Job interviews have been described as events in which individuals aim at managing the impressions others get from them with regards to one's attitudes, beliefs and personal character. This paper analyzes some interactional aspects that might be related to impression management by a candidate during a job interview. In order to accomplish that, a job interview was audiorecorded and transcribed, and the conversation analysis tools were used to analyze the data. The analysis shows the asymmetry of discursive roles between interviewee and interviewer and the interactional phenomena through which impression management is substantiated by the job candidate: (1) faster delivery of the speech when the candidate refers to being previously fired or to some other event which might be seen as negative; (2) turn co-construction as a way for the candidate to anticipate that he knows the aspects being discussed by the job interviewer; (3) explanations (accounts) as a way of preventing negative inferences about himself.
job interview; impression management; conversation analysis