Interview Types

In this job market getting to the job interview is a major challenge. If you have made it to this point being prepared is essential to obtaining the job. Below you will find the different types of interview models that could be utilized by your interviewer. Behavioral Interview

The Interviewer will ask for specific examples from your past experiences to determine if you can provide evidence of your skills in a certain area – the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  Although the interviewer is having you recount stories from your past, they are really trying to imagine how you would handle similar situations in the future.

Situational Interview

This format is highly structured in that hypothetical situations are described and applicants are asked to explain what they would do in these situations.  Interviewers may use a scoring guide consisting of sample answers to evaluate and score each applicant’s answers.

Structured Interview

This format combines the situational interview with a variety of other types of interview questions.  Typically, each candidate is asked the same set of questions and their answers are compared to a scoring guide and rated.  The goal of this approach is to reduce interviewer bias and to help make an objective decision about the best candidate.

 Unstructured Interview

Questions here are based on the individual’s application documents such as their resume and so different variants of a question will be asked to each applicant. Without structured guidelines, the conversation can be free-flowing, thus making this method of interviewing the most prone to bias, but allowing the interviewer to get a more natural and perhaps more realistic sense of who you are.  Although this type of interview may seem more casual, and may even occur over lunch or dinner, you must still be well-prepared and maintain a professional demeanor. Be careful not to provide information you would not have communicated if the interview was more structured.