Question

What do you mean by Interview? Explain at least three interview methods with advantage and disadvantage.

Answer 1

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 interviewee. 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. from the interviewee.

Three types of interviews are discussed below:

1 The Telephone Interview

Often companies request an initial telephone interview before inviting you in for a face to face meeting in order to get a better understanding of the type of candidate you are. The one benefit of this is that you can have your notes out in front of you. You should do just as much preparation as you would for a face to face interview, and remember that your first impression is vital. Some people are better meeting in person than on the phone, so make sure that you speak confidently, with good pace and try to answer all the questions that are asked.

Following are advantages of telephonic interview:

1 Wide Geographic Access

Small business owners have wide geographic access with telephone interviews. Nearly everyone in the United States has a land-line telephone or cellphone, and most of these numbers can be purchased from phone companies for a price. Phone interviewers also have access to in-house or online phone directories. This enables marketers to call and talk to virtually any customer in any market. For example, a small restaurant company may obtain customer feedback in all 10 of its major markets in a four-state area.

2 Cost- and Time-Effective

Telephone interviews are relatively cost-effective compared to other methods of surveying customers. Other interview methods, such as direct mail, cost much more. A 10-minute phone call, for example, costs very little with most phone plans. Hence, it does not cost a fortune for a small business to complete 300 or 350 surveys.

Contrarily, it can cost a lot more to mail surveys to people. Businesses may have to mail out many extra surveys to reach the 300 or 350 they need, as many people won't complete or return them. Marketers can also complete phone interviews relatively quickly. They just keep calling until they reach their quota. There is less control with other methods such as direct mail and internet surveys, where the results could take months to roll in.

Following are the disadvantages of telephonic interview:

1 Hard to Make a Connection

Business owners may find it hard to make a connection with customers over phone interviews. For one, they can't view the people they are interviewing. Hence, they can't see people's reactions to help determine whether the answers are truthful. In-person interviews are just the opposite, as interviewers can study respondents' facial expressions or gestures to determine whether their responses are truthful.

2 Intrusive for Customers

Another drawback of phone interviews is that they can be intrusive. Most calls are done at random, often interrupting people's dinner or evenings. Hence, people may hang up before the survey is complete or refuse to participate.

3 Limited Complexity of Questions

It is difficult to get people to elaborate on their responses by phone. The reason is that most phone interviews must be limited to five or 10 minutes. People would hang up with longer telephone surveys, resulting in partially completed interviews. Therefore, companies using phone interviews generally keep their questions and answers relatively brief. Many of these questions must be multiple-choice in nature instead of open-ended. The open-ended questions are more informative because they allow customers to elaborate why they responded as they did on multiple-choice questions.

2 The Face-to-Face Interview

This can be a meeting between you and one member of staff or even two members.

Following are the advantages of face to face interview:

1 Empathy & Personal Interaction

In face-to-face interviews, a great moderator can make a world of difference, especially when it comes to empathy & personal interaction. While conducting these interviews, moderators can connect with participants by showing that they understand what the participant is feeling. When your participants feel safe and understood, they can more easily let their guard down, open up and share emotions. Online surveys don’t capture emotions nor do they have the ability to adjust based on answers or give the participant any empathetic feedback.

In the case of specific studies such as ethnographies, moderators can actually observe how an individual is performing specific tasks and interact with them about the experience. It also gives the moderator a chance to ask the participant further questions about unexpected results.

2 Capturing Non-Verbal Cues

As noted by Psychology Today, body language is “communication without words.” While scientifically designed online and mobile surveys can improve data quality (i.e. certain questions can be asked in a specific order, or with certain response options, to more accurately collect what a respondent is conveying), the fact remains that there are some non-verbal cues that can only be captured in a face-to-face interview.  

By having a moderator there to record emotions and non-verbal cues, face-to-face interviews capture a more holistic answer to a question than an online survey question would. For example, if your market research participants interacts with a product, a moderator could detect confusion, moments of clarity, discuss mental models they’re using to solve a problem and more.

3 Experiencing Products in Real Life

When doing market research for products, there is definitely an advantage to seeing them, touching them, feeling them and interacting with them in real life. In a face-to-face interview, participants can see products and play around with them in order to answer your questions or complete necessary tasks. In online surveys, pictures are normally substituted in lieu of the real product and in some cases, the ability to experience a product with your own senses can make a huge difference in depth of feedback.

Following are the disadvantages of face to face interview:

1 Relatively Higher Cost

Naturally, face-to-face interviews are going to cost relatively more than online or mobile surveys. This is both because of labor costs (whether in-house or partnering with a market research firm), and overhead costs (interview rooms, administration, possibly paying travel expenses for respondents, etc.).

So while investing in face-to-face interviews does come with more costs, the investment can be well worth it. With the three pros of face-to-face interviews in mind, there are situations where this methodology is the best way to achieve the research outcome. Therefore, if the information gleaned from face-to-face interviews can be very profitable, then this cost is more of an investment rather than an expense.

2 Data Processing

When beginning face-to-face interviews, you need to start with a plan for data collection and data processing. While the data collection plan might seem obvious, the data processing plan is commonly overlooked but should be thought of early in the planning process. In this processing plan, you should know what information you need to collect (audio, video, notes, etc.) and how you’ll process it for meaningful analysis.

Because there are typically multiple information sources, data processing for face-to-face interviews can be overwhelming and expensive. Plus you can’t simply go back and re-do your market research because your data processing plan wasn’t comprehensive. If you need quotes, you’ll need to record your sessions and invest in transcriptions. If you need visuals, you’ll need to have pictures or video then be able to sort through the footage to find the snippets you want.

3 Making Analysis Actionable

Face-to-face interviews are a rich qualitative methodology to utilize in market research, but that doesn’t mean you should use a face-to-face interview to base all your decisions upon. Many decision makers will want to marry qualitative data from face-to-face interviews with quantitative findings in order to see a more robust analysis.

Therefore before any action or decisions can take place, you should plan on utilizing another follow-up study to see how representative your face-to-face interactions are.

3 The Group Interview

Several candidates are present at this type of interview. You will be asked to interact with each other by usually a group discussion. You might even be given a task to do as a team, so make sure you speak up and give your opinion.

Following are the advantages of group interview:

1. A quick selection:

Most of the time while attending a group interview, employers get an idea of the perfect candidate for the position they are offering. And with the help of this group interview, employers can eliminate unwanted candidates who doesn’t suit the job profile.

Moreover, this group interview method reduces time of unwanted conversation with an irrelevant candidate who have applied for the job position.

Therefore, group interviews are quite a quick and possible solution for quick and easy selection of the perfect candidate.

2. Maximum of candidates can be interviewed:

As this process is called as a group interview it is quite obvious that in this stage of the interview the employer can interview a group of candidates for the position.

And at the end of this interview session the employer can find the suitable candidate for the position offered.

Moreover, it creates some sort of time constraints for the candidates, but for instance, it is beneficial for the employer because the employer doesn’t need to waste his or her energy by interviewing each and every candidate separately.

3. Creates a background for discussion:

It is completely explained to everyone that group interview is based on a background of discussion where in which discussion would be about necessary elements which affects the growth of the company.

Most of the time in the middle of such interviews the employer expects such candidates who can prove themselves as an asset to the company.

Therefore, at the end of group interview discussion the candidate with creative ideas will be finalized for the position offered.

4. Similar pattern of question for discussion:

As it is quite familiar with everyone that during a group interview a group of candidates will be gathered in a small conference room and the employer present all sorts of similar questions to the candidates.

And at the end of the group interview the employer will come to know the suitable candidate for the position.

Therefore, it concludes that the group interviews are beneficial for the employer and the candidates as well.

5. It delivers candidates strong potential:

During group interviews all the candidates present their best personality in front of the interviewing panel.

Bring in the candidate’s best personality during group interviews, so that it can help the employer to make a correct decision.

It is very much advisable for the candidates attending any sort of interview that they need to be strong during their interviews so that they can deliver their best personality in front of the employer’s panel.

6. It creates better communication level:

As it states that during group interviews the candidates are required to present their opinions on the table of discussion and this table discussion helps all the candidates so that they share their views and opinions with the employer’s panel.

Therefore, it is very much important for the employers that because of the group interviews the candidates build their communication level where in which he or she can deliver their creativity in front of the interviewing panel.

7. It is helpful for quality control purpose:

Most of the time during group interviews the employers inform all the candidates about the topic on which the candidates are going to present their views on.

Therefore, in that matter of time the candidate presents their views and this format of discussion will be stored for the purpose of quality control. The quality control provides an example of the company’s future activities.

Moreover, all the candidates who go through such group interview will be exposed to a knowledgeable level of information.

8. The candidates can show better interest:

It is possible that during group interviews most of the candidates experience some sort of difference of opinion with other candidates and to overcome that situation the candidate need to deliver his or her interest in the interview for better growth.

Therefore, at the end of the interview process the employer will select a candidate from that group who actually showed greater interest in the discussion.

Following are the disadvantages of Group Interviews.

1. It creates competition:

As it is quite clear to everyone that during group interviews most of the candidates goes through tough competition in their way of selection. And sometimes these competition even can reduce their chances of getting that position in that particular company.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand the competition will be healthy and positive if the candidate’s participation is healthy and positive enough to handle the situation.

2. Control issues:

Most of the time during group interviews the situation goes out of hand in the middle of the group discussion and that can create some sort of miscommunication between the candidate and the employer and eventually the candidate can lose his or her chances of being selected for the position offered.

Therefore, it is very much essential for the employer that before conducting such high level of discussion, he or she need to be ready with controlling measures to face all sorts of issues.

3. Overpowering qualified candidates:

During group interviews the company will invite most qualified candidates for the position for which they require potential candidates. And because of such group interviews some of the qualified and potential candidates can even lose their chances on the position.

Therefore, overpowering qualified candidates during group interviews holds a strong evidence on losing potential candidates for the position.

4. Limited questionnaire:

It is possible that the group interviews can be held on the similar pattern of discussion and that pattern of discussion bares the similar and limited questionnaires.

These limited questionnaires deliver a situation wherein which all the focus points on the subject will be clear for the sake of selection.

But unfortunately these limited patterns of questionnaire don’t help in any sorts of interviews and which eventually leads the employer in finding a perfect candidate for the post.

5. Conflicts between candidates:

During group interviews it is quite possible that most of the candidates may not agree with the opinion of another candidate who presented his or her point of view.

And in that process, the candidates might get into some conflict between the candidates and end up being in trouble for themselves.

Therefore, it is possible that the conflict between candidates can get its serious terms and even can damage their future chances of getting a job.

6. It is more of a group process skill:

It is not necessary that group process skill is beneficial at all times of the group interviews. The group process skill is a process wherein which all the relevant activities will be measured for the sake of growth of the company.

Therefore, this group process skill can be provided with a skill which is suitable only for the growth and benefit of the interviewing company.

Moreover, all the skills are needed to clear this group interview.

7. Lack of creative approach:

As it is familiar to everyone that the group interviews are conducted using similar pattern of questionnaires and these questionnaires can be prepared in a similar format with answers.

Therefore, it lacks the creative approach due to this, moreover this limited approach can lack creativity in it.

This can eliminate the chances of approaching for the best possible solution in terms of the group interviews.

8. It eliminates potential candidate’s growth:

Most of the candidates who attend a group interviews comes with potential talent and skill for the help of the perfect candidate selection.

Moreover, it eliminates potential candidate’s growth and eventually it grows as a disadvantage for the purpose of the group interviews.