This week I would like to explain the types of interviews that every job seeker should know.
- Behavioral interview:
A behavioral interview is an interview where employers try to find out about your personality, your character, and your soft skills to see if you are a good fit for the position and the company culture. The interview focuses on experience, behaviors, knowledge, skills, and abilities that are related to the job. In this type of interview, you should respond to questions by giving examples from your previous work experience, activities, hobbies, volunteer work, or school projects.
- Technical interview:
A technical interview evaluates your technical skills related to the job, such as your computer skills or your design skills. This type of interview is generally conducted by someone working in a similar position or by someone who is knowledgeable in what is needed for that position and can assess your technical abilities.
- Case interview:
A case interview generally includes a business case that the interviewer or someone else from the company has worked on in real life. This business case usually involves a problem or a challenge that needs to be resolved. In this type of interview, generally employers want to see how you work on a problem and what steps you take to get to the solution. Consulting companies generally use case interviews in their hiring process.
- Mock interview:
A mock interview is a preparation interview for the real one. Usually, a career services office or a recruiting agency conducts a mock interview with you so that you can get used to interviewing and become better prepared for your real interview. A mock interview is a great way to get feedback regarding your interviewing skills.
- Group interview:
A group interview is a type of interview in which you are interviewed with a bunch of other candidates at the same time. Most job seekers find group interviews very intimidating. Don’t worry though! You can learn how to stand out in a group interview from my previous blog post.
- On-campus interview:
An on-campus interview is the one conducted on campus by employers. It’s only for the students of the school where the interview is taking place. For students, it’s actually more advantageous to do on-campus interviews. Since students are in a place that they already know, they generally feel more comfortable during on-campus interviews than when they go to the offices of the companies to interview.
- Phone interview:
This is the type of interview conducted via a phone call. Companies often use phone interviews to screen the candidates and narrow the applicant pool. Human resources personnel prefer phone interviews to gain basic information about the candidate such as his interest about the job, salary expectations, willingness to relocate if necessary, etc. If you want to learn about how to ace your phone interviewing skills, you can read my previous blog post.
