Interview skills training for people with psychiatric disabilities: a review of the literature

Vocational rehabilitation or integration is a growing concern for people with psychiatric disabilities and mental health professionals. One of the key steps towards successful vocational outcome is to be competent in job interview skills, to form a favourable impression on job interviewers and to ultimately lead to a positive hiring decision. People with psychiatric disabilities have difficulties in managing job interviews effectively due to various reasons. This paper reviews seven studies on the effectiveness of job interview skills training for the sample of people with psychiatric disabilities. In view of some of the concerns identified in those previous studies, and in recent work rehabilitation literature, it is proposed that the job interview skills training should address the following issues: manifested adjustment, ability to communicate, concept of self-efficacy, skills generalisation, vocational rehabilitation versus integration and social validity of training materials.