Welcome to your free job interview advice centre, packed with the most up to date information and articles developed by our team of recruitment experts and designed to help you succeed in your interview.
Job Interviews – All The Advice You Need
For many people a job interview is a daunting prospect. It is a relatively unnatural situation whereby the candidate sits in front of one or more people and engages in a dialogue designed to discover the best person for the job. This can feel like an interrogation for some and is very stressful for many even for the most experienced interviewees.
We have interviewed more than 3,000 people over the past 15 years for a range of jobs ranging from entry level right up to director level. We have been interviewed many times ourselves and know how it feels from both sides of the desk. Our recommended products have been created and updated by us over a period of years and are designed to help job interview candidates to succeed irrespective of the type or level of position.
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Job Interview – A Complete Overview
For a prospective employer the job interview is a vital tool in their arsenal when trying to select suitable candidates for job openings. While still not perfect, the Job Interview process has become more reliable as a means of selecting the “right” person and it is likely that its will still be in use for many years to come.
For you as a job seeker, the Job Interview is the final stage in what may have been a difficult process starting with the submission of your CV or application from. There is no escaping the interview and once a prospective business has a list of several promising candidates, then they will typically begin the process of having first, second and even third job interviews for the available position.
With each round of job interviews, the potential job seeker can expect the interviewing process to be longer in length and more in depth.
What to Expect in a typical Job Interview
Normally, job interviews will take place between the applicant and with representatives from the business. These representatives are typically from the business’s human resource department, from upper management, and with someone from the department in which the vacant job is available. Most initial job interviews will take at least twenty minutes, but it is not unusual for an interview to last close to two hours.
Most job interviews are conducted on the basis where the applicant is being asked a series of questions in regards to their past job experience, their work ethics, any special training that could be relevant to the available position, and about themselves. Questions asked by the interviewer will explore the candidate’s skills, experience, motivation, confidence, ability to work as a team, and qualifications among others.
Types of Job Interview
Employers have discovered that the traditional job interview no longer fulfills their every need when seeking qualified individuals to fulfill vacant job openings within their business. As a result, there are a number of different types of job interviews used today. Here is a listing of the different types of job interviews and a brief description of each:
Competency Interviews
Prospective employers will use competency interviews as a means of learning how potential candidates will react during certain types of work-related situations. The basis of this type of job interview is that candidates will react according to previous training and work experience, which in turn will effect their performance in the future.
Traditional Job Interviews
Traditional interviews are used by prospective employers as a means of collecting vital information from potential candidates in regards to their previous job experience, career history, and other related information about previous employment, employers, and businesses.
Group Interviews
Larger businesses like to utilise group job interviews as a way to interview a number of potential candidates at one time. As a result, two different types of group job interviews have been developed to meet the needs of different types of businesses. The first type is when a potential candidate for a job is interviewed by a number of representatives from a prospective business. Oftentimes, these individuals will include a representative from the human resources department, a representative of upper management, and a department supervisor in which the job is available. The second type is where a representative from the prospective business, which is oftentimes the individual responsible for hiring, will interview a group of potential candidates for the same job opening at the same time as a group.
Structured Job Interviews
Many businesses will use a standard or structured format when conducting job interviews with potential candidates. These formats are designed in order that the employer may better assess the candidate’s ability, skills, and experience, which will allow them to better compare these with other candidates who have applied for the same position. Oftentimes, the questions asked by the interviewer during a structured job interview will be focused around the skills and qualifications needed for the available position.
Panel Job Interviews
When a potential candidate for an available job is interviewed by a number of representative from a business, which is known as an interview panel, then this is called a panel job interview. Businesses will oftentimes use panel job interviews when interviewing multiple applicants for the same position to make the selection process much more effective.
Telephone Interviews
Businesses have begun using telephone job interviews as a new means of interviewing a large number of applicants for a particular position. As a result, the prospective employer is able to weed out those candidates who are not entirely suited for the position prior to conducting face-to-face interviews. Telephone job interviews are relatively inexpensive to businesses and help minimize the number of man hours that would be spent interviewing each candidate face-to-face. Telephone job interviews do not have to be pre-scheduled by the prospective business and can occur at any time.
Video Interviewing
In today’s workplace, many businesses are seeing the use of video interviews happen much more frequently, which is due to global expansion and hiring. Video job interviewing is a great way to speed up the interviewing process for not only a prospective business, but for job candidates as well. As a result, first interviews are conducted much more effectively and quickly through the use of video conferencing.
For a job seeker, knowing what to expect during a job interview can be your best defense. Always go into a job interview knowing as much as you can about a prospective business and their industry. It is important to know what questions you want to ask as well. The more prepared you are for a job interview, then the less likely you are going to feel or seem nervous and the more likely you will win the job offer.
