Home > Freelance Contractors > Types of Interview

Types of Interview

Stress Interview

The idea of this kind of interview is that interviewer will on purpose, try to put you on the defensive to see how you perform in a stressful situation. The most likely scenarios are:

The interviewer is firing off questions very quickly so that you don’t have much time to think about your answers
A group of people may be interviewing you simultaneously and taking turns in grilling you
Different interviewers may be coming into the room giving you no time to rest or take a break to think
You are asked a series of off-the-wall questions, such as: If you had only 3 months left to live, what would you do with the time? If you were a type of fruit, what type of fruit would you be? If you could be a superhero, what would your superpowers be?
The interviewer’s body language is hostile; he is not looking at you, rolls his eyes, lays back in his chair, takes phone calls in the middle of the interview etc.
The interviewer asks the candidate to ask the questions
The interviewer doubts your honesty e.g. “I have the feeling you are hiding something from me. Are you sure you used Excel?”
Interviewer is disrespectful towards you e.g. “Is that all you can come up with? Even a child would have had more to say. Let’s move on”

Once you have recognised that you are being assessed on your ability of handling stress, here are some tips how to calm your nerves and take control of the situation:

Maintain eye contact with the person asking the questions and keep your answers short in order not to get interrupted
Be yourself and don’t act aggressive. Speaking more slowly than normally, will stop your frustration taking over
Keep in mind that this is all a game and that the interviewers are only playing a role to destabilise you; once you have understood that none of this act is personal, you can relax a bit more
Don’t let anybody see that you are nervous
You can buy yourself some time to think by asking the interviewer to clarify questions and the nature of the answer that he desires
Ignore the interviewer’s tantrums and his aggressive behaviour and keep yourself focused on answering the question to the best of your ability
Be open, honest, straightforward and refuse to be emotionally intimidated

Problem solving Interview

This type of interview is designed to give an interviewer an indication of your mental capability, creativity, flexibility and ability to think.

Some of the examples include problems like: “If you were to stack 10p coins on top of each other, how many 10p high do you think the Eifel Tower is?”

In order to convince your potential client that you will be good in fixing their problems and therefore help the company achieve its goals, try to enforce some of the following tips:

Do not show the interviewer your frustration and admit that you do not know how to solve the problem
Even if the problem makes no sense, try to show you are intrigued by it, by showing that you are engaged in solving it, you will give a positive impression and what is more, you will relax
Do not be afraid to think loud and show the interviewer you are trying hard to get the best possible answer
Do not hesitate to ask the interviewer clarifying questions to obtain more information to solve the problem, but do not ask too many of them as they may make the interviewer think you are trying to delay the interview
Making assumptions will not do you any harm but try to keep them to yourself

Behavioural Interview

This type of interview may be more difficult that you expect because the potential client will use it to really test your abilities and use questioning techniques that predict your future performance.

This particular interview technique is based around asking questions that are more specific and probing in order to illustrate your skills based on your experience and past actions.

They usually start off with:

“Give me an example of?” e.g. give me an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it?
“Tell me about a time when?” e.g. tell me about a time when you worked well under pressure and how you coped with it?
“Describe a situation in which?” e.g. describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way?
“What would you do if?” e.g. what would you do if a decision you made was very unpopular?
“How would you go about?” e.g. how would you go about convincing your team to work on a project they are not really thrilled about?

The tricky thing with this type of the interview is the fact that you never know what questions you are going to be asked therefore preparation is a key to success. You should make sure that:

If you are not sure how to answer the question ask to clarify it
When answering a behavioural question, your potential client is especially trying to find out what problem or situation you experienced, what sort of action you took in response to it and finally what happened as a result of this action
You review all your past achievements and experience beforehand as during the interview you will want to highlight the best of them and back them up with examples
You understand the job description as usually it indicates the experience and skills that will be needed from you and that may help you assess what types of questions you may be asked
You think of the areas that you may be lacking expertise, and of how you can convince the client to sign a contract with you regardless of it

Telephone Interview

You should always expect some form of telephone interview to take place, especially for contracting roles, therefore, it is important to be always prepared for them. If you want to be better than the competition, have a look at the following tips and try to implement them before and during the interview:

Even though the person that is interviewing you cannot see you, be aware that you will be judged not only on what you say but how you say it
Keep your CV at hand
Make sure you are in a quiet place at the time of an interview, turn off all the appliances and shut the door to ensure that there will be no noise to distract you
If possible, use a landline instead of a mobile phone in order to avoid bad reception and static on the line
Do everything to ensure that the interviewer can understand you, speak as clear as possible, do not drink or eat
Always stand when undertaking a telephone interview your breathing will be smoothly and you will sound clearer and more confident
Always remember to research the role you are applying for and the organisation and prepare any questions you may have about either in advance
Thank the interviewer and let your potential employer know that you are interested in speaking further in person

Panel Interview

The aim of a panel interview is to test the candidate in stressful a situation as well as assess how you will be cope with questions that may be rapidly thrown at you. Just as in the case of any other type of the interview, prepare for it thoroughly and you will succeed. Although you may find this kind of interview intimidating, the following tips will help you to make it work for you and boost your confidence:

Do research on the company and specific department you will be working for as well as the position you are applying for and it will give you some ideas of what questions to expect and what answers give to the panel
Do not be afraid to ask questions regarding the company, department and projects you will be working on
Do not forget to make an eye contact with the interviewer as well as other panel members, it proves you are confident and honest

Screening Interview

This recruitment technique, if successful, may land you in for a personal interview. Screening interviews usually are conducted over the phone and its purpose is to detect inconsistencies in a candidate’s CV and verify skills and experience. This interview is designed to identify if you are a suitable ‘fit’ for a particular role based on a number of required skill sets and personal.

For this type of interview you should follow all of the above steps for a telephone interview, but be very factual and ensure that you answer the questions concisely and accurately, you make be asked for technical details, so ensure you have access to the technical details of your skills and experience to hand.

Back to New to Contracting?