Types of Interview Questions - PDF

							Title:
Types of Interview Questions

Word Count:
412

Summary:
Interview is a vital part of recrui
tment procedure. Some interviews ar
e followed by the written test and
others are taken directly. Job inte
rview always brings stress, anxiety
 and fear for the interviewer espec
ially if he/she is going to appear
for the first time.


Keywords:
Interview, interview questions


Article Body:
On the other hand, preparation is a
lso needed by the interviewer for w
hat questions to ask in order to ma
ke appropriate selection. There is
general set of questions that are u
sually asked in most of the intervi
ews. These questions can be categor
ized into seven types which include
 open questions, closed questions,
hypothetical questions, leading que
stions, multi barreled questions, a
nd behavioral questions.

The open questions are asked usuall
y in the beginning of interview suc
h as ‘tell us about yourself’? The
 interviewee can speak as much as h
e/she wants to describe himself/her
self professionally. For answering
such questions selection criteria a
nd individual’s strength should be
kept in mind.

Closed questions are those question
s that do not provide enough chance
 for interviewee to speak apart fro
m yes or no. These questions are as
ked in order to seek specific techn
ical or factual information. The in
terviewee should make sure that he
has understood the question complet
ely otherwise he/she should not hes
itate to request for clarification
about the question.

In the hypothetical questions, a si
tuation is created to assess the th
inking abilities of the interviewee
. For instance for a communication
professional a questions could be l
ike ‘what would you do if journalis
ts calls suddenly for a query about
 your press release’? Such question
s demand a solid knowledge about th
e subject matter.

The leading questions require logic
al answer. The interviewer may ask
‘this job requires working under pr
essure and meeting deadlines-do you
 have these skill? The answer shoul
d be more than a yes or no. It shou
ld be supported with the previous e
xperience.

Multi barreled questions are two or
 more combined questions relevant t
o the same topics. Such questions c
an be confusing for the interviewee
. In this case he/she may ask to re
call the questions.

The last category of the questions,
 behavioral questions are asked to
foresee the future behavior of the
candidate in the light of past expe
rience. It needs to answer with exa
mples of past experience that how t
he particular skills were developed
 in the past and how it can benefit
 the interviewer.
There are some questions which shou
ld be avoided to ask for example pe
rsonal question about the age, mart
ial status, family background or he
ight? Although such questions are n
ecessary for the particular jobs fo
r instance in army or air lines but
 the best alternatives can be asked
 instead of asking such questions d
irectly, if an interviewer observes
 a candidate out of the job criteri
a for the reasons of his personal i
nformation.