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There is much talk about Interviewing Styles: The Directive Interview, The Behavioral Interview, The Stress Interview, The Qualifying Interview, The This Interview, The That Interview. Articles outline different styles, list typical questions for each and tell you how to prepare for them, as well as suggesting appropriate answers.
That’s all well and good, but there’s an obvious question here that begs to be asked: how do you KNOW which style you’ll encounter? When you phone to schedule the interview, do you ask, “Oh, by the way Mr. Interviewer, what interview style do you use? I’d like to study that one and ignore all the others.”?
I absolutely endorse asking questions that you need to know the answers to (when it’s the appropriate time)……but THAT question is obviously an exception!
So do you study all of the styles? Memorize every question that applies to each style and all the recommended answers to prepare for each one? And when the interview begins, you say to yourself, “AHA! It’s The Abstract Theoretical Look Sideways Style!” and then you know exactly what to say and do.
What if you missed a style? And you find yourself saying “What the heck style is THIS? I don’t recognize it! HELP!” Which completely throws you off and you bomb the rest of the interview.
Worrying about interviewing styles is ridiculous. Not only is it too much information to memorize, but it’s also a waste of time. An interview is nerve-wracking as it is without worrying about which style you’re going to encounter.
The interview is about the company and how your presence will benefit them. The preparation (with the exception of your company research) is about knowing who you are and what you’re looking for. It’s not about the company or anticipating their interviewing style.
Interview preparation is an absolute, non-negotiable, unequivocal must, but preparing by learning different styles is not. That’s why your interview preparation needs to be focused on learning about yourself, listing questions to ask, forming your answers to fundamental interview questions.
You prepare by focusing on yourself because you are seeking your perfect job. You want to have the power to decide if you want to return for another interview instead of giving that power away. You want to be in control of your future.
An interview is a sales process. The product is, essentially, you. And you need to be real about who you are, AND be prepared enough to interview well. Do THAT properly and the style you encounter is irrelevant.
Interviewing is 85% prep and 15% common sense. Sometimes it does involve a bit of mirroring, but again, some of that is common sense. Do it without losing your individuality. For instance, if the interviewer is chatty, longer answers are okay. If the interviewer is crisp and serious, keep your answers focused and on the topic.
Occasionally you’ll run into an interviewer who wants to make you sweat. You feel as if you’re under a bright light – they’re grilling you, and you might as well have been fingerprinted. There’s no need to get all worked up (besides, they WANT you to). If that’s his interview style, what do you think it will be like to work for him?
The answer to that should calm you down. You won’t care what he thinks, because you probably won’t want to return. Good money? Eventually you’ll hate your boss, then you’ll hate your job, then your life will be hell, because the salary won’t be worth it. Short drive? Eventually you’ll hate your boss, then you’ll hate your job then your life will be hell, because the drive will STILL be too long – you don’t want to go where you’re driving. Great advancement promised? After how long? How many people have held that position in the last 6 years?
If you want to work for a control freak or someone who needs to appear tough and all-knowing, you’ve found the place. If he’s rapid firing questions at you, hoping to trip you up, let him feel important . Finish the interview and then cross the company off your list.
Another interviewer might leave you thinking “What’s UP with this guy?” He seems sort of at a loss as to what to ask you. His questions are all open ended and don’t seem to have any firm direction or point. Just use common sense. You’ve done your interview prep work – jump in and sell yourself. That doesn’t mean talk non-stop, but you don’t have to sit there and be uncomfortably silent for long periods of time either.
Ease the awkwardness. Help him out. Lots of holes? Gracefully and professionally answer some of the questions you were prepared to answer, even though he hasn’t asked them. He may not know how to interview very well.
(Face it, NO ONE – except maybe a human resources person – should have a lot of experience interviewing. If they do – they either can’t keep a job….or they can’t keep employees!)
If your first interview is with human resources, often they can be crisply black and white, detail oriented, and by the book. Don’t let it throw you. If you know yourself and what you’re looking for, you’ve done your research on the company, and you’ve thoroughly prepped yourself for the interview, you’re much less likely to get flustered.
Mirror their style, but don’t drown your personality. SOME human resources people are adept at giving you enough rope to hang yourself – so don’t be lulled into a warm cozy camaraderie. Watch their visual cues – which can be subtle. Follow your instinct, but follow their lead. They’re screeners, but in that sense, they are also decision makers.
Don’t waste your time memorizing styles and how to handle each one. There ARE different interview styles, just as there are different types of people. The hiring authority’s interviewing style is usually a reflection of his personality. Stay aware of what’s happening at the moment, what you’re saying, what you’re learning, and how you’re feeling about what’s taking place.
The more you’ve done your homework in accordance with what I’ve suggested, the more relaxed you’ll feel. The more relaxed you feel, the more confident and in control of your answers you’ll be, and the less likely you’ll be to worry about interview styles and types. When you know your background and who you are – the hows and whys and whats – you’re also less likely to be blindsided by an unexpected “type” question.
So before you interview, it is imperative for you to give significant thought to:
• Why you chose your current field
• What environment you work best in and why
• What your personality traits are
• Why you liked and didn’t like your previous jobs and what you learned from them
• What your skills and talents are
• How you’ve handled diverse situations and what you might have done differently, or why what you did was effective – be able to back it up
• What you’ve accomplished in your previous positions and how those accomplishments contributed to the success of the department and the company
• In what areas you feel you need some work or polish
• Where you see yourself going and how you plan on getting there
• Why you chose to leave one company to go to the next
In addition to knowing the answers to the above topics, you need to think about the most appropriate way to phrase those answers AND how they relate to what you’ve learned about the company from your research on line or at the library.
In fact, some of the topics on the above list you should already have given thought to before you began your job search. If you don’t know who you are, what you want, in what circumstances you perform best and in what circumstances you don’t perform well at all, what type of management style helps you to flourish and give back to the company, and what the goal of your next job is – you won’t know what you’re looking for, much less be able to recognize it.
Put effort into making sure you know who you are and what makes you that way. Know what you’ve accomplished and what contributed to those accomplishments, what motivates you and what turns you off. Spend time learning about the company with whom you’ll be interviewing. Make a list of questions to bring with you, and know what kind of answers you’re looking for. Be able to address issues by showing how who YOU are will benefit THEM.
Then it won’t matter what style you encounter. You’ll be comfortable with any style you meet. And when they want you to come back for another interview, you can decide if you want to….or not.
copyright: Judi Perkins, VisionQuest

Job interviews are typically the last stage in the hiring process, used to evaluate the best candidates. Interviews are usually preceded by the evaluation of supplied résumés, selecting a small number of candidates who seem to be the most desirable (shortlisting).
A company seeking to fill a single position will typically interview a handful of candidates – perhaps as many as ten if the level of application has been high. While job interviews are considered to be one of the most useful tools for evaluating potential employees, they also demand significant resources from the employer and have been demonstrated to be notoriously unreliable in identifying the optimal person for the job.
Multiple rounds of job interviews may be used where there are many candidates or the job is particularly challenging or desirable; earlier rounds may involve fewer staff from the employers and will typically be much shorter and less in-depth. A common intitial interview form is the phone interview, a job interview conducted over the telephone. This is especially common when the candidates do not live near the employer and has the advantage of keeping costs low for both sides.
Once all candidates have had job interviews, the employer typically selects the most desirable candidate and begins the negotiation of a job offer.
A typical job interview has a single candidate meeting with between one and three persons representing the employer; the potential supervisor of the employee is usually involved in the interview process. A larger interview panel will often have a specialized human resources worker. The meeting can be as short as 15 minutes; job interviews usually last less than two hours. The bulk of the job interview will be the interviewers asking the candidate questions about their history, personality, work style and other relevant factors to the job. The candidate will usually be given a chance to ask any questions at the end of the interview. The primary purpose is to assess the candidate’s suitability for the job, although the candidate will also be assessing the corporate culture and demands of the job on offer.
Lower paid and lower skilled positions tend to have much simpler job interviews than more prestigious positions; a lawyer’s job interview will be much more demanding than that of a retail cashier.
Most job interviews are formal; the larger the firm, the more formal and structured the interview will tend to be. Candidates generally dress slightly better than they will be expected to wear to work, with a suit being appropriate for a white-collar job interview, but jeans being appropriate for an interview as a plumber.
Additionally, some professions have specific types of job interviews; for performing artists, this is an audition where the emphasis is placed on the performance ability of the candidate.
Psychometric testing may also be used in job interviews.
In many countries including most of North America, Western Europe and Australasia, employment equity laws forbid discrimination based on a number of classes, such as race, gender, age, and marital status. Asking questions about these protected areas in a job interview is generally considered discriminatory, and constitutes an illegal hiring practice. Asking questions that touch on these areas, such as “Are you willing to travel/relocate?” (possibly affected by marital status) or “When did you graduate from school?” (indicative of age) is still usually possible.
There is extant data which puts in question the value of Job Interviews as a tool for selecting employees. Where the aim of a job interview is ostensibily to choose a candidate who will perform well in the job role, other methods of selection provide greater predictive power and often lower costs. Furthermore, given the unstructured approach of most interviews they often have almost no useful predictive power of employee success.

When it comes to preparing for a job interview, the reality suddenly comes to you. How do you pass it without shaking with the interviewer with sweaty palms or without passing out if you were asked a question that you did not expect? Seriously, what will get the attention of the board of directors to make you become the ‘must hire’ applicant ‘? The dilemmas of the interview are a long list, where the topics consist mostly of regret. What you do before, during and after the interview are factors that you must never miss for the preparation.Who does not get nervous just thinking of the dreaded job interview? What is your chance of making it now after the three interviews that you failed, because you were too nervous to answer? When will you ever get your talking straight when you are in front of the board of directors? Yes, the list goes on for the job interview problems that you need to get over to ace the position.The chances to make it are odd and the odds are truly great, but still, YOU CAN GET HIRED! All you need to do is to find the most credible job interview help and use it to your benefit. There is a need to experiment on every angle when it comes to a job interview preparation and it might take some time before you sound and look natural during the actual interview. You have to analyze your steps before execution and be able to think fast because nothing else beats smooth job interview skills.The written requirements are important and must be constructed and developed in the most effective way possible. Not only you must come early and be dressed appropriately, but you have to be prepared with all the skills you need to help the company know your qualities are for being a career individual and a team leader.The power of impact is your key to ace any job. You have to be ready for anything when job interview questions are directed to you as an individual, an applicant, a future employee and a team leader. Be sure to save some job interview answers that produce outstanding impression that does not sound too highly of you but compelling and competitive. Some interviewers want brief but clear answers while some wish to know more about you. That is why you need to think of these things that are not included in your resume that will help them know that they need to hire someone like you.Depth and sense are two important terms that you need to consider, as well as brief and clear. To look and sound professional, it requires great effort and can become easier once you find the natural ways to do so. Do remember that every detail counts, take the job interview follow up for example. It takes less than 5 minutes to do this but still, the company needs you to be constant with your aims. As an additional tip, you may look for a sample job interview available through books or through the internet to help you better.Find the most credible job interview tips and experiment on how to execute each of them with grace and sophistication. Be the name of the game and face every job that lands you up. These are the details that you should never miss.

At some point, usually at the conclusion of the interview, you may be asked, “Do you have any questions?” A common answer to this question is, “No, I think you’ve covered everything very well.” This is the wrong answer! You have passed up your opportunity to ask some critical questions that may make a difference as to whether you want to work for this company.Here are some rules and basic questions to consider asking when asked if you have questions:Rule #1 – Ask questions. This is a critical time for you to find out insider information about the company or position.Rule #2 – Formulate your questions based on information you hear during the interview. Paying attention to clues and listening are the keys to asking intelligent questions.Rule #3 – Bring a list of potential questions to ask, at least four or five, as a back up.Q#1 – You’ve been discussing your system, could you tell me what has been tried in the past to deal with the problem? (Listen carefully to the answer given as this may be your chance to inform the interviewer of our past experience with the same type of problem.)Q#2 – There are a lot of companies laying off right now. How has this company been able to maintain the workforce and continue to hire new employees? (You’ve done your research and know some of the reasons, but are interested in the insider point of view.)Q#3 – Could you tell me about the way the job has been performed in the past? And, what improvements you’d like to see happen? (This is an opportunity to convince the interviewer that you have what he/she is looking for by giving a specific, similar past experience story.)Q#4 – How would you describe the culture or spirit in this company? (One of the interviewer’s concerns is whether you will fit into the company culture. You need more information to see if this would be a good environment and fit for you.)Q#5 – What are the challenges I would face in this position over the next three months? (Your first 90 days on the job is a critical time for any new hire. You need to know what will be expected of you as you start your learning curve.)Q#6 – When I responded to your question regarding my past experience handling stress, you commented that you have your share of that here. Could you tell me more about the stress level here? (Clues are given and problems alluded to during the interview – listen carefully and turn up your intuitive. Ask questions if you need clarification.Q#7 – May I ask what your background with the company is? (There’s a big difference between showing an interest in someone and grilling them. Interviewers don’t like being cross-examined. Ask friendly questions and be alert to clues regarding this person’s satisfaction with the company.)Q#8 – How would you describe your management style and interaction with your staff? (You may need to read between the lines here. Make sure this manager’s communication and style fit with your ideas and values.)Q#9 – Ideally, what qualities will it take to get this job done? (This is a chance for you to sell yourself, and tell once more why you are such an excellent fit for the position – the added-value you would bring to the company.)Q#10 –I am very interested in pursuing this job further. What is the next step in the hiring process? (It is best to find out what the hiring plan is so that you will know the sense of urgency and how to follow up.)The types of questions you ask will be determined by the conversation and types of questions asked of you during the interview. Pay attention to the interviewer’s body language to determine how many questions to ask – relaxed and willing to talk, or in a hurry and running late? Lastly, make sure your questions are succinct and to the point, demonstrating your knowledge and interest. At some point, usually at the conclusion of the interview, you may be asked, “Do you have any questions?” A common answer to this question is, “No, I think you’ve covered everything very well.” This is the wrong answer! You have passed up your opportunity to ask some critical questions that may make a difference as to whether you want to work for this company.