Types of Job Interviews
Episode 142 - Seven types of job interviews you should be preparing for
In 2020, job interviews changed forever. So many truisms we strongly believed in until then - such as, you have to have the perfect hand-shake - disappeared from the face of the earth. My clients, most of whom are senior executives, found themselves lost without the ability to access the opportunities that had, up until then, helped them advance in their careers. No more face-to-face coffee catch-ups with their mentors and professional network. No more industry events, where they could attend and meet their peers or, better still, be on the panel to show off their skills and experience. And definitely no more easy, opportunistic access to decision-makers who could speed up their promotion or hiring process.
As a career coach specialized in job-hunting, I was honestly only a few hours ahead of them, learning about the pivots in recruitment trends in real-time, mostly from my own clients as they progressed in the selection process. Recruiters were also very generous in sharing with me what their reflections on types of candidates would be most attractive for organizations looking to shape their post-pandemic strategies. And how to hire well, in a timely fashion, when everyone keeps getting sick, and in a world with very little stability.
The job interviews my clients are attending did not exist before the pandemic
By May 2020, experienced C-level candidates were being asked to submit 5-min direct to camera videos answering questions. I remember clients feeling completely bewildered and lost at the request. They thought - and at that stage, so did I - that direct-to-camera job interviews were for junior professionals. By the end of 2020, senior managers were being interviewed by chatbots and bot calls. It was the end of recruitment as we knew it, and it was time to seriously pay attention to and prepare for the new ways of selecting candidates.
I recently worked with a client who had to prepare for a case study job interview that was going to be held online. Traditionally, case study interviews, which are common in the consulting world, rely heavily on the candidate’s ability to use pen and paper or a whiteboard, showcasing their ability to use frameworks to solve a problem. Doing this process online would require my client to feel familiar with digital whiteboards or, alternatively, be able to express and present her ideas verbally in a well-constructed, concise fashion. Thankfully we worked together and prepared for this interview for over two weeks, and she got the job. But for professionals doing it alone, I wonder, do they know how to prepare and what it means to perform well in an online interview format?
For those going for face-to-face interviews, the etiquette is also very different. Many of my clients have been interviewed wearing masks by masked panels. Preparing for such an experience requires practicing voice projection and ensuring facial expressions can be perceived with the minimal real-estate you have outside of your mask!
Two years on, I have found that professionals looking for work are still unaware of these new job interview practices and how to prepare for them. So, I have recorded an episode of The Job Hunting Podcast (ep. 142) to support and educate professionals on what to expect in job interviews in 2022 and beyond. I hope it helps. And if you or anyone you know needs help with their interview preparation - or job search - I’d love to work with them. Click here to learn about my services.
In this episode, we discuss the different types of job interviews my clients have done over the past 12 months. Some are very popular. Others are completely out of the box!
Resources mentioned in this episode
Timestamps to guide your listening
07:48 - One-on-one interviews
15:10 - Psychometric assessment
18:30 - Group interviews
19:41 - Panel interview
21:33 - Casual interview
23:29 - Direct to camera
25:48 - Chat bot and Bot call
Transcript of this episode
In this episode, we're gonna look at the different types of job interviews that you should be preparing for so that you can advance in the selection process and get your new job.
Now, look, if you ever get to the stage of receiving an invitation for a job interview, remember that this is great, great news. Indeed. It means you have advanced in the selection process of the job that you applied for, and it's a major win. So remember to celebrate. Every conversion point at every bottleneck that you have overcome because recruitment and selection and applying for jobs is not easy.
So congratulations. If you've achieved that step and if you don't get a job, don't be disheartened. So what I want to do today is to share with you a lot of what. Work with every day. And for me, it's just so common ground, but I know that, especially when I'm working with a new client, they might find themselves a bit surprised by the things I tell them about the different types of job interviews.
So let's dive in and talk about the seven types that I have identified. I clustered a few to make it easier and simpler so that we don't go on and on talking forever. We need to finish in about 30 minutes, but first of all, I want to thank the new listeners. I have quite a few—new listeners to the job hunting podcast.
Thanks for finding us. I know we've been listed in several articles and podcast lists, which I am honored and grateful for. And, if you found this through those lists and that's fantastic, I've noticed a few bumps in downloads recently, and then I realized that people were talking about us, which is always great.
So thanks so much new listeners and all listeners, for your loyalty. Of course, if you haven't done this yet, and you are on items listening to this podcast, please write a review. It means the world to me for you to give it a five star if you don't have any time and you're in a hurry, but if you have a moment.
Please write a review. It means a lot, and I will be forever grateful—funny thing about iTunes. I can't actually see reviews that are not written by Australian. So if I'm in Australia, I can see the Australian reviews, but I can't see them. If you're in Canada or the UK or Europe or us, I can't see your reviews.
I'm about to go. Traveling. And I can't wait to actually read the reviews that I can't see here, which is the really bad design from apple. Ima says, apple, if you're listening, please fix this. All right. So the seven types of job interviews I have clustered and identified to discuss with you are important for you to know.
Only one of the seven types is exclusively linked to early career and junior roles. All the others and you might be surprised by some of them. I have seen people in management roles, mid-management, and senior management positions have to do them. So sometimes you see something, and you think, oh no, I'm not going to go through that.
That's not part of my recruitment process. Well, it may surprise you that it may be something you will have to encounter. Suppose you're going to go job hunting in the near future. The thing about selection processes is that, unfortunately, for the job seeker, they are never the same. You know you might be applying. Let's say next week you might be applying for five different jobs.
Every single selection process will be very different. Sometimes you have very detailed information to work with from the recruiter or the company you're applying for. Sometimes there are not many instructions at all. The length of the selection process has caused a lot of havoc too, well, I must say, not just job seekers but also the people involved in those selection processes from the employer side.
Many times it's not anyone's fault. It's just that people just get, keep getting sick. Either the candidate's ill or the recruiter is sick, the HR person is sick, or the, people on the panel are sick. It's just been so hard. To give you an idea. I have a client that recently told me she has gone through seven rounds of job interviews in two weeks.
So that's really intense and many steps to go through. And I also have a client that had similar number of rounds. It was actually so long that we lost count, but that. Selection process lasted six months, six months, everyone. So, you know, you never really know what you're walking yourself into and how long this is going to take.
This is why it's so important for you to always be on standby. When you're a job hunting, always be prepared and to have a conservative approach to how long the process is going. So to do that, even before I start talking about the different types of job interviews, the first tip here for you is to make sure that you have all your communication channels open and that you're checking them regularly, you know, an excellent professional voicemail on your mobile phone.
Not those times that just are, you know, a ten-second voice-to-text thing that I personally hate, and I know many recruiters hate it too. If you are job searching, it might be a good idea to upgrade if you can afford, to a proper voicemail, so that you can get those. feedbacks and information from recruiters and employers, as you go through the selection process, make sure that you're checking the voicemails as well.
Same with emails, of course. And same with the LinkedIn messages. A lot of clients of mine, especially after they do the LinkedIn audits with me. They're LinkedIn performs really well. That's what LinkedIn profiles are for everyone. If you are not converting from profile to requests for applications, then.
Please consider doing the LinkedIn audit with me. It's a great investment and I'll have the link to it in the, episode show notes. So those LinkedIn messages sometimes can be annoying and distracting cuz some of them really have nothing to do with you. But. Maybe, you know, between those odd messages, there could be an interesting one there that you should pay attention to.
Again, I was talking to our client just now she's fully employed. It's executive coaching that I do with her, but in between the last time, I, spoke to her and today she had received two, Messages for good jobs, you know, she's not going to apply, but she was just very impressed with the quality of the messages, the quality of the, executive search partners that got in touch with her and the types of roles that were available in the job market.
I love getting intelligence from my clients like this, even if they're not job searching, because it's something that I can share with you. Of course, it's all anonymous. You have no idea which country I'm talking about or who it. But there you go. So that, automation that comes from having a well performing LinkedIn profile is really important.
All right. So let's talk about the first type of job interviews. It's the one that most people expect to see. And it's the one on one interviews.
They start quite early in the selection process sometimes with a phone screening. So over the phone one on one, you will be talking to a recruiter or to, the HR person. If the search is done in house or with the hiring manager. It's a hiring manager who is hands on, or it's a small organization for those phone screenings.
They maybe sometimes prepare you with a, an email saying they're gonna call, but if you are job searching, you should always be on standby and make sure that when you answer those calls, that you are in a quiet place, that you are not, in a busy road or a busy shopping center. Having been a hiring manager in the past and having worked with recruiters as well.
It's really annoying when you call someone and you have, booked the call. Of course, it's not out of the blue, and it's a very noisy background. I know that sometimes you have to get out of your work to talk to a recruiter, but remember the priority for you is to get a job. So find a way of, Booking the time and finding the place where the recruiter will have a great experience talking to you, and you will be able to concentrate and have a great experience talking to the HR person recruiter or hiring manager during the phone screening.
Remember that? You may think. Well, you know, many, many years ago I used to think, oh, it's just the phone ring. Well, guess. The screening part of it is the operating word here. If they don't have a good experience with you, they're gonna cut you off. So it's not just the phone screening. It's a very important stage of the recruitment process.
Make sure that you have notes that you have done research that you have interesting questions to ask. If you have the time, this is going to be a very short, usually by the way, usually very short, conversation. Could go for longer, depends on the report that you build, how much time the recruiter have and how interested they are in you.
And sometimes they could be very interested. They just don't have the time and it will be short anyway. So take nothing personally and be very well prepared. The other type of one-on-one interview is the online, interviews that you meet in platforms such as Google meets or zoom or Skype, and others make sure that if you are online, that you have notes, that you have great technology with good internet that, If possible, if at all possible, be on your laptop with a horizontal camera and not a vertical camera, that's usually a better experience for the recruiter that is assessing you, and also make sure that you have a good natural background.
Great lighting. All of that is really important for those online,one on one interviews. Okay. Your camera is good. Quality. It's leveled to your eyes. You have great lighting in front of you and behind the camera. these are also really important things to keep in mind. And then of course you have the face to face when you actually meet people.
a lot of people are going back to face to face interviews. Look, I work with clients all over the world. So depending on where you are, Face to face have always been the, the norm. But here in Australia, there was, probably over a year where there was close to two years to be Frank where very little face to face interviews were happening in my country.
So, in many places still in Australia and, and overseas, I have clients that go to face to face interviews, but they wear masks and other people interviewing them have masks as well. The etiquette for, face to face. Interviews is still being developed as we speak. So when I do consultations with clients, we workshop everything that could happen.
you know, the mask etiquette, the importance of smiling broadly. So you can smile with your eyes, the other types of body language that you can use to convey professionalism and, executive presence. The shaking of the hands. Is it still on or not? Do you as a candidate, want to shake hands or not? What to say if you don't or if they don't.
So I think this is all very important to plan ahead and be prepared. So it's not awkward and it's completely fine. These days, not to shake hands now, who would have thought that it is now fine not to shake hands. I remember. Back in the day when I was a career manager for, an MBA program here in Australia, you know, teaching people how to shake hands, like literally making them shake my hand.
And now here we are, 20, 22. We don't shake hands anymore or we can choose not to. And it's completely fine. times have changed, but in some for one-on-one interviews, first impressions count, be it over the phone, be it online or face to face, whatever you are wearing. If people are seeing you online or face to face.
Still matters as it has always mattered. now, in addition to what you dress, if it's online, your background matters the technology and how comfortable you are with the technology really does matter as well as, as making a complimenting that first impression. And of course what you say and how you say it, it all matters as well.
Interview preparation is one of the most, underestimated tasks that job seekers fail to do during the job search. And I would strongly recommend that you work with somebody to do a good interview prep. you can work with me if you want, but. Please find somebody to do an interview preparation with you.
make sure that you have the good research and answer questions, using the star format if you're more senior using the SAR. so in conclusion for the one-on-one interviews, make sure that you make the best first impressions. If it's over the phone online or face to face, it doesn't matter. First impressions matter. If they see you make sure that you dress appropriately for your type of interview, make sure that if it's online, you have the great background access to technology and that you are comfortable with technology.
Also of course what you say and how you say it does matter. It will show good research. Good use of the star technique to answering questions. If you're a senior, instead of star use the star technique. So star stands for situation. Task action result and SA stands for situation strategy, action results.
So if you're in a leadership position, you need to have the ability to show and design and execute the strategy. Make sure that your answers are succinct and don't go on and on forever. And that they are well constructed answers that show the depth of knowledge that is important for the role that you are applying for.
And of course, don't forget to show interest in the role. Now the second type of interviews that I have written down here to talk to you about. I, in fact, not going to talk too much about this one, because the next episode episode 1 43 will be completely dedicated to this type of interviewing, which is the psychometric assessment.
There are many different types of psych assessments. If you listen to episode 1 43, I'm interviewing an expert in this field and she will give you specific advice. It's coming up in a week's time. So make sure that you listen to that episode. There are different types. So in some I'm just going to say that there is the competency type of psychometric assessment, where they will be looking at your aptitude for the role and your cognitive abilities in order to do those roles.
Those competency, assessments are usually used in early career roles, like graduate roles, junior roles. And also for, specific roles like engineering, data analytics, coding, you know, scientific roles, but they could happen at any stage for any type of professionals, to be honest. And then there are the personality type or traits assessment.
And those are really looking at your talents, your strengths, your values, your career drivers, to assess. If that combination will, be great for the organization that they are building or growing and the type of culture that they have. And sometimes they will only give you that assessment at the very, very end only so that they know it's not even part of the screening process, but it's.
Worth considering. And in fact, I now have, used personality assessment tests, consistently with my clients. I love it. I've never really liked any of the previous assessments in the past, but this new one that I'm going to be promoting in the coming weeks, it's called talent predicts, but I'm not going to promote it now, cuz I'm not ready yet to promote it.
I've been using it a lot and. Absolutely love it. And when I say I've been using it is I use it. I, do it with my clients and they then have an amazing report that provides both of us, myself and my client with a lot of. Content and ideas to build, a good pitch to, know what to say. And, and it's just a fantastic report.
So I'm going to be selling that, assessment separately. So if you are interested, keep, listening to the podcasting, receiving my newsletter because I will very soon. That promoting, this assessment in case anyone wants to do it, it's very, very, budget friendly investment to make. And one that would be greatly beneficial to any professional, but especially to those going into job hunting mode.
Now this third type that I identified to talk to you about, I don't usually, talk much about it with my clients because my clients tend to be mid-career and above, and they are group interviews and group interviews are usually used for junior roles and graduate roles. they are looking to assess.
role playing and participation and leadership and teamwork. They usually give those young professionals a task to do or a presentation to do in front of others or a business case to work together. I have very recently had to talk about group interviews and prepare students for group interviews because I was teaching at university and I taught master students.
And some, most of them were early career master students studying a variety of degrees in the arts faculty here in Australia. It was lovely to, to support them and talk about group interviews. Again, I hadn't done it in such a long time, but there you go. You may have to go through group interviews. If you're listening to this podcast and you are young and, starting your career.
Then the fourth type is the panel interview. Now that's the sort of interview that happens usually at the tail end of a selection of recruitment process. And it's very popular with my clientele because I tend to have clients that are going for senior roles. Either because they are already executives or they're ambitious and they're, progressing in their career and doing advancement through job hunting.
And if you are senior and going for head of role or director role or a VP role, chances are, A sea level, of course, chances are that you will have to be, prepared for a panel interview. It can be very, nervewracking to be honest, someone who has done panel interviews quite a lot in my day as a, job hunter, It's usually a, a group of people I've had entire boards in front of me.
So up to 10 people, it could be just three, four, five. It really depends. And it's a mix of people. So they try to get your direct, managers, the person who you will be working with, and maybe somebody from HR and then your manager's manager and someone else, maybe somebody from the board, for example, It may require you to present on a topic sometimes with slides, sometimes they ask you not to have slides.
Usually they tell you the timing, you know, 10 minutes, or let's say 20 minutes, making sure that half of it is,Question time. And it's really, really important to prepare for those panel interviews, to make sure that you get your timing, right. If you're using slides that you don't do too many slides.
Which is usually, a problem that I have with many of my clients that they want to say so much because they've done so much research. , they have too many slides and we have to curate it. So panel interviews, usually at the tail end, and yes, it's important to do that preparation because you want to have your focus and.
Your mindset to be ready to frankly, be bombarded with questions and if you are too stressed or too nervous, it will be hard for you to answer those questions. So it's important , to prepare for those. then the other interview that people sometimes forget, it's an interview, it's a casual interview.
It's still face to face. So it could be like the first one that I mentioned prior, but the reason why I decided to separate this one is that. It's usually done at the end of the process, but frankly it could happen at any time. Sometimes you're just catching up with somebody for coffee and you don't even realize that the person is assessing you , but it's really important to be alert and to understand the importance of building report of being friendly of.
Having great conversation and knowledge about the organization or your sector or your interests or what you're trying to do. And when it happens at the tail end, I, I have, a couple of clients that have done it, recently, and it can be, face to face or people usually try really hard to do it face to face because you want to make sure that you're hiring someone that not only has all the great skills and knowledge to.
Add to your team, but that you will enjoy working with that, has the right attitude for the role and the manager wants to make sure that they get to know you before an offer is made and vice versa. You know, I have clients that have at times at the. Tail end of the process when they were told they were the preferred candidate, asked to see the boss again.
So before I accept, can I please have another, short meeting with the manager? And that's because they. Didn't feel a hundred percent sure that they were a good fit for the organization. There was something about the interview that was off. And, you can sort of consider that as part of your strategy as well.
If you are unsure about the job that you've applied for, if you want to accept it or not. Then number six is, well the six and seven are quite new additions to this list of mine. Okay. So, especially number six was happening before the pandemic, but has become incredibly. Popular after the pandemic.
And if you are a senior executive listening to this and you think, oh, this doesn't apply to me, you are wrong. Okay. I have seen plenty of senior professionals, C level included having to do this, which is the direct to camera interview. You will most likely receive, instructions. And sometimes a platform
where
you are required to record and, at least, you will need a small amount of technology and technology in your home office in order to do this correctly.
You have to feel confident, looking straight at the camera, which, you know, frankly, and personally in the beginning is not something that is that easy to do. You also need to be succinct and look at the end of the day, the questions are similar. They will be questions that always start with. Describe, you know, your leadership style or describe a time where you had to do X, Y, and Z.
So, preparing for that, type of question will serve you well, regardless of the type of interview that you, then asked to do past part of the selection process. But I think the additional challenge for those that are not used to doing direct to camera interviewing is to feel comfortable with that.
So there are different ways to practice for it. I have mentioned before the LinkedIn tools that's available,under the jobs tab on LinkedIn. I have said this quite a few times. So if you've listened to , all the episodes, forgive me for mentioning it once again. But it's amazing to me that not many people know that that tool is there and I love it.
You know, it allows you to record yourself answering questions, but look, you can always just open zoom and record yourself. Answering questions and, see how you go. And finally, number seven, I have batched these two together and they are very post pandemic, I have to say, but it's the type of interview where you will be interviewed by a bot.
So this could be either a chat bot. I kid you not or a bot call. I am not joking. Everyone. I have had clients that have applied for jobs and they were managers and they have, been, interviewed. By chat bot or a bot call. So let's talk about the chat bot. First you'll receive between three to five questions.
You could be, doing this for a variety of organizations, you know, and yes, they are very popular for. entry level jobs or, hospitality, jobs and retail jobs, but they have also been used by government for management positions. That's why I. Know about them because that's usually my clientele, these questions,you have to answer in a timeframe and there is a minimum and a maximum number of words that you can use.
So the best way to prepare for them is again, be comfortable using the star format of answering questions, situation, task, action results. And also using something like Grammarly, which I adore, and I mention it over and over again, if possible, the paid version, which gives you so many, opportunities to enhance your English and write better constructed sentences.
And have those answers ready to copy paste if possible, you know, into the box and save them because you might, if you were job hunting, you might have to use them again. And again, the questions will vary from company to company, but they can also be fairly. similar as well. So make sure that you always save the work that you've done.
And part of my, my coaching is instructing my clients on how to best, save all of informations regarding to specific jobs that they applied for, because you never know, sometimes you get a rejection only. Be asked to reapply because the preferred candidate didn't want the job in the end. And if you don't have things Safed, which has happened to me in the past, it is a pain to have to remember.
Sometimes you've completely forgotten about that role. So anyway, we went off on a tangent here. It's important to, remember that you have to keep an eye on your emails, especially for these bot times because you have a certain number of hours to complete, tho those questions and. It's important for you to be very aware that this could be part of your selection process.
The other type is the, bot call, which, is my most hated type of job interviewing. when you have an email in your inbox, saying that you will receive a call from this bot. The bot will ask you three questions. You are not told what questions you'll be asked, and you will be given, let's say three minutes to answer each question.
And again, if you know that you're going to receive a call from a bot, make sure that you are not distracted, that you are in a quiet place because you, it might be even harder to listen to a bot than a proper person, have your notes ready and, you know, make sure that you have. Good written notes, of let's say the most popular questions.
If you've been applying for jobs, you may know what the popular questions are for your specific profession. job levels. Sector and so on. So these are not going to vary that much from different types of interviews. So make sure that you recycle all of the work and continuously improve on your answers.
that's the best thing about not getting a job? The only silver lining everyone is that, you can look back at how you've answered it and then. Better, preparation for future job interviews. so listen, the, the one thing that I didn't talk about yet, and this may surprise you. I know of people that have gone through selection processes and got jobs and were not interviewed at all.
Okay. And depending on where you are in the world and what sort of profession you have, there could be an incredible demand for specific, roles and not a lot of candidates available. And you might just be lucky and make the most out of it, really, because this is an opportunity for you to have a salary boost and get, a better role somewhere else.
Keep an eye on. Those opportunities. They are happening a lot in my home country. They're usually linked with travel and tourism and, transportation, healthcare, health and aging. Also technology, logistics. There is a lot of demand for professionals in those areas and, you know, just keep an eye on those opportunities.
I know that quite a lot of companies in the Southeast Asia and south Pacific Australia region, New Zealand have been recruiting without an interviewing. Isn't that great? Wouldn't that be wonderful if it was happening to everyone? Look, I hope this helps you prepare. If you need my support as a coach, to help you with your career planning, with your job hunting and job interviews.
Please check my website to see my services. I look forward to hearing from you, if you need my help, I'd love to help you. If not, that's fine too. Isn't it great that you've listened to this episode and now you know what to do, listen to the next one, coming up one for three so that you know everything about psychometric testing, that will also help you with your selection process.
I'll see you next time and buy for now.
About the Host
Hello, I’m Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I’m also an executive coach, job hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach professionals (corporate, non-profit, and public) the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress.
If you are an ambitious professional who is keen to develop a robust career plan, if you are looking to find your next job or promotion, or if you want to keep a finger on the pulse of the job market so that when you are ready, and an opportunity arises, you can hit the ground running, then this podcast is for you.
In addition to The Job Hunting Podcast, on my website, I have developed a range of courses and services for professionals in career or job transition. And, of course, I also coach private clients.
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