Some thoughts on Unfamiliarity Bias

It’s a familiar problem

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

I’ve just read an article on “unfamiliarity bias”, where external candidates for a high-level role are favoured over existing staff looking for a promotion. It’s something I’ve seen happen in roles well above my pay grade, and I’ve also experienced stagnation in roles I’m over-qualified for, and I’ve interviewed outside of a company in order to get the promotion I deserved. It seems to me that this is definitely a thing, but I think it can be broken down further to identify other factors, and to demystify it and figure out a way around it.

In the original article, Bobby Powers discusses the reasons that employers tend “to overvalue the capability of an unknown hire compared to an internal candidate”. These are:

1. We’ve seen the weaknesses of internal candidates — as well as the good, we see the bad and the ugly too. And we’ve been working alongside them for years, so we think we know everything there is to know about them.
2. We’ve only seen the internal candidate utilize a narrow band of their skills and strengths — people get pigeonholed. An employer assumes that what they were hired for is all they’re good at; and besides, they need them in their current role, so they don’t want to lose them to a better-paying position.
3. We see the external…