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What is interview? Types of interviews



The word interview comes from Latin and middle French words meaning to “see between” or “see each other”. Generally, an interview means a private meeting between people when questions are asked and answered. The person who answers the questions of an interview is called in the interviewer. The person who asks the questions of our interview is called an interviewer. It suggests a meeting between two persons for the purpose of getting a view of each other or for knowing each other. When we normally think of an interview, we think a setting in which an employer tries to size up an applicant for a job.

So, an interview is formal meetings between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information, qualities, attitudes, wishes etc. Form the interviewee.


There are many types of interviews that an organization can arrange. It depends on the objectives of taking the interview. Some important types of interviews are stated below:

  1. Personal interviews: Personal interviews include:Selection of the employees Promotion of the employees Retirement and resignation of the employees of course, this type of interview is designed to obtain information through discussion and observation about how well the interviewer will perform on the job.
  2. Evaluation interviews: The interviews which take place annually to review the progress of the interviewee are called the evaluation interviews. Naturally, it is occurring between superiors and subordinates. The main objective of this interview is to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the employees.
  3. Persuasive interviews: This type of interview is designed to sell someone a product or an idea. When a sales representative talk with a target buyer, persuasion takes the form of convincing the target that the product or idea meets a need.
  5. Unstructured interviews: When the interview does not follow the formal rules or procedures. It is called an unstructured interview. The discussion will probably be free-flowing and may shift rapidly form on subject to another depending on the interests of the interviewee and the interviewer.
  6. Counseling interviews: This may be held to find out what has been troubling the workers and why someone has not been working.
  7. Disciplinary interviews: Disciplinary interviews are occurring when an employee has been accused of breaching the organization’s rules and procedures.
  8. Stress interviews: It is designed to place the interviewee in a stress situation in order to observe the interviewees reaction.
  9. Public interviews: These include political parties’ radio-television and newspaper.
  10. Informal or conversational interview: In the conversational interview, no predetermined questions are asked, in order to remain as open and adaptable a possible to the interviewee’s nature and priorities; during the interview the interviewer “goes with the flow”.
  11. General interview guide approach: The guide approach is intended to ensure that the same general areas of information are collected from each interviewee this provides more focus than the conversational approach but still allows a degree of freedom and adaptability in getting the information from the interviewee.
  12. Standardized or open-ended interview: Here the same open-ended questions are asked to all interviewees; this approach facilitates faster interviews faster interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared.
  13. Closed or fixed-response interview: It is an interview where all interviewers ask the same questions and asked to choose answers from among the same set of alternatives. This format is useful for those not practiced in interviewing.
Updated: November 14, 2019 — 2:18 pm