Lauren writes: Hello.
I am a second-year college student. I was wondering if you could give me information on the type of job interviews — like unstructured, structured, case/situational, and panel/board job interviews.
If you can it would be greatly appreciated.
The Career Doctor responds: Wow. I don’t know whether you are seeking this information for an assignment or whether you just want to be better prepared as you begin your job search — but either way, it’s a great question.
First, let me state what I feel are the keys to successful job interviewing. I feel the keys are three-fold: research, preparation, and practice. Job-seekers can usually discover what kind of interview to expect by doing some basic research; in fact, some companies even post this information on their corporate career section of their Websites. Once you have some knowledge about the type of interview(s) to expect, the next step is preparation; you need to prepare answers, anecdotes, etc., to properly respond to anticipated questions. Finally, you then need to practice giving your answers to the questions; the trick is being rehearsed while sounding spontaneous when at the actual interview.
As for the types of interviews — and the types of questions to expect from each type — go to Quintessential Careers: Job Interviewing Resources. You can also find short descriptions of each type of interview — as well as descriptions of many other terms — in our Job-Seeker’s Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.
We also have a growing library of interviewing articles at Quintessential Careers, which you can find at: Job Interviewing Articles. And if you want to know about case interviews in great detail, please read the article from my partner, Katharine Hansen: Mastering the Case Interview.
