaps in your hiring process, consider these actionable strategies:

1. Create detailed job descriptions that clearly outline both essential requirements and “nice-to-have” qualifications
2. Prepare structured interview questions that directly assess the most critical skills and attributes
3. Provide candidates with advance information about the interview format and topics to be covered
4. Offer immediate feedback when possible, especially for technical assessments or skill demonstrations
5. Ask candidates for their self-assessment of how they believe they meet the key requirements
6. Follow up promptly after interviews to address any potential misunderstandings

Implementing these practices helps ensure both parties walk away with aligned interview perceptions. Investing in clear communication and expectation alignment pays dividends by streamlining the hiring process and improving quality-of-hire metrics.

Finding Balance: Requirements vs. Reality

The current job market requires a pragmatic approach to recruitment. While it’s important to maintain standards, rigid adherence to an exhaustive checklist of requirements often leads to unnecessarily lengthy searches.

“You need to make sure that you’re a little bit flexible,” Tavis reminds employers. This might mean prioritising your non-negotiable requirements while being open to candidates who bring unexpected strengths in other areas.

This balanced approach recognises the reality that the perfect candidate on paper rarely exists—and may not even be the best choice for your team’s long-term success.

The mismatch between candidate and interviewer perceptions represents one of the most common yet addressable challenges in the hiring process. By prioritising clear communication, maintaining reasonable flexibility in requirements, and valuing potential alongside experience, companies can significantly improve their recruitment outcomes.

As Tavis Shearer and the team at TRS Resourcing have observed through years of recruitment experience, the most successful hires often come when both parties clearly understand each other’s expectations and needs. By addressing the perception gap, employers can make more confident hiring decisions, and candidates can find positions where they’ll truly thrive.

For more insights on optimising your recruitment approach or assistance with your hiring needs, contact the experienced team at TRS Resourcing, where bridging expectation gaps is part of our expertise.

For more valuable recruitment insights, check out our article on why the human touch still matters in recruitment.

Why The Human Touch Still Matters in Recruitment

Bridging the Expectation Gap: How Mismatched Interview Perceptions Impact Your Hiring Success