Implying identities through narratives of vicarious experience in job interviews

In job interviews, candidates typically aim to construct their identities as good and competent professionals who are suitable for the job. Importantly, much of this identity work happens through storytelling. These stories are often narratives of personal experience, but applicants may also use narratives of vicarious experience (NoVEs) in job interviews. Drawing on a corpus of more than 20 authentic Belgian job interviews, I found that these NoVEs typically occurred when the applicant's identity as a good candidate was threatened, either because of negative elements in their CVs or because their answers to the recruiter's questions were not treated as satisfactory. The analyses demonstrate that applicants used these NoVEs to set up standardized or ad hoc relational pairs consisting of the story protagonists on the one hand and themselves on the other, and, as such, the applicants construct their identities by implication. These ‘implied’ identities could either mimic or contrast with the identities that were constructed for the story protagonists. Overall, NoVEs prove to be multifunctional interactional resources, as they can also be used to bid for the establishment of trust and co-membership, while doing implicit – and hence possibly strategic – identity work. •In job interviews, the applicants' identity work often happens through storytelling.•Next to personal experience stories, applicants also use narratives of vicarious experience.•Narratives of vicarious experience typically occur when the applicant's identity is threatened.•Through narratives of vicarious experience, applicants set up standardized or ad hoc relational pairs.•Through these relational pairs, applicants construct their identities by implication.