Types of interview
There are different types of job interview. In some cases, you'll only need to succeed at one of these to land the role. In others, particularly at large graduate employers, you may face several interview formats throughout the application process.
- Face-to face - the traditional and still most common form of interview. You'll attend the employer's office and be questioned on your suitability for the job by an individual or panel. Face-to-face interviews usually last between 45 minutes and two hours, and may be preceded or followed by tests and exercises. Questions may be strength-based or competency-based.
- Telephone - often used by employers early in the application process to filter large numbers of applicants. If you're successful you'll typically be invited to a face-to-face interview or assessment centre. Expect a telephone interview to last around half an hour.
- Video - increasingly popular among large employers, particularly for applications to graduate schemes. Video interviews can be live or pre-recorded, and tend to last around half an hour. These have increasingly been used due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the majority of things move online.
- Assessment centres - enable employers to compare the performance of lots of candidates at the same time. You'll attend an assessment centre with other applicants and take part in tasks such as presentations, team exercises and psychometric tests. Assessment centres usually last a full working day and have more recently been adapted to be held online.
