Gary Will's WORKSEARCH:
Selling Yourself To An Employer
Chapter 20: (continued)
Recent developments in interview formats
From the book How to Prepare for an Employment Interview.
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[Chapter 20: continued from here
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The STRUCTURED interview
Recent interview research and training has focused on avoiding the problems associated with the unstructured interview. If you're going to be interviewed by someone in the HR/Personnel department, or someone with interview training, you'll likely encounter some form of a structured interview.
I won't distract you here with my criticism of the work of the industrial psychologists and trainers who have been instrumental in redefining the structure of employment interviews. I strongly believe that much of what is written as gospel in text books, regurgitated in interview training courses, and applied by many HR practitioners is based on dubious generalizations and interpretations of published research.
But my views don't change the fact that interview research and training have made significant changes to the way that employment interviews are organized.
In a structured interview, the employer has a prepared plan for what they will cover. This can range from just knowing the general areas they will explore to having a list of the exact questions that will be asked without exception to all people interviewed for a particular position. If your interviewer is reading from a list, they're probably using a structured format.
In highly structured interviews, the employer may not even ... [continued here]
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