Interview Structures

Depending up the requirements, situations, locations and time, the interviews are broadly classified into ten different categories. Recruiters should be knowledgeable enough to understand which type of interview should be used when.

The ten different types of interviews are as follows −

• Structured Interview − In this type, the interview is designed and detailed in advance. A structured interview is pre-planned, accurate, and consistent in hiring the candidates.
• Unstructured Interview − This type of interview is an unplanned one, where the interview questionnaire is not prepared. Here, the effectiveness of the interview is very less and there is a tremendous waste of time and effort of both the interviewer and the interviewee.
• Group Interview − In this type of interview, all the candidates or a group of candidates are interviewed together. Group interviews are conducted to save time when there is a large number of applications for a few job vacancies. A topic will be given to discuss among the candidates and the interviewer judges the innovativeness and behavior of each candidate in the group.
• Depth Interview − Depth interview is a semi-structured interview, where the candidates have to give a detailed information about their education background, work experience, special interests, etc. And the interviewer takes a depth interview and tries in finding the expertise of the candidate.
• Stress Interview − Stress interviews are conducted to discover how a candidate behaves in stressful conditions. In this type of interview, the interviewer will come to know whether the candidate can handle the demands of a complex job. The candidate who maintains his composure during a stress interview is normally the right person to handle a stressful job.
• Individual Interview − In an individual interview, the interview takes place one-on-one i.e., there will be a verbal and a visual interaction between two people, an interviewer and a candidate. This is a two-way communication interview, which helps in finding the right candidate for a vacant job position.
• Informal Interview − Such interviews are conducted in an informal way, i.e., the interview will be fixed without any written communication and can be arranged at any place. There is no procedure of asking questions in this type of interview, hence it will be a friendly kind of interview.
• Formal Interview − A formal interview held in a formal way, i.e., the candidate will be intimated about the interview well in advance and the interviewer plans and prepares questions for the interview. This is also called as a planned interview.
• Panel Interview − Panel interview, as the name indicates, is being conducted by a group of people. In this type of interview, three to five members of the selection committee will be asking questions to the candidates on different aspects. The final decision will be taken by all the members of the panel collectively.
• Exit Interview − Exit interviews are conducted for those employees who want to leave the organization. The importance of the exit interview is to discover why an employee wants to leave his job.