5.4: Interviewing

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the various types of interviews and interview questions.
2. Discuss interview methods and potential mistakes in interviewing candidates.
3. Explain the interview process.

Interviewing people costs money. As a result, after candidates are selected, good use of time is critical to making sure the interview process allows for the selection of the right candidate. In an unstructured interview, questions are changed to match the specific applicant; for example, questions about the candidate’s background in relation to their resume might be used. In a structured interview, there is a set of standardized questions based on the job analysis, not on individual candidates’ resumes. While a structured interview might seem the best option to find out about a particular candidate, the bigger concern is that the interview revolves around the specific job for which the candidate is interviewing. In a structured interview, the expected or desired answers are determined ahead of time, which allows the interviewer to rate responses as the candidate provides answers. This allows for a fair interview process, according to the US Office of Personnel Management.¹ For purposes of this section, we will assume that all interviews you perform will be structured, unless otherwise noted.

Types of Interviews

Organizations may use a variety of interview methods to identify qualified candidates. The type of interview selected often depends on the job, the number of applicants, and the competencies being evaluated. In many cases, employers use multiple interview methods as part of the selection process.

1. One-on-One Interview: A one-on-one interview occurs when a single interviewer meets with a candidate. This is one of the most common interview formats. The interviewer asks questions to learn more about the candidate's qualifications, experiences, skills, and interest in the position. Many organizations use structured interview guides and scoring systems to make candidate evaluations more consistent and fair.

2. Screening Interview: A screening interview is used to determine whether candidates meet the minimum qualifications for a position. Screening interviews are often conducted by phone or through a virtual platform before candidates advance to later stages of the hiring process. Employers may verify work experience, discuss job requirements, and assess basic qualifications during this interview.

3. Panel Interview: A panel interview occurs when two or more interviewers meet with a candidate at the same time. Panel interviews allow multiple perspectives to be considered during the evaluation process and can save time for both the organization and the candidate. Organizations often use structured questions and rating forms to ensure consistency among interviewers.

4. Group Interview: In a group interview, multiple candidates participate in the interview process simultaneously. Interviewers may observe group discussions, problem-solving activities, or team exercises. This format is often used to evaluate communication skills, teamwork, leadership potential, and the ability to work effectively with others.

5. Virtual Interview: A virtual interview uses video conferencing technology, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, to connect interviewers and candidates remotely. Virtual interviews can reduce travel costs and increase scheduling flexibility. They may be conducted live or, in some cases, candidates may record responses to interview questions for later review.

6. Behavioral Interview: A behavioral interview is based on the idea that past behavior can help predict future job performance. Candidates are asked to describe specific situations they have encountered and explain the actions they took and the results they achieved. Questions often begin with phrases such as, "Tell me about a time when..." Employers frequently use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to evaluate responses.

7. Situational Interview: A situational interview presents candidates with hypothetical job-related scenarios and asks how they would respond. For example, a candidate may be asked how they would handle a difficult customer or a workplace conflict. This format allows employers to assess judgment, problem-solving abilities, and decision-making skills.

8. Competency-Based Interview: A competency-based interview focuses on specific knowledge, skills, abilities, or behaviors that are important for job success. Questions are designed to evaluate competencies such as communication, teamwork, customer service, leadership, adaptability, or critical thinking. Responses are typically assessed using standardized evaluation criteria.

9. Case Interview: A case interview requires candidates to analyze and solve a business problem or workplace scenario. Candidates may be asked to interpret information, identify issues, and recommend solutions. This interview type is commonly used for management, consulting, business, and analytical positions because it helps assess problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

10. Work Sample or Job Simulation Interview: A work sample or job simulation interview asks candidates to perform tasks similar to those required in the job. Examples include giving a presentation, completing a customer service role-play, conducting a teaching demonstration, or performing a technical task. Because candidates demonstrate their skills directly, work samples are often considered highly effective predictors of job performance.

11. Informational Interview: An informational interview is a career exploration activity rather than a formal selection interview. Individuals meet with professionals to learn about a career field, organization, or occupation. These conversations allow participants to gather information, expand their professional network, and gain insight into potential career opportunities.

12. Unstructured Interview: An unstructured interview is a more conversational interview in which questions may vary from one candidate to another. Although this format can encourage open discussion, it may make it difficult to compare candidates fairly. For this reason, many organizations prefer structured interviews that use standardized questions and evaluation methods.

Most organizations today use a combination of interview methods. For example, applicants may complete a screening interview, followed by a virtual panel interview, and then participate in a behavioral or work-sample interview. Using structured, job-related interviews helps organizations make more effective, consistent, and legally defensible hiring decisions.

Interview Questions

Most interviews consist of many types of questions, but they usually lean toward situational interviews or behavior description interviews. A situational interview is one in which the candidate is given a sample situation and is asked how he or she might deal with the situation. In a behavior description interview, the candidate is asked questions about what he or she actually did in a variety of given situations. The assumption in this type of interview is that someone’s past experience or actions are an indicator of future behavior. These types of questions, as opposed to the old “tell me about yourself” questions, tend to assist the interviewer in knowing how a person would handle or has handled situations. These interview styles also use a structured method and provide a better basis for decision-making.

Examples of situational interview questions might include the following:

1. If you saw someone stealing from the company, what would you do?
2. One of your employees is performing poorly, but you know he has some personal home issues he is dealing with. How would you handle complaints from his colleagues about a lack of performance?
3. A coworker has told you she called in sick three days last week because she actually decided to take a vacation. What would you do?
4. You are rolling out a new sales plan on Tuesday, which is really important to ensure success in your organization. When you present it, the team is lukewarm on the plan. What would you do?
5. You disagree with your supervisor on her handling of a situation. What would you do?

Examples of behavior description interview questions might include the following:

1. Tell me about a time you had to make a hard decision. How did you handle this process?
2. Give an example of how you handled an angry customer.
3. Do you show leadership in your current or past job? What would be an example of a situation in which you did this?
4. What accomplishments have given you the most pride and why?
5. What plans have you made to achieve your career goals?

Top 6 Interview Questions and Answers

Examples of how to answer those difficult interview questions. Watch the video on YouTube to view the transcript.

Avoiding Discrimination in Interviewing

There are many types of interview questions that may be considered illegal. Here are some examples:

1. National origin. You cannot ask seemingly innocent questions such as “That’s a beautiful name; where is your family from?” This could indicate national origin, which could result in bias. You also cannot ask questions about citizenship, except by asking if a candidate is legally allowed to work in the United States. Questions about the first language of the candidate shouldn’t be asked, either. However, asking “Do you have any language abilities that would be helpful in this job?” or “Are you authorized to work in the United States?” would be acceptable.
2. Age. You cannot ask someone how old they are, and it is best to avoid questions that might indicate age, such as “When did you graduate from high school?” However, asking “Are you over 18?” is acceptable.
3. Marital status. You can’t ask direct questions about marital status or the ages of children. An alternative may be to ask, “Do you have any restrictions on your ability to travel, since this job requires 50 percent travel?”
4. Religion. It is illegal to ask candidates about their religious affiliation or to ask questions that may indicate a religion-affiliated school or university.
5. Disabilities. You may not directly ask if the person has disabilities or recent illnesses. You can ask if the candidate is able to perform the functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodations.
6. Criminal record. While it is fine to perform a criminal record check, asking a candidate if they have ever been arrested is not appropriate; however, questions about convictions and guilty pleas are acceptable.
7. Personal questions. Avoid asking personal questions, such as questions about social organizations or clubs, unless they relate to the job.

Besides these questions, any specific questions about weight, height, gender, and arrest record (as opposed to allowable questions about criminal convictions) should be avoided.

Interviewer Bias

HR professionals and managers should be aware of the potential for perception errors and unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is the automatic, unintentional preference, assumption, or stereotype that influences judgment and decision-making without conscious awareness. During the interview process, these biases can affect how candidates are evaluated and may result in inconsistent, unfair, or less effective hiring decisions.

Several common types of interview bias can influence the selection process. Halo bias occurs when one positive characteristic of a candidate, such as strong communication skills or a prestigious employer, creates an overly favorable impression that influences the evaluator's assessment of other job-related factors. Conversely, the horns effect occurs when one negative characteristic leads to an overall negative evaluation. Similarity bias (sometimes called affinity bias) occurs when interviewers favor candidates who share similar backgrounds, interests, experiences, or characteristics. Confirmation bias occurs when interviewers form an early impression of a candidate and then focus on information that supports that impression while overlooking contradictory evidence. Contrast bias occurs when candidates are evaluated relative to other applicants rather than against objective job requirements. First-impression bias may cause interviewers to place too much emphasis on initial interactions, while recency bias occurs when interviewers remember and favor candidates interviewed later in the process. Finally, stereotyping can occur when assumptions are made about an individual based on membership in a particular group rather than on their qualifications, skills, and experiences.

Organizations can reduce the impact of interview bias by using structured interviews, standardized evaluation criteria, interviewer training, and diverse interview panels. These practices help create a more objective, equitable, and job-related selection process.

Human Resource Recall

What are the dangers of a reverse halo effect?

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A halo effect occurs when a desirable trait makes us believe all traits possessed by the candidate are desirable. This can be a major danger in interviewing candidates. OpenClipartVectors – Pixabay – CC0 Public Domain.

Interview Process

Once the criteria have been selected and interview questions developed, it is time to start interviewing people. Your interviewing plan can determine the direction and process that should be followed:

1. Recruit new candidates.
2. Establish criteria for which candidates will be rated.
3. Develop interview questions based on the analysis.
4. Set a timeline for interviewing and decision-making.
5. Connect schedules with others involved in the interview process.
6. Set up the interviews with candidates and set up any testing procedures.
7. Interview the candidates and perform any necessary testing.
8. Once all results are back, meet with the hiring team to discuss each candidate and make a decision based on the established criteria.
9. Put together an offer for the candidate.

As you can see, a large part of the interviewing process is planning. For example, consider the hiring manager who doesn’t know exactly the type of person and skills she is looking to hire but sets up interviews anyway. It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine who should be hired if you don’t know what you are looking for in the first place. In addition, utilizing timelines for interviewing can help keep everyone involved on track and ensure the chosen candidate starts work in a timely manner. Here are some tips to consider when working with the interview process:

1. Make sure everyone is trained on the interviewing process. Allowing someone who has poor interviewing skills to conduct the interview will likely not result in the best candidate. In a worst-case scenario, someone could ask an illegal question, and once hired, the candidate can sue the organization. UCLA researchers (Hanricks, 2011) calculated that plaintiffs win about half of hiring discrimination cases that go to trial, sometimes because of interviewers asking illegal questions. For example, “I see you speak Spanish; where did you study it?” is a seemingly harmless question that could be indirectly asking a candidate about his or her ethnic background. To avoid such issues, it’s important to train managers in the proper interviewing process.
2. Listen to the candidate and try to develop a rapport with them. Understand how nervous they must be and try to put them at ease.
3. Be realistic about the job. Do not try to paint a “rosy” picture of all aspects of the job. Being honest up front helps a candidate know exactly what they will be in for when they begin their job.
4. Be aware of your own stereotypes and do not let them affect how you view a potential candidate.
5. Watch your own body language during the interview and that of the candidate. Body language is a powerful tool in seeing if someone is the right fit for a job. For example, Scott Simmons, vice president at Crist|Kolder, interviewed someone for a CFO position. The candidate had a great resume, but during the interview, he offered a dead-fish handshake, slouched, and fidgeted in his chair. The candidate didn’t make eye contact and mumbled responses, and, of course, he didn’t get the job (Reeves, 2006) because his body language did not portray the expectations for the job position.
6. Stick to your criteria for hiring. Do not ask questions that have not been predetermined in your criteria.
7. Learn to manage disagreement and determine a fair process if not everyone on the interviewing team agrees on who should be hired.

Once you have successfully managed the interview process, it is time to make the decision.

Human Resource Recall

Can you think of a time when the interviewer was not properly trained? What were the results?

Key Takeaways

• Traditional one-on-one, telephone, virtual, panel, informational, and group are types of interviews. A combination of several of these may be used to determine the best candidate for the job. A structured interview format means the questions are determined ahead of time, and an unstructured interview format means the questions are based on the individual applicant. The advantage of a structured interview is that all candidates are rated on the same criteria. Before interviewing occurs, criteria and questions for a structured interview should be developed.
• Interview questions can revolve around situational questions or behavioral questions. Situational questions focus on asking someone what they would do in a given situation, while behavioral questions ask candidates what they have done in certain situations.
  • Interview questions about national origin, marital status, age, religion, and disabilities are illegal. To avoid any legal issues, it is important for interviewers to be trained on which questions cannot be asked. The halo effect, which assumes that one desirable trait means all traits are desirable, should also be avoided.
  • The process involved in interviewing a person includes the following steps: recruit new candidates; establish criteria for which candidates will be rated; develop interview questions based on the analysis; set a time line for interviewing and decision making; connect schedules with others involved in the interview process; set up interviews with candidates and set up any testing procedures; interview the candidates and perform any necessary testing; and once all results are back, meet with the hiring team to discuss each candidate and make a decision based on the established criteria; then finally, put together an offer for the candidate.
  • Developing a rapport, being honest, and managing the interview process are tips for having a successful interview.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

1. With a partner, develop a list of five examples (not already given in the chapter) of situational and behavioral interview questions.
2. Why is it important to determine criteria and interview questions before bringing someone in for an interview?
3. Visit Indeed.com and find two examples of job postings that ask those with criminal records not to apply. Do you think, given the type of job, this is a reasonable criterion?

References

¹ “Structured Interviews: A Practical Guide,” US Office of Personnel Management, September 2008.

Hanricks, M., “3 Interview Questions That Could Cost You $1 Million,” BNET, March 8, 2011.

Reeves, S., “Is Your Body Betraying You in Job Interviews?” Forbes, February 2006.