A comprehensive guide to different types of interviews

The interview is an important step to identify the right candidate for your open role. It’s a chance to meet candidates face-to-face, get a sense of their communication style, and learn about their experience and skills beyond their resume. But interview formats can vary greatly, with each one helping companies learn different qualities, skills, or characteristics of their candidates.

The interview format you choose impacts the outcome of your hiring process. That’s why it’s important to understand the different types of interviews and how each one can help companies identify the right person. Discover more about these most common types of interviews:

In a panel interview, multiple company representatives interview a single candidate at one time. The goal is to get many perspectives on a candidate’s qualifications.

A typical panel interview usually follows this structure:

1. Introductions: Panel members and the candidate each introduce themselves.
2. Panel questions: Panel members take turns asking the candidate questions.
3. Follow-up questions: If more information is needed, panel members may ask additional questions.
4. Candidate questions: The candidate asks any questions they may have about the role.
5. Closing remarks: Panel members thank the candidate for their time and let them know what to expect next.

Panel interview member guidelines and selection process

One of the first things you’ll do when conducting a panel interview is select the team who will serve on the panel. Consider the following when selecting interview panel members:

• Expertise: If a role requires specific technical skills, have someone on the panel who has those skills and can accurately evaluate a candidate’s expertise.
• Team role: Include panel members who will be working closely with the new hire to get a sense of how they’d collaborate.
• Diversity of perspective: Include a variety of perspectives by selecting members from different departments, roles, levels, and backgrounds.
• Size: Having too many panel members can make the process inefficient. To avoid this, keep the panel between two and five members.

Make sure to create a set of guidelines for interview panel members. Providing detailed guidelines will help ensure the interview stays on track and everyone participates equally.

Guidelines may include:

• Defining needs and qualifications for the role: Keep evaluations consistent by reminding panel members of the specific skills and attributes they should be looking for.
• Setting criteria for candidate evaluations: Consider developing a clear rating system for panel members to use.
• Providing an interview structure: Provide panel members with a rough schedule, list of questions, and speaking rotation to ensure no one talks over each other and the interview runs smoothly.

Panel interview structure

In a structured panel interview, there’s often a mix of technical, behavioral, and soft-skills questions. Each panel member should feel comfortable participating without anyone dominating the conversation. Knowing how to structure a panel interview will help the conversation stay on track. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Plan questions ahead of time
• Rotate questions among panel members
• Set up a system for asking follow-up questions when necessary
• Keep timing in mind — create a rough schedule that includes time for intros, interview questions, and questions from the candidate

The panel interview structure saves time and gives your team the opportunity to complete the interview process in one day, rather than having stakeholders meet individually with a candidate over the course of several days. This also boosts the likelihood that you’ll be able to make an offer before a competitor. Conducting a panel interview can also help root out unconscious bias within your team, since it allows you to receive many opinions.

In a group interview, multiple candidates are interviewed at the same time and in the same room. While they may sound similar, the main difference between a group and a panel interview is that a group interview includes multiple candidates, while a panel interview includes only one.

How to conduct a group interview

In a group interview, you and your team interview multiple candidates at once. As with any interview, you should still ask a mix of technical, behavioral, and soft-skills questions, but be sure to build in time for each candidate to answer. If you’re hiring for a role that involves a lot of teamwork, you may also choose to have the group complete a small activity or solve a problem together to evaluate their ability to work with others.

Group interview process and structure

Learning how to structure a group interview ahead of time will ensure a fair process for each candidate, where everyone gets an equal chance to speak and demonstrate their skills.

Here’s a breakdown of a typical group interview structure:

1. Introductions: Introduce yourself and allow each candidate to introduce themselves
2. Overview: Set expectations by discussing the interview process and outlining any rules
3. Opening questions: Ask questions to the group, and ensure each candidate has an equal opportunity to speak and participate
4. Group activity: Conduct an optional group activity or problem-solving exercise
5. Closing questions: Finish up by answering any candidate questions

If you’re hiring for a highly collaborative role, a group interview will give you a sense of your candidates’ interpersonal and communication skills. It’s also a good way to save time during your interview process — especially if you’ve received applications from many qualified candidates — since you’ll get to meet several candidates at once rather than one at a time.

A mock interview is a practice job interview. Typically, mock interviews are run by career counselors to help candidates sharpen their skills. But mock interviews can also help you and your team fine-tune your questions and process for when it comes time to interview an actual candidate.

How to prepare for a mock interview

First, determine the position you’re interviewing for and assign roles to participants. Create a structured plan and schedule, then decide which questions will help you best evaluate a candidate.

In your mock interview preparation, carefully consider a role’s needs and decide how you’ll assess the candidate based on their answers.

How to conduct a mock interview

Start the mock interview by explaining the interview structure and purpose to the person in the role of the candidate. Follow the prepared interview structure and questions. Give the mock candidate enough time to respond, ask them follow-up questions if necessary, and watch their performance closely.

Reflection and analysis after a mock interview

After the mock interview is complete, you can identify areas of improvement with a post-mock-interview analysis. To do this, debrief with everyone who participated. Identify strengths and weaknesses, critically reflecting on the panel’s performance and reviewing any notes taken during the mock interview.

Did your questions uncover the information you needed? Were you able to complete every component of the interview, or did you run out of time? Did everyone have a chance to equally participate in the process? Did it feel fair and representative of your company values? Sitting down to complete a post-mock-interview analysis is important because this step can help you identify ways to improve your interviewing skills and leave a great impression on future candidates.

A virtual interview resembles a traditional one-on-one interview, but it happens online instead of in person.

Conducting a virtual interview

Start by finding a quiet, comfortable place with a strong internet connection. Ask the candidate a combination of behavioral and technical questions. The technical questions will help you determine if they have the expertise needed to carry out the role, while behavioral questions allow you to learn about your candidate’s relevant work experience and predict how they might respond to similar situations in the future.

You can also take advantage of the benefits of video conferencing like screen sharing, virtual note-taking, and recording capabilities.

Conducting a virtual interview is important if you’re hiring for a remote or partly remote role, as it’ll give you a sense of how your candidate communicates in a virtual setting. These types of interviews also allow you to widen your candidate pool — making it possible to meet with candidates from a range of locations.

An open interview is an event at which candidates can walk in and be interviewed by you on the spot. It gives them a chance to ask questions, meet company representatives, and get a feel for your culture.

Because open interviews allow you to screen many candidates on a single day, hiring managers often hold them when hiring for several roles or staffing a new location — but they can be useful for single hires as well.

Conducting open interviews

An open interview allows you to examine candidate qualifications and answer any questions they may have about the job.

Here’s how to conduct open interviews:

• Select a date, time, and location for the event that is convenient for potential candidates.
• Advertise your open interview by posting it to a job platform like LinkedIn and inviting attendees.
• Come with a lot of information and be prepared to answer questions about the role. Consider bringing materials like hard copies of the job description, an explanation of pay and benefits, or a sample work schedule.
• Conduct short, private interviews with each attendee. These should be screening interviews to help you determine whether the candidate has the qualifications to move on to a more in-depth interview.
• Ensure other colleagues or company representatives are available to greet attendees and answer questions while you hold interviews.

Sometimes great candidates may fall through the cracks when you’re determining who to interview from resumes alone. Open interviews help you reach a wide range of candidates who are excited about your role. They can also save you time, allowing you to vet many candidates within a few hours.

Now that we’ve explored how to conduct different types of interviews and what each format provides, it’s time to decide which interview format works best for your company.

Here are a few questions to consider:

• What role are you hiring for? Check out LinkedIn’s interview guide hub, which provides role-specific guides for interviewing candidates.
• How far along is the candidate in the hiring process? Group and open interviews provide a setting to shortlist strong candidates to move forward in the interview process, while panel interviews tend to be reserved for candidates who are further along.
• How many stakeholders are involved? Some roles may require a few one-on-one interviews, while others may require more stakeholders to be present. If a certain role has a large number of stakeholders, consider conducting a panel interview.

Start interviewing candidates with LinkedIn

Ready to start interviewing? Post a job on LinkedIn and start sourcing top candidates. LinkedIn offers customized product packages to support your candidate search process. Contact our sales team to get started.