Power In Job Interview

Based upon the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis put forward by Fairclougb., the present work attempts to study power in job interviews, or we can say that it tries to approach job interviews in terms of power. The research is based upon authentic data recorded on-site. 13 job interviews are recorded. All of the interviewees are university graduates, and the interviewers represent organizations in different circles of business in Ciuangzhou. During the process of analyzing data, we noticed the distinctions among job interviews, which led us to categorize them into what we call preliminary job interviews and official job interviews. The findings are: (i) The role as questioner or responder shifts in preliminary job interviews and stays largely unchanged in official job interviews, and the interviewer and the interviewee's length of turns are closely related with that; (ii) The interviewee's one-way promotion features official job interviews, and mutual promotion is often found in preliminary job interviews; (iii) There is the influence of knowledge in job interviews. The following socially orienied leads us to draw the three conclusions below: (i) The existence of relations of power is evident in job interviews~ (ii) The preliminary job interview is not a new discourse, but it deserves more attention as a subcategory; (iii) Power is a socially based concept., and should be approached with a social orientation.