Development and testing of an employment interview for international personnel selection purposes

Increased globalization of markets leads to a higher need for appropriate international personnel selection instruments. Failed expatriate assignments often produce high economic and psychological costs. In this study a structured interview for job assignments abroad was developed and tested. The interview was validated with a sample of German trainees (N = 66) who completed a 3 to 7 months internship in the US. The study reveals a positive relationship between the evaluation in the structured interview and both self and supervisor evaluation of the intern's performance. Additionally, the interview possesses incremental validity in accounting for variance in both performance criteria not explained by the predictors age, gender, school and university grades, as well as previous experience abroad.