What are the different types of interviews?

There are many types of interviews that you may face as a job seeker, and being prepared to handle each one of them is advantageous for everyone looking to make a career change or work towards a promotion at work.

Below, we explore the different types of job interviews and explain how you can prepare for each one to help you feel more comfortable and prepared for each.

What Are the Different Types of Interviews?

Traditional Interviews – Typically a 1-2 interview with an HR manager, Hiring Manager, or Line Manager. The goal is to have you answer a series of questions and see if your skill set matches the job role.

How to prepare

This is one interview style that gets better with time. Attending many different interviews will help you get better at them. Research the organisation and come prepared with questions to ask. Our article how to prepare for your first interview has some excellent tips for traditional interview techniques. 

Behavioural Interviews – This style of interview is used to see how you have handled specific employment situations in the past, which helps your interviewer gauge future performance in similar situations. You will be asked to describe, in detail, how you have handled certain situations relevant to the job you’re applying for.

How to prepare

Go through a few examples of behaviour-based interviews so that you can best prepare to answer a wide range of them in your interview.

Case Interviews – You will be given a scenario and then asked how you would solve the problem and/or manage that specific situation. On most occasions, there is no single correct answer. This interview style is to test to see if you have a structured approach to resolving a problem and can communicate that approach effectively. 

How to prepare

There are many resources online that you can go through to prepare for case interviews. As you don’t know exactly what the interviewer will ask, you will need to go through a variety of questions to prepare yourself to answer any question.

Stress Interviews – As the name suggests, a stress interview is used to assess how you respond to high-pressure situations. During this type of interview, Hiring Managers are looking to gauge how you respond to certain work-related stressors. 

How to prepare

Be prepared to answer the below questions:

• Why were you fired from your last job?
• How do you think this interview is going?
• How would you deal with a colleague that you caught stealing from the business?

Competency-Based Interviews – Also known as ‘structured interviews’, your soft skills and interpersonal competencies will be assessed by Hiring Managers. The skills that will be evaluated include communication, decisiveness, leadership, teamwork, and resilience. You will be asked questions relating to your behaviour in certain situations, which you should support with real examples from your past.

How to prepare

Be prepared to give answers to questions like:

• Which change of job did you find the most difficult?
• Give an example of when your communication skills made a positive impact on a situation.
• How do you find preparing for an oral presentation differs from writing a report?

Group Interviews – This is a great way for Hiring Managers to interview multiple candidates at the same time.

How to prepare

Be yourself but be the best version of yourself that you can be. You need to stand out for all the right reasons and avoid reasons for Hiring Managers to mark against you.

Be prepared to answer questions like:

• Why do you want to work for our company?
• Explain something that is complicated but that you know well.
• Describe a mistake you previously made in your job and how you went about resolving it. 

Panel Interviews – Here, you will be interviewed by multiple interviewers within the same company. The purpose of this interview is to reduce the risk of hiring the wrong candidate, early in the interview process.  

How to prepare

Like previous interview styles, be prepared to answer typical interview questions about yourself confidently.

Be prepared to answer questions like:

• How would your colleagues describe you?
• Why do you want to work here?
• Why should we hire you?

Video & Remote Interviews – Rising in popularity due to the Coronavirus pandemic, video interviews revolve around both parties in the interview using technology to conduct the interview withing having to travel to a set location. Video interviews enable Hiring Managers to interview a wider diverse talent pool. 

How to prepare

Make sure you have all your technology set up correctly. Sit close to the WI-FI, turn off your TV, radio, phone etc. Have a neutral background and tidy up if parts of your house are visible in the background. Wear appropriate attire for the job you’re applying for and remember, it’s not just your answers that your interviewer will be taking note of but your appearance too.

Do a trial run to make sure everything is working well and looks good.

Phone Interviews – Typically a first stage interview style, most people would have had a phone interview once in their careers. This style of interviewing is used to conduct pre-face-to-face interviews, to use time wisely and get the right candidates in for face-to-face interviews.   

How to prepare

Remove all distractions and find a quiet place (with good reception) to conduct your interview. Speak clearly, confidently, and take the time to answer questions.

Be prepared to answer questions like:

• Tell me about yourself and your previous experience.
• Why are you interested in working for us?
• Please share with me some experiences you have of managing a team.

Lunch Interviews – Not to be confused with interviews you take on your lunch break, a lunch interview takes place over a meal with a Hiring Manager, Senior Manager that you would report to, or even the CEO!  

How to prepare

Your interview will be watching how you interact and conduct yourself during the interview. Be mindful of how you’re sitting, moving around, eye contact etc.

Always be polite and respectful of the waiters and staff around you, as this is a unique scenario, unlike any other interview style. Being a lunch interview, the process will be more relaxed, so be prepared for general conversation about your life and be ready to fill gaps in conversation with useful and interesting ‘small talk’.

General interview preparation

As you can see, interviews come in all forms. However, they all have one thing in common: preparation is the key to success. An effective way to prepare is to use the STAR format:

S – Situation

T – Task

A – Action(s)

R – Result(s)

For the interview Situation, you really want to “set the table”; give them all the important information.

Task is for what you’re looking to achieve or what you’re looking to remedy given the situation – it’s reiterating, clearly, to give the interviewer a direction to the “story”.

The Action(s) that you take are the meat of the answer. You want to specifically mention steps that you, yourself, took to deliver on the task.

Result is the dessert, it’s where you leave the interviewer nodding, smiling, and pencilling in your start date. The key is to provide tangible impacts of how your work has benefitted your previous business.  

The benefits of different interview types

Each interview style has pros and cons attached to them, which is why interviewers may choose to use a couple of different options for your interview process.

We have highlighted the pros and cons to the main four interview methods below:

Traditional Interviews

Pros – Easy to build rapport, ability to thoroughly assess a candidate, easy to read body language.

Cons – Delegates can rehearse answers, time-consuming process, Interview bias, costly, interview fatigue.

Phone Interviews

Pros – Fast, cheap, requires less effort, geographic location is not an issue.

Cons – Calls can be cut, lose signal, noisy, can’t read body language cues, hard to build rapport.

Video & Remote Interviews

Pros – Fast, cheap, minimal effort, can gauge their focus levels, can read body language well.

Cons – Interruptions, harder to build rapport.

Panel Interviews

Pros – No personal bias, can compare different options, easier to write notes, candidates can meet everyone.

Cons – Candidates can be complacent, can be overwhelming, Interviewers could interrupt each other, disagreements.  

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