8 Types Of Interview Styles - Part1

You are getting prepared for an interview and lots of questions doing rounds in your mind. What if the interviewer asks me this or that and so on… So it’s good to be acclimatized to the different interviewing styles that interviewers adopt. The interview process is usually lengthy, wherein the interviewer may call you back many times to know if you can fit into the company culture. And when you actually face the interview, you may identify that the style may be one of the following –

1. Traditional Face to Face Interview
Most interviews conducted world over are of this type and have a one-on-one conversational approach. You must maintain eye contact with the interviewer and listen carefully to what he says and only then answer the questions. Listening carefully also helps to frame your answers in your mind at the same time when you are hearing out the questions. Developing a rapport with the interviewer is of utmost importance.

2. Panel/Committee Interview
As the name suggests, this type of interview has more than one person in the panel as interviewers. It’s typically a group of 3 to 10 people who judge you at the same time. This is a challenging situation to be in as your management and group presentation skills are put to test. As and when you converse with interviewers, try to gauge their personality type. Maintain eye contact with the concerned interviewer who is asking you questions; however when responding, make eye contact with other people in the panel too. Meeting eye contact of other people is a subtle way to ask for their approval and also a sign of your confidence.

3. Behavioral Interview
This interview is based on the fact that past behavior can be the best tool to judge a person’s future response to situations. These questions can be guised in telephone, panel or one-on-one interview formats. It should be noted that behavioral questions are not imaginary or based on presumptions. The interviewer is asking you something very specific and hence the answers must be based on facts related to your past. The interviewer is looking out for tangible results from the activities undertaken by you in your past. Few examples of such questions are – “Give an instance when..”, “Have you ever done something wherein..”, “Can you think of a situation when you were…”

4. Case Interview
This type of interview tries to measure your problem solving skills. The interviewer places a situation to you or provides you with a case study and asks you to come up with an apt and logical plan that aims to solve the problem. Interviewers are not seeking the best solution, as they already know one. What they are keener to find out is the process or approach you take to solve the problem. If the situation or problem is unclear, do not hesitate in asking questions to the interviewer or getting clarifications. The more you are able to explore ways of solving the case, more close you are to achieving your goal. This is the only interview where you are allowed to carry a pad and a pencil and take down notes as you work through the case.

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