TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
Ö The Informational Interview: Typically this is an interview set up at your
request with a Human Resources Manager or a departmental supervisor in
the career field you are interested in. The purpose of this interview is for you
to find out more about a particular career, position or company. You are
seeking information from these people in hopes that they might refer you to
someone else in their company or to somebody they may know outside their
company who could use your skills.
The Informational Interview is a part of the “cold-calling” process whereby
you are generating your own job leads. Your ultimate purpose is to get your
foot in the door. You should ask for a critique of your resume, or for their
ideas of how you might break into a specific job field. If you do your job
well, you will walk away with job leads or names of people they recommend
you meet with.
Ö The Screening Interview: Typically this is the first step a company takes
after the resumes have been scrutinized. The purpose of this meeting is to
assess the skills and personality traits of the potential candidates. The
objective ultimately is to “screen out” those applicants the interviewer feels
should not be hired due to lack of skills or bad first impressions. The
interviewer must also “screen in” those candidates she/he feels would make a
valuable contribution to the company. Your job during this preliminary
meeting is to convince this person you are worthy to take the next step.
Ö The General/Structured Interview: Frequently the Screening Interview
is combined with the General Interview due to time constraints many
companies have during the hiring process. Often you will meet with the
supervisor over the position for which you are applying. During this interview
you will be discussing the specifics of the position, the company and industry.
Ö The Group Interview: This can be the most intimidating interview because
it involves you and perhaps 2-5 interviewers. Companies will use these
Group Interviews to save time in the process as well as to observe how well
you do under pressure and in a group setting. Your job here is to answer
each question as if you are on a one-to-one interview.
Some employers will use personality or behavioral tests for positions dealing
with a lot of internal and external stress from customers or for executive level
positions. One really cannot prepare for these tests, other than to be
honest and do not answer what you think they want to hear.